IDATE's 2010 serious games report and its 10 billion euro forecast

IDATE estimated that serious games generated 1.5 billion euros worldwide in 2010 and that sales in 2015 would come close to seven times that amount, an average annual growth of 47 percent between 2010 and 2015. It expected business interest to rise around 2013, especially among small and medium enterprises that were still unfamiliar with the tools.

The report described a value chain with fewer links than in the classic video game industry. In the most common structure one company handles development, publishing, distribution and sales, and many companies publish a single title that occupies their whole sales and support staff. Low-end development tools dominated because high-end game engines cost more than 250,000 US dollars. Most serious games ran on a computer and were played alone and locally, while the mobile phone was the main alternative platform, above all in emerging economies where a phone is easier to get than a computer.

The authors saw serious games as an addition to existing forms of information, communication and training and not a replacement for them. Such games, they argued, still need professional support and associated services: training future users, tailoring the application, configuring it for patients, citizens or students, and collecting and interpreting results from play. The social, multi-user side of serious games was named as a main area of focus for the coming years.

The report analyzed the markets for serious games through the technologies, the uses and the professions involved, and described the main stages of design, development and distribution. It split the market into four segments: teaching and training, defense and public safety, healthcare, and information. It covered 50 business models and gave market figures for 2010 to 2015. Laurent Michaud, head of IDATE's Digital Home Entertainment Unit, was the project manager.

The 10 billion euro figure is a forecast made in 2010. Another market estimate from a different firm is covered in Metaari's 2018-2023 Global Game-based Learning Market Report.

IDATE, founded in 1977, works on telecom, internet and media markets. Its English-language address now forwards to idate.fr, and the product page for the serious gaming report at the old address no longer exists. The current article list on the site deals with satellite services, broadband and similar subjects, and serious games do not appear in it. The report is therefore not available from IDATE's current website as far as could be found in November 2026. The topic names no game, so there is no game status to record.