Most personal area networking (PAN) connectivity employed in electronic games today is provided by Bluetooth. Of the three giant gaming vendors that control most of the market - Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft - only Microsoft has employed a proprietary connectivity technology.

Bluetooth is set to grow strongly in this market, and a new Research Brief from ABI Research forecasts Bluetooth shipments for non-portable gaming consoles to peak at over 115 million units in 2009 before declining to 2007 levels in 2012. Bluetooth looks set to continue as the PAN technology of choice in the medium term, although some factors are working against it.

“The gaming console market has a product lifecycle rhythm that ebbs and flows,” says senior analyst Douglas McEuen. Product generations are usually three or four years apart or more. A new console will be released and the market will skyrocket. The next year there will probably still be considerable interest in it, but over the following several years, sales will taper off. Then the next generation of console appears, and the market repeats the pattern. This cycle affects components such as Bluetooth. “The commitment to Bluetooth already shown by Sony and Nintendo, combined with the extended gaming equipment product lifecycle, mean that the future of Bluetooth in this market is guaranteed at least for the next few years,” says McEuen.

Other drivers for Bluetooth in the gaming market include manufacturers’ support, proven usage cases, a buoyant aftermarket, and high margins. This technology is also supported by wide consumer enthusiasm, high shipment volumes, and the prospect of greater bandwidth promised by the addition of version 3.0 to the Bluetooth roadmap and better efficiency due to the likely adoption of ultra-low-power Bluetooth in the next generation of consoles.

On the other hand, several factors tend to inhibit Bluetooth in gaming. Microsoft’s proprietary connectivity technology for its Xbox 360 has closed off part of the market. Portable gaming favors 802.11 over Bluetooth. Earlier generations of game platforms were open, creating a thriving aftermarket for third-party controllers: this seventh generation of games, in contrast, relies on proprietary technologies from the big three vendors alone.