Developments In Gaming Business: A Review Of The Past 10 Years

For a long time now, video games have been taken as the ultimate source of entertainment by many. Its history started way back in the 1950s and until now, this industry has come a long way and is now one of the most profitable entertainment industries in the world. Over the times, games have evolved and so have the game production techniques and gaming devices. However, the modern technologies and innovative softwares have had a lashing impact on the development of the gaming industry and has contributed to bring it to the forefront. The games becoming more available and hand-held were few of many other reasons that have led to increase the gamer’s appetite for video games.

Introduction of Twitch - the world’s leading live streaming platform for gamers, launch of Nintendo Switch - the switch console in 2017 for hand-held gaming, gaming subscriptions becoming available, step-up in production of story-based games, rise in mobile gaming, introduction of game awards and their increased viewership, these were just a few landmarking happenings that occurred in the gaming world in the last few years that led it to enter the mainstream. Come what may, game development has been reshaped in varied ways and the technologies along have brought endless possibilities in the sector. Everything from the kind of game being played to how they were developed, marketed, and monetized has not only changed but optimized in a way that has made the interaction and engagement between the game app developers and gamers evolved.

Developments that broke a leg in the last decade

The video game industry is tremendously big and it is only growing. In fact, there were over two billion gamers across the world which is 26% of the world's population. The video game development process has become rather complex and involves more advanced steps today and ensures a good return of interest. Non gaming companies like Apple, Google, Facebook were getting their hands into the gaming industry considering the great success involved with the sector.

Having said that, here are some of the most breathtaking innovations that were witnessed in the past decade. The way innovation in video g ames evolved has been like none other. Newfangled technologies, new controls, and experiences have what’s been expected and achieved.  

Merchandising and marketing was introduced as one functional approach that contributes to making a successful video game series. T-shirts, figures, hats, mugs, bags, and other products were used to promote the game and create a hype around it.         

Rise in independent game development took the game dev market by the storm with free game development software versions offered by Unity and other companies. And, these games crafted by independent developers have not only been critically acclaimed but commercially and creatively successful which would not have been possible a decade ago.

Not to mention, the shift from offline to online stores was a noteworthy change in the gaming biz. Turns out, this gave the developers the opportunity to market their games directly to the gamers. Other things that were elevated alongside: No shops were necessary, gamers had more choices to choose from considering their budget and developers had the freedom to create a game that the audience expected.

Another step up has been the video game popularity that has picked up in recent years among the people of different age groups. The broadening of mobile gaming demographics in the video game industry has been interesting to notice and ensures a bright future for the same with more people playing games, increased demand for a greater immersive entertainment, and easier access to games.

As arduous as it may be to believe that online audiences want to watch strangers play video games. Nevertheless, Let’s Plays is a video that documents the playthrough of a video game and also includes commentary videos with a camera view of the gamer's face. The top five Let’s Players collectively have more YouTube subscribers than Peru has people. Players stream videos of themselves playing video games at home and make good money doing so. This has become another way for revenue generation in the video game market. 

The upsurge in mobile phone usage changed gaming forever. Gamers now had the ease to play anywhere anytime with not having to stick to one place with gaming consoles and PCs. It is no secret that games rule the mobile app world. Over the years, mobile game apps have broken records and made huge revenue with improvement and transformations continuously going on. If we look at how things were before the App store launched by Apple in 2008 and after, we’d realize it as a defining moment for gamers and the way games were played changed drastically. Anyone who wanted to play a game and had an apple phone began downloading games.

It is estimated that around 2.5 billion people all around the world play games on their smartphones, which represents almost one-third of the world’s population.

Source: Technosports

Playing games on mobile phones provides the players with uncomplicated convenience, and entertainment. The factors that were driving the popularity of mobile games were easy accessibility, low costs, the soaring mobile population, and advertising. The games got smarter with the advancements in smartphones.

Well, the previous decade has observed assorted changes in technology, an intriguing shift in how industry games were created, played, discussed, challenged, and triumphed. The spectrum of choices has increased over the years for gamers to choose from at different price ranges. Gamers' choices and behaviour were studied to understand the desires of them.

The myriad of interesting and unparalleled storylines that the games offer today is outstanding. For instance games like The last of us, Knights of the old republic, Mass effect 2, and Red dead redemption were a few ones with captivating stories that make them so great.

Augmented reality and virtual reality strengthens player’s experience by making games more engaging. Virtual reality has made games much more immersive and there have also been experimentation with controls, such as touch screens, adding voice, and gestures. 

Artificial intelligence in game development optimizes game graphics, redefines desktop games, and works towards providing the users a better user-experience and interactive entertainment. It involves understanding the gamer’s psychological state of mind so it can provide an unexpected environment and situations giving the game a competitive edge. It allows the game to respond to the psychological and emotional state of the players, adapting and responding to human behavior and evolving over time. 

In the past, there were no gameplay videos, and few demos. Games media has changed, games journalism has reviews, news and previews. Now, games media is no longer just journalism; it’s also entertainment, criticism, comedy, video, essayism and all sorts of other far more interesting things than the reviews and previews. 

More women spend money on in-game content than men.

Source: TechJury

Now, more women were not just gamers but were also video game developers who enjoy competing and playing. Technology improves, the video games do, and so do the expectations of gamers. A recent study revealed that women make more in-app purchases than men. Thirty-one percent more to be precise, and they spend 35 percent more time in gaming apps compared to men. 

Source: Flurry

This bespeaks a shift in the mobile gaming industry and categorically tells us that the audience is no longer largely men.

With that said, Logic Simplified, a stellar game development company in Dehradun provides services with quality, reliability, and compliance since 2004 and has been contributing towards pushing the gaming medium forward. It offers preeminent turnkey game development services, game designer service, works with introducing ML/AI bots into games, and offers other facilities that include game marketing, deployment, testing services, and more. Looking ahead, the team of enthusiastic developers and designers that Logic Simplified has put together uses several different modules, visual effects, technologies, and the optimum security regulatory to bring complex games to life.