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Italy's Broadband Marketplace
Games and software development taking off.
By: Gordon Feller & Mary McNamara
Created: October 22, 2002
Readers who use this information for investment purposes do so at their own risk!
Opinions expressed are just that and not based on insider information or information
otherwise obtained illegally. Report:
From the consumer’s
standpoint, the Italian broadband market is quite dynamic. It has drawn the attention of
key international players and with broadband roll-out through most Italian cities, the
demand is increasing for online products..
Educational software and
Games: market overview
As the Italian multimedia
off-line games and educational multimedia market continues to grow, estimates of the
Italian National Electronic Publisher’s Association (ANEE) show an overall change and
expansion of the multimedia contents market. The success of DVDs and the growing number of
home PCs are the main driving factors.
The ANEE report provides a
general idea of the multimedia off-line market in Italy, indicating the increasingly
important role played by new products such as video DVD and DVD- rom.
The introduction of DVD with
its increased potentialities compared to CD-roms, and the integration with internet
represent the principal innovations of the multimedia off-line sector which will continue
to grow at a fast rate. In particular, internet has proven very useful for both e-commerce
and for the updating of software products such as encyclopedias.
Number of Editors and titles
on Cd-roms published in 1999:
Country; Number of Editors;
Number of Titles; Percentage of Title increase 1998 to 1999
UK 510 5393 12%
GERMANY 438 4605 7%
FRANCE 269 1652 31%
ITALY 109 837 21%
SPAIN 69 431 -4%
SCANDINAVIA 103 234 44%
UNITED STATES 1,231 14,109 16%
CANADA 139 1,490 -10%
JAPAN 80 195 5%
Consumer and professional
titles
The consumer market is
without doubt, the strongest growing segment, due to the increased number of home PCs (31%
of Italian families have a desktop PC), while the professional titles segment is still
characterized by a small number of producers, controlling 78% of the total market. Legal
titles, in particular, continue to be the best selling items, accounting for 76% of total
sales, for a value of 162 billion lire (approx. $ 125 million). Professional titles are
distributed through direct channels while internet sales are still modest.
The home market follows a
different pattern as it is characterized by a strong seasonal nature of the demand,
concentrating on the last quarter of the year. The expected turnover for 2001 is approx.
410 billion lire ($ 350 million), registering a growth of 21% over last year. The market
is basically divided into games and non game products which, according to ANEE, are worth
220 and 190 billion lire respectively (approx. $ 160 and $138 million).
Educational software
Demand is mainly
concentrated on encyclopaedias published by a restricted number of editors. The market
does not offer a great deal of choice. Although educational software is considered a
strategic sector for the future of CD-roms, demand is still not high enough to justify
considerable investments.
The ANEE report confirms the
peculiarity of the Italian market: newsagents continue to be the most important sales
channels for educational products. Thanks to special agreements with software publishers,
many newspapers and magazines offer wrapped up software games or encyclopedias at lower
costs compared to more traditional sales channels (i.e. bookstores for example) which
remain marginal despite all efforts and expectations to the contrary. The titles market
price range varies generally from 65 to 78,000 lire while newspapers and magazines offer
them at 20,000 lire or less.
Piracy still constitutes a
significant problem for the industry but the recent measures taken by the Italian
government should improve the situation. Games publishers have recently founded a non
profit association, AESVI (Italian Association of Edutainment software publishers)
promoted by some of the major multinational companies of the sector with offices in Italy
such as Disney Interactive, Electronic Arts, Infogames, Ubisoft and Vivendi Universal
Interactive Publishing. Its objective is promoting the entertainment and educational
software culture and protecting the sector against piracy.
Peripherals for
videogames
The entertainment software
market has seen a radical change since 1995 when Sony introduced its Play Station. Up
until then, the PC was the only tool which offered high quality features for games.
It is now in the field of
peripherals that the most aggressive market battle will be fought over the next few years.
In November 2001, Microsoft released Xbox, and Nintendo is about to launch GameCube.
According to Idc, Microsoft’s console in 2002 will sell more than PS2 in Italy for a
total of 503,000 pieces against 484,000 PS2s. The sales forecast for GameCube are also
very positive: Nintendo expects to sell 321,000 units in 2002.
The on-line games market is
not at all threatened by this kind of peripherals and remains tightly in the domain of PCs
which are for the moment, the only tool which enables the player to use the Net. It must
also be mentioned that new peripherals will appear on the video games market. As a matter
of fact, notebook manufacturers are starting to equip notebooks with video and audio
boards for multimedia applications.
Second generation console
sales in Italy 1999-2004 (x000):
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
2004
Dreamcast 50 115 75
GameCube 321 319 207
PS2 70 476 484 482 293
Xbox 503 502 319
Game Boy Advance 306 410 491 358
KEY
CONTACTS AND SUPPORT SERVICES
Italian Sectoral
Associations
ANEE - Associazione dei
servizi e dei contenuti multimediali ANEE ( National Association for Services and
Multimedia Contents) was founded in 1992, by some Italian editors particularly interested
in the new technologies and potentialities of the ICT sector. ANEE is involved in numerous
activities: it prepares surveys and sectoral reports, and organizes industry round tables
and international meetings. Together with University Politecnico di Milano (Centro MEDIT)
ANEE founded MAP - Multimedia Academic Press - a consortium whose aim is to promote and
develop the cooperation between universities and multimedia publishers on common projects.
