Online gaming hits its groove

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Naturally, Bridges is in favor of this development because Multiverse is in the business of making it possible for independents to build virtual worlds with modest budgets. Still, the success of titles like Habbo Hotel and Club Penguin shows that if you build it well, they will very likely come.

For individual developers, both online games and virtual worlds are also presenting some of the best career opportunities in years, said John Blakely, vice president of development at Sony Online Entertainment, the publisher of giant online games like EverQuest, EverQuest II and Star Wars Galaxies.

"It's a growth opportunity," Blakely said. "You can just look by the amount of talent and opportunities there are now. I can just tell by the talent drought there is."

His point is that the amount of titles in the works means individual developers can pretty much pick the projects they want to work on, which has definitely not always been the case.

It also means, Blakely added, that consumers are going to have more games to choose from. And given that the industry is experimenting with business models--subscription, ad-based and free, among others--consumers will likely find a game that fits the way they wish to pay for it.

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