"The metrics on Pogo.com have gotten so big, we couldn't ignore them anymore," said Jeff Brown, Electronic Arts vice president of corporate communications. "It's not like we had a huge shift in content. People just love those games." 
Advertisers and sponsors began approaching Electronic Arts with ideas to capitalize on the newly discovered audience. So EA executives started tailoring their online games. 
The company is developing games like home run derby. When the balls start flying out of the baseball park, it will clear a wall covered with advertising logos. 
But boys playing baseball aren't the only ones going online for a quickie. 
RealNetworks launched its game division in May with a mix of downloadable and browser-based games. The downloads give designers room to build complex features into the programs, while browser games are generally simple, easy-to-learn games. 
It was a no-brainer for RealNetworks, which offers a wide variety of Internet music, video and entertainment. The RealArcade quickly became big business. What executives didn't expect was the crowd they would draw, said Paul Thelen, RealNetworks' group product manager. 
"While we do have an action segment of gamers, 51 percent of our users are women, and 80 percent are over 30," Thelen said. 
People have downloaded over 2 million free downloads, demos and moderately priced games. 
Now advertisers are approaching RealNetworks as they did Electronic Arts. The corporation is developing games as companions to the traditional male-oriented, first-person shooter and sports genres. 
"We promote the games that sell, and our base is getting skewed toward this new demographic," Thelen said. "We started out with more traditional games, but now we're adding family-friendly games like Monopoly 2 and Roller Coaster Tycoon." 
That doesn't mean kinder, gentler games are on the way. The home video game boom ensures that. Microsoft's XBox and Sony's Playstation2 consoles provide high-speed connections to young people who want immediate access to new games. That core audience is expected to maintain the lion's share of game purchases. 
Sony and Yahoo Japan teamed up last week to develop broadband services in early 2002 for the Playstation2, which will soon have the capability of connecting to the Internet. The challenge for these companies is to convince hard-core game players to purchase a game they can't hold. 
"I think at the moment, we're still a year away with these online, streaming services," said Craig Eastman, director of online product development for GamePro , a gaming media company. "We'll see what happens with the XBox, when the console comes in the home. The challenge is that the consumer still wants something in their hands." 
Wild Tangent will test that theory, Eastman said, when it starts selling Dark Orbit and Betty Bad online. The games aren't for the home console, and they can only be purchased as streams. 
Some retailers have started renting streamed versions of their games, crediting the fee toward the purchase of a physical CD-ROM. 
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