Currently, the video gaming industry has an estimated value of $170 billion. It has also continued to grow astronomically in recent years without any signs of slowing down in the near future. This makes it a big business.
As the world rapidly shifts into becoming a more digital-based one with each passing year. Some industries are silently struggling to adapt to how quickly things are changing. Sectors like the online gambling industry have had a head start and provided their players with an online casino experience back in the mid to late 00’s.
This has been a huge paradigm shift, as when you walk into a land casino you’re essentially left to your own devices, the exact opposite of online casinos. Nowadays there are tools which you can use to find out the best strategies for games like online roulette and help you keep up to date with industry trends.
A report by Google and OC & C Strategy Consultants shows 13 trends behind the industry’s impressive growth. Consider them:
- Sophisticated Marketing Strategies and Revenue Streams
Players have the luxury of playing games in the comfort of their homes or elsewhere, thanks to the availability of new games in addition to the existing ones they can access from their devices.
They can also stream games from their Internet-enable devices such as mixed reality glasses and smart watches. To get the best gaming experience and visuals, they take advantage of the best storage and computing resources at their disposal. The gaming challenges from PC and console life cycles will soon become history.
- Rise of the Social Media
The line between gaming and social experiences has been blurred by social media. Gamers’ increased demands for more live gaming events is proof that they are looking for opportunities to share more meaningful and deeper social gaming experiences with their friends and family. The result is that more game developers are gradually including social platform features in their games. Players can now connect accounts to social media platforms.
Players can also network with other players via social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and what have you. Through such a connection, they are creating awareness for the video gaming industry, thereby increasing its popularity.
- Deeper LTV Measurement
Because players can play, browse, and make purchases in a connected environment, developers and publishers can build better behaviour, richer players, and great values. This will reflect on new users’ LTV, a measure of their worth to the gaming industry.
- Increase in Streaming
Consumers are no longer content with recorded gaming events. They now crave for live gaming events. This will increase the growth in gaming streaming as the streaming barrier is removed. For console, PC, and apps, there are massive opportunities for consumers in areas of gaming content consumption and streaming.
Increased streaming opportunities can have a positive impact on the gaming industry. As more people can stream video games and play them at their convenience, the demand for such a game will increase tremendously. The company will eventually grow from increased demand.
- Mobile Growth
Mobile gamers and mobile technology are driving massive growth in the mobile gaming sector. The line between PC, console, and mobile games is gradually being blurred by streaming and mobile technology. When 4k games are available for streaming on any device, the line will probably become extinct. With the release of more AAA titles, cross play will eventually become the standard.
- New Audience Engagement
The industry will witness new opportunities to get more new audiences, engage the core audience, and take player engagement to the next level. Such opportunities may include media rights, sponsorship, merchandising, streaming, and licensing. The objective of the new engagement is to get more patronage for the video gaming industry. It is an effective way to grow the industry.
- Strategy Shifts
There will be an evolution of marketing strategies. The current strategies will give way to more effective strategies. Live ops, influencer strategies, events strategies, and others will be integrated for increased productivity.
- Feedback Loops
In their attempts to increase several features of games, such as session length, engagement, the average number of seasons, and revenue per user, developers are turning to players to provide them with the needed data. They can achieve more with player engagement, and by extension, revenue, if developers understand where players lapse, unpopular elements, the level where players lapse, and the most preferred features.
- Player Benefits
With cloud, players can enjoy some benefits from new technology. For instance, through streaming, some challenges that players were experiencing in the past have been removed. A typical example is the initial cost of some hardware, games, or platforms. The constant need for upgrading every few years is another problem that is gradually fading away.
However, the elimination of these challenges by the new technology encourages many players to reignite or develop an interest in video games.
- Developer Benefits
In the past, games were downloaded locally. With the introduction of game-streaming services, this becomes unnecessary. Players no longer need to lose sleep over game file sizes or install updates, thanks to these streaming services. They can now download games without being unnecessarily concerned about space and what have you. As a result, many subscription models are available either through any of the available cloud gaming platform services or directly to consumers.
Players can also purchase games and play them immediately. This opens the door for better and more sophisticated marketing strategies that incorporate the best practices in marketing data and technology.
