The digital gaming industry has changed the face of the gaming industry and entertainment. This industry has never been so high in its history, even on a global scale. As per studies and statistics from every reliable source, the video gaming industry is expected to cross the billion-dollar mark within a few years.
Various big gaming companies like Electronic Arts (EA), Ubisoft, Activision, and Tencent etc. have invested a lot in this industry and will continue to do so. With such a huge response from gamers all over the world, it is no surprise that more and more investors are getting interested in it.
The growth of the gaming industry can start at a very rudimentary stage. You can even create your own gaming website free and set up a stage to contribute to the growth of the digital gaming industry.
More and more countries are becoming interested, and investment in the gaming industry is rapidly increasing.
The present state of the industry currently stands at an approximate value of 890 million dollars.
The game development companies are also increasing day by day. As of present, more than 5 startups are starting per month.
By measuring the current exponential growth of the gaming industry, the billion-dollar mark will be supposedly passed by the year 2020. The total number of gamers is also likely to reach the same number or less by that period.
Reason for the growth of the video gaming industry
One of the main reasons for the gaming industry to be so popular is because the public is having more and more access to the games day by day. The technology has advanced and so has the internet.
At present, games can be downloaded in any smart device at the touch of a finger.
This has resulted in a huge rise in the mobile gaming sector and it has been very advantageous for the smartphone industry as well.
Also, Millennials are earning dollars while playing games online.
Game developers have always been capturing the attention by capitalizing on the growth of the Xbox, PlayStation and Computers. At present, the developers are also turning their attention to the growth of the smartphone industry, and especially the growth of the gaming phones.
The video gaming market growth determinants
Since the appetite for digital gaming is increasing more and more globally, the money that is moving in the gaming industry is becoming more and more. A lot of countries have focused on increasing the investment that has been done overseas, and the partnership is also increasing with other countries at a steady rate.
Countries like India and China are specifically in an advanced position in this race. And the partnerships are becoming more and more profitable with time. A lot of gaming platforms have well established themselves like Tencent and Gamepind.
Games of legendary stature like Call of Duty and PUBG in recent times have helped in increasing the popularity and the investment in the gaming industry in an even larger scale.
The present state of the digital gaming industry is quite high. However there are some places where the average revenue is quite low in per head user scale, but the market is slowly becoming mature even for them.
Also, the condition is directly linked to the nature of the games and is varying from one game to another. Recently, the games with a strategy genre and the casino based games have seen to be generating quite high revenue.
The other games are also starting to get the attention of different investors. The promising games are having no trouble to raise funds or gaining investors.
The trend of the current video games
The trends in digital gaming have also seen to fluctuate over the years on a global scale. While there are certain games like Assassin’s Creed, Call of Duty or FIFA which are known to be popular no matter what, the other less popular games have quite struggled with time.
This is because the gaming interest has always shifted from one genre to another. Some old popular genres have resurfaced as well. The one thing that is constant is the interest has always been changing.
So, the game developers nowadays are more flexible to be able to cope up with the gaming trends whenever a shift occurs.
The Free to Play or F2P is recognized as the current trend globally. This has been going on for quite a few years and even though different types of popular games have been developed in this time period as well, the interest towards the F2P games has seemed to stay overall.
The F2P business model is not quite successful everywhere, but in highly populated countries like China and India, the growth has continued quite steadily.
As a matter of fact, the downloading of free games in the past few years has almost increased up to 200% globally. The genre mainly consists of fighting and sports, but it is still a good factor for the F2P business model.
As per statistics, a majority of the human population has been recorded to play digital games on a daily basis.
The increasing craze for digital games
As the video games have continued to capture more and more attention, industries and companies have started to distinctly study some promising games and are interested to invest in them more than ever. And this is not just secluded to games of one platform.
Various mobile game publishing companies have studied such trends and capitalized on it. As a result, today we see the competitive online gaming market or the e-sports are up for a new high.
Over the next 5-10 years, there are effectively thousands of companies who are ready to invest millions in them. Some of these companies have already started doing so, thus contributing to the growth of the digital gaming industry.
The e-sports market is also equally expanding. As of now, the number of enthusiasts in this field is more than 4 million. All the companies are looking to develop more ways to promote competitive digital gaming, in both online and offline modes.
Creation of local leagues can result in the formation of various gamers’ community, some of which are already there. This can result in boosting e-sports not only locally, but at a national level and at its peak on a worldwide scale.
Aim of e-sports
The main target of the game publishing companies is to promote the creation of content in a localized manner and slowly nurture them to be standouts in global events. Well recognized gaming corporations like EA already hold their annual world championships in FIFA, and the response of gamers is huge.
Even recently, games like PUBG have also introduced their World League championships. And the number of gamers participating in it is massive. It is only expected that the numbers will increase with time, with more and more people getting interested in it.
This improves the condition of the companies and the chances of investment in them as well.
As already discussed, the smartphone industry is really proving to be a boost for the digital gaming industry. As a result, indirect investment in the digital gaming industry has also started due to the huge direct investment in the smartphone industry.
All of these factors are helping the gaming industry to achieve exponential growth. With more and more people buying smartphones, their access to free digital games is also increasing. As a result, the opportunity of e-sports has significantly improved over the years. With more and more countries hosting national-level competitions for different games. Obviously, this is increasing the craze of online competitive gaming on a global scale as well.
A lot of multi-gaming platforms have also surfaced due to the e-sports. The interest is always high on such events, and live streaming for such events has also been started recently. Some rare events have been broadcasted on TV as well, and streaming on the internet is quite regular. This has opened up another source of investment to the digital gaming industry as well.
Artificial Intelligence in gaming
Artificial Intelligence or AI has always been a subject of interest ever since it came up. Apart from its usage on technologies, the gaming sector has used the AI. AI increase the outlook of the games as well. With the advent of Virtual Reality or VR gaming, AI gaming is evolving at a very fast rate.
Since the introduction of AI in digital gaming, the objectives and the gameplay has evolved in a great scale. Various tools have been developed which are successfully incorporating and creating the various elements of the games.
3D models have been developed and the background is taken from most realistic scenarios. Also, the tasks of the games have been developed to learn from the user’s gameplay. The game developers are thus having a wide range of variations to incorporate in the games.
All of these factors are working together to boost the competitive video gaming market to the peak. With trends, stories, animation, accessibility, affordability and technology. It is no surprise if digital gaming becomes a billion-dollar market sooner than predicted.
