Online Game Subscriptions Increase Dramatically

GameSpot is reporting that online game subscriptions in 2005 were boosted by 43%, thanks in part to the success of World of Warcraft. A snip from their newsbit:
The latest evidence of WOW's influence comes in the form of a report from DFC Intelligence. The San Diego-based game-industry research company has just issued a report which says that "subscription revenue from online games was $2 billion in 2005." WOW came out in November 2004 and has been among the top three games in DFC-rival NPD Group's weekly PC-bestseller list since it hit the market.

DFC cited WOW's publisher, Vivendi Universal-owned Blizzard Entertainment, as being a major factor behind the rise of MMORPG revenue in the US. That said, it correctly pointed out that currently "over 50 percent of online-game-subscription revenue in 2005 came from Asian countries outside Japan, most notably South Korea, China, and Taiwan."