ANEE
Via Mario Pagano, 14
20145 MILANO Italy
Tel. +39 - 02 4802 7323
Fax +39 - 02 48025424
http://www.anee.it
e-mail: asanee@tin.it
ASSINFORM - National Italian
Association of information and communication technologies producers and service providers.
Founded in 1947 and an affiliate of the Italian Industrial Federation (Confindustria),
ASSINFORM has closely followed market developments over the last 50 years. Formed
originally as an association of office product manufacturers, during the 1970s and 1980s
it expanded into the Information Technology sector. Today it represents the entire ICT
sector and includes Italy’s leading IT, telecommunications and content providers
among its members. In 1998, Assinform joined Federcomin, the federation that represents
the ICT sector in the European and Italian political-institutional community. With many
multinational organisations among its members, the Association is able to draw on
extensive international experience and monitor market trends in other countries.As a
founding member of the European Information Communication Technology Association (EICTA)
ASSINFORM contributes to the formulation of EU industrial policy, submitting
recommendations for ICT development projects.
ASSINFORM
Via Larga, 23
20122 Milano Italy
Tel.(+39) 02.583 04141
Fax:(+39) 02.58304457
http://www.assinform.it
e-mail : assinform@assinform.it
Promotional
Events: Fairs and exhibitions - 2001/2002
1. BOLOGNA Children’s
Book Fair (Bologna, 10 - 13 April 2002) - The Children's Book Fair is the world leading
children's publishing and multimedia products event. In 2001, 1,496 exhibitors from 76
countries chose Bologna as the venue at which to present their products to a predominantly
international public of industry professionals. The Bologna Children's Book Fair is
strictly reserved for professionals only. Over four days, Bologna offers exhibitors the
chance to meet and establish contacts with over 4,000 professionals from around the world
(2001 stats: 4,039 professionals from 74 countries, up 5% on the 2000 event, in a constant
upward trend). The Bologna Children's Book Fair has long focused on multimedia products
for children. The presence of this sector together with the big names in publishing
generates a unique business and intellectual environment and good trading opportunities in
the various children's media (from books to CD-Roms, from websites to animation, etc.).
For further info:
Bologna Children's Book Fair
Piazza Costituzione 6
40128 Bologna Italy
Tel. +39 051 282.111
Fax +39 051 282.333
http://www.bolognafiere.it/BookFair/index.html
e-mail: bookfair@bolognafiere.it
2. SMAU (Milan, 24-28
October 2002) SMAU is Italy’s leading ICT exhibition, the second largest in Europe
(after CEBIT) and the most important in the Mediterranean region. Last year’s SMAU
attracted over 2900 exhibitors, more than 500,000 visitors and over 20,000 conference
participants with product exhibits and conferences covering all the major subsectors in
Italy’s US$ 25 billion ICT market (the 4th largest in Europe). In spite of the
industry downturn and the post September 11 decline in travel, the year 2001 edition (
Milan, 18-22 October 2001) was a success, even if the number of visitors was lower than
last year : . 410,000 attendees throughout the five exhibition days, 26 halls, 106,000
square meters of net exhibition area, over 3,000 exhibitors, including 800 foreign
companies.
For further info:
SMAU
Via Merano 18
20127 Milan Italy
Tel. +39 02 28313.453
Fax +39 02 28313470
http://www.smau.it
E-mail: commerciale@smau.it
USEFUL
INTERNET LINKS
http://www.webscuola.it
This is the first web-based
community for Italian Schools, launched in 1998. It has been promoted by Tin.it in
conjunction with the Italian Ministry of Public Instruction. Webscuola is an integrated
project, joining internet connection and webservices. The home page offers, among other
services, games and educational websites.
http://www.elettronet.it
This site is a valuable reference source for information about products, technologies, and
systems offered by electrotechnical, electronics, technical lighting and ICT companies
operating in Italy.
ON-LINE
SECTORAL MAGAZINES
COMPUTER DEALER & VAR
Monthly magazine providing an up-to-date outline of the ICT sector and of its major
players. It represents a basic reference source for ICT producers, installers, users and
associations. This magazine includes large news sections and dedicates special pages to
new media products.
http://www.cdv.agepe.it
(only in Italian)
ITALIAN
VIDEOGAMES WEBSITES
•
http://www.multiplayer.it and http://www.multiplayer.it/bgitalia
• http://www.venice-connection.com
• http://www.edengames.net
• http://www.gamearena.it/
• http://www.puntogames.com/ first Italian portal on videogames, with news and reader
reviews of all the latest and greatest games for PC , articles and downloads.
• http://www.digitalcreations.it (e-learning games and videogames) with its portal:
http://www.gioco.it
Readers who use this information for investment purposes do so at their own risk!
Opinions expressed are just that and not based on insider information or information
otherwise obtained illegally.
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