Did you ever think about quitting your job to live the life you always dreamed of? This week's Tech Watch features a 25-year old London man who did just that. And now his life is a game.
Meet Sujoy Roy. He studied physics at Cambridge University and had a promising career as an investment banker with J.P. Morgan. Then he gave it all up for a higher paying job. He's a professional video games player.
“Last year I had something like seven or eight tournaments all over the world from what Singapore, Korea across America and all over Europe and you know prize moneyfor all those tournaments together. The prize pool was over a million dollars easily.”
Many parents may think video games are a time-wasting hobby, but they're big business. Worldwide, the electronic games industry will earn an estimated $50 billion this year. Experts at London-based Informa Media Group say that could 1）skyrocket to $86 billion by 2006.
And the traditional image of the 2）nerdy video games fanatic has seen a dramatic transformation. They now call themselves cyber-athletes and operate their own world-wide professional league with offices in the Unites States, Europe and Asia, running tournaments worth thousands of dollars in prize money and lucrative sponsorships.
“The sort of people that come here to play are not what most people would think which is like nerdy, geeky-type people. It's very much the opposite. They are actually all professional, semi-professional people. They are very computer literate. The average age of our playershere are actually 18 to 39 years of age.”
London-based video games club The Playing Fields is full of aspiring professional players. Dedication and hours of practice have put Sujoy among the top ten players in the world. Apart from his own career as a cyber athlete, he runs a video games website with two other professional players. Combining prize money and sponsorships they earned about $200,000 last year.
Global sales of games software and the 3）consoles used to play them, names like Playstation or Game Cube are 4）pegged at nearly $37 billion this year. Game revenues from players using the Internet are much smaller, only about $500 million. But analysts say the potential is enormous. London-based data monitor estimates that as powerful broadband connection spreads worldwide, Internet-based video games will generate $3.5 billion over the next five years.
What makes the potential so good is that online gamers are very passionate about their pastime and they're willing to pay to play. And with the number of online gamers projected to reach more than 110 million in the next five years, a few dollars a week each will add up to some serious and lucrative fun.
1） skyrocket v. 突然成功；一舉成名
2） nerdy a. 有怪僻的，有孤僻嗜好的
3） console n. 控制臺，操縱臺 4） peg v. 固定，限制，限定
Meet Sujoy Roy. He studied physics at Cambridge University and had a promising career as an investment banker with J.P. Morgan. Then he gave it all up for a higher paying job. He's a professional video games player.
“Last year I had something like seven or eight tournaments all over the world from what Singapore, Korea across America and all over Europe and you know prize moneyfor all those tournaments together. The prize pool was over a million dollars easily.”
Many parents may think video games are a time-wasting hobby, but they're big business. Worldwide, the electronic games industry will earn an estimated $50 billion this year. Experts at London-based Informa Media Group say that could 1）skyrocket to $86 billion by 2006.
And the traditional image of the 2）nerdy video games fanatic has seen a dramatic transformation. They now call themselves cyber-athletes and operate their own world-wide professional league with offices in the Unites States, Europe and Asia, running tournaments worth thousands of dollars in prize money and lucrative sponsorships.
“The sort of people that come here to play are not what most people would think which is like nerdy, geeky-type people. It's very much the opposite. They are actually all professional, semi-professional people. They are very computer literate. The average age of our playershere are actually 18 to 39 years of age.”
London-based video games club The Playing Fields is full of aspiring professional players. Dedication and hours of practice have put Sujoy among the top ten players in the world. Apart from his own career as a cyber athlete, he runs a video games website with two other professional players. Combining prize money and sponsorships they earned about $200,000 last year.
Global sales of games software and the 3）consoles used to play them, names like Playstation or Game Cube are 4）pegged at nearly $37 billion this year. Game revenues from players using the Internet are much smaller, only about $500 million. But analysts say the potential is enormous. London-based data monitor estimates that as powerful broadband connection spreads worldwide, Internet-based video games will generate $3.5 billion over the next five years.
What makes the potential so good is that online gamers are very passionate about their pastime and they're willing to pay to play. And with the number of online gamers projected to reach more than 110 million in the next five years, a few dollars a week each will add up to some serious and lucrative fun.
1） skyrocket v. 突然成功；一舉成名
2） nerdy a. 有怪僻的，有孤僻嗜好的
3） console n. 控制臺，操縱臺 4） peg v. 固定，限制，限定