By Robbie Butler
Something lighthearted for today.
A number of weeks ago David Butler posted a very interesting piece on the football video game market for those interested in the ongoing battle among the main game producers. Here's another trip down memory lane, as we consider market concentration in the same market since 1994.
For those familiar with football video games, the market today is dominated by two game producers; EA Sports' FIFA and Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer. This was not always the case. The graphs below presents data from Sony's PlayStation 1 (PS1), PlayStation 2 (PS2) and PlayStation 3 (PS3) on the number of football video game titles during the lifespan of each console.
Back in the days of the PS1 one could choose from a plethora of football games. Sixty-four different titles and title updates were available for sale in Europe during the days of the PS1. Once-off titles made up almost a quarter of all games released, with EA's FIFA the single biggest game in terms of the number of titles released (see below). Games such as Actua Soccer (4 titles), Addias Power Soccer (4 titles) and This Is Football (2 titles) were commonplace.
Something lighthearted for today.
A number of weeks ago David Butler posted a very interesting piece on the football video game market for those interested in the ongoing battle among the main game producers. Here's another trip down memory lane, as we consider market concentration in the same market since 1994.
For those familiar with football video games, the market today is dominated by two game producers; EA Sports' FIFA and Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer. This was not always the case. The graphs below presents data from Sony's PlayStation 1 (PS1), PlayStation 2 (PS2) and PlayStation 3 (PS3) on the number of football video game titles during the lifespan of each console.
Back in the days of the PS1 one could choose from a plethora of football games. Sixty-four different titles and title updates were available for sale in Europe during the days of the PS1. Once-off titles made up almost a quarter of all games released, with EA's FIFA the single biggest game in terms of the number of titles released (see below). Games such as Actua Soccer (4 titles), Addias Power Soccer (4 titles) and This Is Football (2 titles) were commonplace.
Actua Soccer (1995)
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Adidas Power Soccer (1997)
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This Is Football (1999)
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In 2000 the PS2 was launched and went on to become the best-selling video game console in history, selling over 155 million units. During it's lifetime there was a drop in the number of football video game titles available for sale. In total 48 football games have been released since March 2000. It was during the reign of this console that FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer took control of the market. To date EA Sports have released 17 versions of FiFA while Konami have launched 11 variants of of Pro Evolution Soccer. This constitutes nearly 60% of all football games released during the lifetime of the PS2. LMA Manager (6 titles) and This is Football (5 titles) are the next most popular. The PS2 also saw a number of once-off football releases such as David Beckham Soccer (2002), Sega Soccer Slam (2002) and old favourite Sensible Soccer 2006.
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In November 2006 Sony launched the PS3. Since then two games have dominated the football market (see graph below). Titles outside of the FIFA and Pro Evolution 'duopoly' make up just 6% of football games released on the console. David Butler examined the FIFA/Pro Evolution battle more closely and reports that FIFA is winning the battle, with EA's sales of their football title considerably greater than Konami since 2007.
The Playstation 4, launched in November 2013, currently boasted just one football title, FIFA 14. EA Sports are set to release FIFA 15 next month, with Konami launching Pro Evolution Soccer 2015 in November. It's likely that a pie chart for the PS4 (done years into the future) will have just two segments. The dominance of both EA and Konami has forced others out of the market. Others are now so far behind in terms of game development that the football video game market is a 'no-go area' for other developers. A far cry from when I was buying football video games...
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