EA’s chief of e-marketing has prophesized that online gaming could become a very important revenue source by 2010, with the rise of home broadband connections in Europe and abroad.

During this year’s Interactive Software Federation of Europe (ISFE) hosted conference in Brussels, EA's John Burns declared that online gaming is set to reach high levels of popularity and profitability by 2010, mainly because of the surge of high-speed broadband connections in homes across the Old Continent. As a consequence, online game spending could generate around $4 billion (£2 billion) a year by 2010.

“Not only is gaming a significant industry in size now but online gaming is an important step for us as an industry,” said Burns.

“European broadband penetration is growing, from 2006 at around 35 per cent to over 45 per cent by 2012. Household penetration of broadband is also exponential - and we are looking at that growing in Europe from 40 per cent now to over 60 per cent in 2012."

“Not only is online significant in scope now, but it is accelerating," he added. "We are only at the beginning of this curve - and we are also only at the beginning of this curve as far as consumers go. The projected spend of online gamers by 2010 is $4.4bn [£2.18bn].”

According to Burns’ estimates, there are currently more than 100 million online gamers, the most important online community being of course that of World of Warcraft players.

“Online games expand your world. And players can replicate in a larger [online] world what they have in the off-line world.”

Recent estimates from comScore Media Matrix show that one in four Internet users are accessing gaming-oriented sites, at least for the month of May.

"With one in four Internet users visiting a gaming site, playing games online is extremely popular. The fact that these websites are pulling in over a quarter of the total worldwide Internet population shows what a global phenomenon gaming has become,” said Bob Ivins, EVP and managing director of comScore.

“The potential of the online gaming arena should be especially appealing for advertisers, as the average online gamer visits a gaming site 9 times a month," he added.