PCs losing battle for gamers

More players competing online through Playstation2, Xbox

? Only a few years ago, online games still lurked on the fringe of American culture.

One category catered to young males interested in wreaking havoc — at others’ expense. And then there were the complex, virtual communities that more closely mirror the real world in their social interactions.

Today, those never-ending online “massively multiplayer” games like “EverQuest” have matured into mainstream, vibrant attractions, drawing hundreds of thousands of paying customers.

But their growth appears almost stagnant compared to the popularity spike for multiplayer online fare geared toward users of console systems, led by Sony Corp.’s Playstation2 and Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox.

Already this year, two “persistent” fantasy world online computer games have been scrapped.

Broadband Internet access, meanwhile, has helped bring connectivity to consoles that wasn’t even an option two years ago.

Now, 750,000 players use Xbox Live, each paying $50 a year to be able to play against people elsewhere and download updates.

Sony says it has sold 2.4 million of its $40 network adapters that enable Playstation online gaming, through broadband or a dial-up connection.

By 2008, 40.2 million gamers worldwide will be going online with video game consoles, says market research firm DFC Intelligence.

Game console systems like Xbox and Playstation2 are rapidly taking market share from traditional computer game systems, industry analysts say. players used Microsoft's Xbox at the Game Developers Conference Thursday in San Jose.

“There’s no denying that this is the next level of game play,” NPD analyst Richard Ow said. “The console business is all about multiplayer.”

Nearly 50 games with some sort of online feature have been released for the Playstation2 in the past year, and twice that number are planned by year’s end. Microsoft expects about 100 games using Xbox Live in stores by May.

“It sort of has become an expected feature,” said Seth Luisi, senior producer of the military shoot-’em-up game “SOCOM II: U.S. Navy SEALs” for the Playstation2. Of the 920,000 copies sold, about half are being played online, Luisi said.

Troubles in the land of persistent online worlds, meanwhile, surfaced in February, when the multiplayer feature of the adventure game “URU: Ages Beyond Myst” was canceled.

Before its December launch, creator Rand Miller speculated that at least 100,000 subscribers — each paying between $10 to $15 a month — would be the sustenance required for “URU Live” to succeed. The number of initial subscribers was never released.

Despite a $300 million investment, “The Sims Online” from Electronic Arts Inc. only has about 80,000 subscribers more than a year after its release, far short of the company’s stated goal of 1 million.

The bar is higher for persistent games because they require a deeper time investment than console games, said Sony Online Entertainment spokesman Chris Kramer.

“You can’t jump into the massively multiplayer space the same way that you can into a regular single-player game,” Kramer said.