ABSTRACT
To anyone who has followed the steadily massive growth of the digital games industry over the past 30-odd years, the idea that games can mean big business is nothing new. According to industry analysts, the digital game market’s overall worldwide revenues were estimated to have reached $74 billion in 2011, and are expected to exceed $112 billion by 2015 (Rose 2011). The market for online games alone has nearly reached $16 billion, drawing profits from a variety of sources that include subscriptions, fees, online advertising, and digital downloads (DFC Intelligence 2011). Industry analysts estimate that there are currently 500 million players of social games worldwide (Entertainment Software Association of Canada 2010), while the number of registered accounts for virtual worlds worldwide hit 1 billion in 2010 (KZero Worldswide 2011).
