“Dungeons and Dragons” has gone high-tech. The fantasy role-playing game that was once reserved for your parent’s basement has grown into a billion-dollar industry during the last 20 years, and one local online game developer is counting on the industry’s overwhelming popularity to take the company to the next level.
Simutronics Corp. is one of many game development companies that specializes in online, multiplayer, fantasy — or “persistent worlds” as it’s called in industry terms — games. The Gaithersburg-based company, founded in 1987, has had more than 1 million players log-on to its games.
Last year, the company pulled in $4 million in revenue, which is largely generated by the games’ $15-per-month subscription fee.
But Simutronics hopes to increase those revenues by licensing its in-house software to other online game developers that need assistance in creating a new game. The software essentially works like Photoshop, said Neil Harris, executive vice president of Simutronics, in that it gives developers all of the technical essentials, but still allows for the creation of original content.
Developing a new game typically takes about four years, Harris said. The company’s software can cut two years off the development process.
Next week, the company will make its sales pitch to venture capitalists at Capital Connection in D.C., an annual fair sponsored by the Mid-Atlantic Venture Capital Association that connects up-and-coming companies with investors.
Simutronics’ patent-pending software went on the market in March. It has already secured one client and has about a dozen deals in the works, Harris said. But the company is hoping to secure between $5 million and $10 million from venture capitalists in order to get a jump on the competition and expand the business into other parts of the world, such as Asia, where the online game industry is even more popular.
“It’s clear that we have a huge lead on our competition,” he said. “We have a chance to be the ‘Windows’ of the online game world, but in order to get there we need more resources.”
The game that keeps on growing
The online game industry has grown tremendously during the years and it’s only expected to get bigger. Projections through 2008 have revenues increasing by about $1 billion per year.
» Annual revenues
2002 – $875 million
2003 – $1.196 billion
2004 – $1.556 billion
2005 – $2.287 billion
» Projected:
2006 – $3.107 billion
2007 – $4.179 billion
2008 – $5.018 billion
Source: DFC Intelligence
