The nation’s online gaming industry is expected to see 10 percent growth this year, but growth could slow if the economy further deteriorates, said Wang Chin-po (王俊博), chairman of Soft-World International Corp (智冠科技), the nation’s largest developer and distributor of online games.
Despite the global economic slowdown, Soft-World International reported record revenues of NT$6.15 billion (US$181.95 million) last year, up 36.9 percent from a year earlier. It was the second consecutive month that the company posted record-high sales, the Central News Agency (CNA) reported yesterday.
Earnings per share last year was estimated to have reached NT$9, the report showed.
Citing a Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute (MIC) study, the CNA report said that Taiwan’s online gaming market reached NT$10.41 billion last year and is expected to grow 8.4 percent to NT$11.29 billion this year.
The online gaming market is forecast to show steady growth next year, rising 8.6 percent from this year to NT$12.26 billion, the report said.
Wang, however, said Taiwan’s online gaming market scale should have already exceeded NT$12 billion last year, aided by new game releases.
He added the market would see double-digit growth this year, as online games producers raised their output.
With consumers cutting back on spending amid the economic downturn, reports said Internet traffic has risen and benefited games producers as people turn to more cost-saving entertainment.
Wang said players may indeed be spending more time online as businesses force employees to take leave.
He added, however, that it would be hard to gauge whether this had actually contributed to a surge in online business.
“If the economic slowdown lasts for more than a year, it will also adversely affect the gaming industry as players’ salaries drop,” Wang said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) yesterday said that Intel Corp would find itself in the same predicament as it did four years ago if its board does not come up with a core business strategy. Chang made the remarks in response to reporters’ questions about the ailing US chipmaker, once an archrival of TSMC, during a news conference in Taipei for the launch of the second volume of his autobiography. Intel unexpectedly announced the immediate retirement of former chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger last week, ending his nearly four-year tenure and ending his attempts to revive the
WORLD DOMINATION: TSMC’s lead over second-placed Samsung has grown as the latter faces increased Chinese competition and the end of clients’ product life cycles Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) retained the No. 1 title in the global pure-play wafer foundry business in the third quarter of this year, seeing its market share growing to 64.9 percent to leave South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co, the No. 2 supplier, further behind, Taipei-based TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report. TSMC posted US$23.53 billion in sales in the July-September period, up 13.0 percent from a quarter earlier, which boosted its market share to 64.9 percent, up from 62.3 percent in the second quarter, the report issued on Monday last week showed. TSMC benefited from the debut of flagship
A former ASML Holding NV employee is facing a lawsuit in the Netherlands over suspected theft of trade secrets, Dutch public broadcaster NOS said, in the latest breach of the maker of advanced chip-manufacturing equipment. The 43-year-old Russian engineer, who is suspected of stealing documents such as microchip manuals from ASML, is expected to appear at a court in Rotterdam today, NOS reported on Friday. He is accused of multiple violations of the sanctions legislation and has been given a 20-year entry ban by the Dutch government, the report said. The Dutch company makes machines needed to produce high-end chips that power
As South Korea descends into political chaos, its equity market risks falling further behind major tech rival Taiwan, which is basking in the glory of a global artificial intelligence (AI) boom. A near-30 percent surge in Taiwan’s stock benchmark this year, set to be the best since 2009, has already helped spur a historic divergence between Asia’s two tech-dominated markets. The nation’s market capitalization now exceeds South Korea’s by about US$950 billion as the world’s AI frontrunners from Nvidia Corp and Microsoft Corp to OpenAI all increasingly turn to Taiwanese firms for supply. Looking ahead to next year, while both export-oriented economies
RSS