Wargaming sets a $200 billion goal for games industry revenue

The DICE Europe event is taking place this week, and Victor Kislyi of Wargaming has used it to set down his belief that the gaming industry's current $75 billion annual revenue is not good enough, and that it should be capable of so much more - around $125 billion more, to be precise.

He wants the gaming industry to reach $200 billion in total annual revenue by 2016. Kislyi outlined a number of ways to achieve this. Popular mobile games earn enough daily revenue to bring new investors into the gaming industry, while digital media makes it easier for smaller western companies to explore markets outside of North America and Europe. He also suggested that big games, such as League of Legends and his own World of Tanks, could share data and insights through social media platforms like Facebook. This would reinforce each other's success.

"We are going to use these things smartly to change people's view and perspective on games," he said. "We have to change the perception of games in pretty much the whole population. We have to bring games inside people's lives."

He also asked the crowd to devote their time to the good of the industry, not just their own products. "Ask yourself a question. In the last seven days, how much time did you spend making the industry - not just your games - look better? ... We need to go out. We need to push it. We need to take this information to the [outside] world. We need to become missionaries.

"If you do this, I think that $200 billion revenues will be very small compared to what we have in a few years time."

Thanks, GI.biz