The next big thing in esports

Over the years, there have been technological and cultural transitions in the video game industry. Before just video games and now Electronic sports has come into being that presents organized multiplayer video game competitions to professional and amateur players. The game genres in esports include first person shooter (FPS), multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA), battle royale, fighting, card, real-time strategy (RTS) games, along with others. Unlike old times, they are now broadcasted live at local arcades or online for the large audience. This transition has popularised video games and made gamers internet superstars. Content has changed and become more realistic and violent with the support of electronic systems. 

In April 2019, India conducted its first ever international E-sports event — CobX masters which was hosted in Mumbai. So far, the industry was already doing great and with the lockdown and stay at home orders coming in, the growth outstripped and esports became an overriding form of entertainment for people. The hype created by the top esports event, EGLX was huge with the entire event going virtual in 2020. The event was watched by over 12 million fans around the world. Game developers have given us some great projects in the year, 2020 and we expect nothing different this year. 2021 is expected to bring innovation and excitement into esports and the industry. Some exciting upcoming titles to anticipate in 2021 are League of Legends: Wild Rift, Wukong is surely going to be one of the most awaited games of 2021, the upcoming new championship for League of Legends, and there are others on the list.

The million dollar industry is big and esports is making the online gaming industry enormously popular with esports betting, marketing, publicizing, and so much more. There are celebrities and athletes supporting, participating and getting engaged in esports and raising money for charity through tournaments by involving their fans and supporters. 

The most popular games on esports are League of Legends, Fortnite, DOTA 2, Counter Strike: Global offensive and Hearthstone with League of Legends having the highest monthly active players of over 100M. Esports popularity and live streaming of Esports games gathers a humongous amount of viewers and followers. The video gaming industry has changed and now it just doesn’t come out as another great source of entertainment for millennials but also as a professional career opportunity. The gamers, game developers, Esports sponsors and influencers think of it as a lucrative opportunity considering it’s increased popularity, impressive prize pools, one-on-one sponsorships, and continuous in-flow of revenue. 

Esports has millions of fans from around the world and they follow and stay tuned to see their favourite players play and compete on international levels. Esports tournaments have become one of the biggest platforms for both gamers and companies and hence, for development in the gaming business. This platform has made video game players and teams popular. The longest-running event in the industry is the eSports World Convention which started way back in 2003 and has grown ever since, in different genres. From the times when Fifa eWorld Cup tournament was played sitting in the living room to now on the big stage, this tournament has been very popular around the world since 2004. The tournament was broadcasted live on Youtube, Twitch, and even on some TV channels in some countries and was open to everyone for participation. Call Of Duty and Counter-Strike Championship are also amongst the most played video games ever, with highly competitive online scenes, more regional competitions, and as to be expected their own international tournament only open to the highest level of players out there. Offering big prizes and incredible recognition. The year 2020 has been a great year for esports and following that Free Fire will be hosting four powerful tournaments for India across two pro circuits with a total prize money of more than 2 crores.

Over and above that, let’s talk about a few trends that are expected of Esports in 2021.

The rise of 5G

Globally, 87 percent of gamers find the process of downloading games frustrating, a small increase of two percent since last year which may represent an improvement in performance. The length of time it takes to download games was noted as the top issue, with 32 percent of gamers citing this as their primary concern. Expert gamers and aspiring professionals have the most frustration with download speed, with half of them noting this.

Source: LimeLight

The frustration of downloading a game on a low bandwidth and the importance of speed, latency, and stability in using the internet is known to all. And, rise in 5G is expected to drop the latency down to less that 1 millisecond. Yes, that’s right. The highly anticipated 5G is what is expected to bring change in the future of gaming and solution to the problem of reduced latency. The latency in 5G is believed to reduce to below 5 ms, which will be a 10-fold improvement to that of 4G. For Esports, this progress would mean augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), multiplayer mobile gaming, and interactive and immersive gaming for players.

The next generation gaming consoles 

Xbox series X and PlayStation 5 by Microsoft and Sony will exhibit the improvement that has been brought in the gaming technology with every new generation of hardware. These next generation consoles will for the first time let gamers take a majority of their existing library with them, be it physical or digital onto the new gaming platform. With 4K, solid-state drives and other spec changes, the next-gen gaming consoles by Microsoft and Sony will also support almost every title in the existing console platforms’ libraries on either Xbox, Xbox 360, and Xbox One while Sony’s PlayStation 5 will support a majority of PS4 games. The players will decide where they want to play and whether they want to upgrade to a newer version or not. There are also a few far-reaching franchise releases like Call of Duty, Black Ops Cold War, and the new Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. 

Cloud Gaming

Cloud gaming or gaming-as-a-service will let people play any game they like through a live stream on their device. With the use of high performance servers and high-speed internet connection, Cloud gaming will make sure that gamers are able to play latest games irrespective of the type of gaming hardware or its performance. This is revolutionizing the gaming industry in ways we cannot even imagine by outsourcing computational needs to remote hardware.

In 2018, the value of the cloud gaming market worldwide was $1 million. Industry insiders predict that by 2025, it will grow to $8 million.

Source: CompareCamp

Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality

Virtual reality (VR) in the gaming market was valued at USD 7.7 billion in 2019 and is projected to reach USD 42.50 billion by 2025.

Source: WioNews

The ever-evolving and user-focused technology has been a blessing for the gaming industry. AR and VR games are doing even more well than the traditional games during these times. 2016’s Pokemon Go game showed Augmented reality in its full form and made people crazy giving the game 800 million downloads. Like 3D films, 3D effects in games are enjoyed by people as it gives them an immersive and captivating experience. AR technology brings real-time interaction for gamers and makes games more engaging for them.

Mobile Esports

One of the fastest growing fields of today along with massive mobile esports tournaments. Over the years, mobile gaming has changed from being casual to now competitive. And, 2021 is said to be the year of mobile esports games. Popular titles are played on mobile devices and enter mobile esports business and this has gained great popularity among the players in Indian and countries overseas like in North America, Europe, China, and South Korea. Card games, first-person shooter games, strategy games are all available on mobile devices and excite the users. PUBG Mobile Esports programme, Supercell’s 2021 Clash Royale League (CRL), Call of Duty Mobile Championship, League of Legends: Wild Rift, Garena Free Fire Esports are going to be few of the most popular games and esports leagues of 2021.

With all that said, Logic Simplified is a game development company in India that has experienced game app developers creating multiplayer games, tournaments with best-in-class features and art. We believe games to be one of the great ways of storytelling with narration & art and our intent is to provide the gamer with an immersive experience. People take video games to be a great source of entertainment and we believe in delivering just that.