[Opinion Piece]
Sure, Disney is a lovely theme park most people will jump on the first opportunity to visit — but have you ever wondered… aren’t games the theme parks of their industry? Perhaps a more apt description is Game are the new Netflix. Why? Because viewers are entertained. In fact a game is objectively more entertaining because gamers have more control over the storyline (you guide your character), this makes games more immersive. A whole new world that is introduced by coders that worked day and night to build the game from the ground up; a magnificence of its own, has become a new world in which many people spend large parts of their lives. Are we doomed to a dystopian VR world? Or is the future of gaming liberating beyond our wildest imagination?
To reel back a bit, in recent years, technology has advanced to the point that many games sketch hazy lines between reality and fiction; a blurred barrier of sorts. Technology has contributed to an ever-improving gaming experience that we can all enjoy, has it not? From enabling safer gameplay atmospheres to the same games online, with our friends, on the live chat – kudos to Discord on this one by the way.
Video games are places for amusements, a “happy place”, for both children and adults — for decades — and this is evident from a simple question to millennials and Gen Z alike: we all love Pokémon, don’t we?
Games (think Pac Man, Mario Kart, The Last of Us, all the big ones) have come a long way since the early days of the computer system – that small white cuboid where the screen talked to you sometimes – and the original Nintendo and Atari consoles (Game Boy, if I may jog your memory). Video games have gotten a whole lot more lifelike, than ever before, and would continue to do so, and pixelated visuals and limited acoustics are becoming a thing of the past (toodles, Sonic The Hedgehog.)
The thing is, and it won’t be coming as a surprise, video games improve alongside technological achievements, those churning advancements.
The expense of developing a game for one of the major platforms has grown in parallel with the rising complexity of video game development. Look, even if you are not a huge video game fan, you must have watched that one award-winning movie from the great Ryan Reynolds (and directed by Shaun Levy): Free Guy. The codes that people invent are unique in their way, and that is how each game differs from the other — years may take to develop these, you see, and that is fast-paced in today’s sense. If it were the twentieth century, your God of War would be just… World War I and II. Do you see how much the world has changed – and with it, the gaming industry?
It was previously inconceivable to spend millions on game production, but today’s games may even cost more than a billion dollars. Call of Duty, Roblox, PUBG, Honour of Kings, Pokémon Go? All of them are Billion Dollar Companies. In terms of marketing and manufacturing costs, the Hollywood blockbuster realm is morphed with the development of games – take Uncharted, the game, and Tom Holland’s recent movie it was based on – now do you fathom?
The video games market has grown to be larger than that of the entertainment and media businesses combined, and it continues to grow. There are approximately two billion players worldwide, despite the fact that it does not attract the same amount of scrutiny as the music and film industries. This is equivalent to 26% of the world’s population. In mathematical terms, that is a score!
Businesses, understandably, want a slice of the pie; who doesn’t? Isn’t it true that money attracts money? As a result, the gaming industry was predicted to generate $155 billion in sales in 2020 (which it did – it surmounted to a staggering $159 billion!). Experts predict that by the (soon approaching) year 2025, it would have made billions more in revenue. Which is how companies in the information technology sector are striving to tap into this cash source. Such is the effect of video gaming that Meta (Facebook), Google, and others have stated their ambitions to adopt it.
The IT sector is trying to find a way for these non-traditional companies that are wishing to enter the gaming industry and make game streaming as seamless as listening to music on Spotify or watching movies on Netflix.
Microsoft is no stranger to gaming, thanks to its successful Xbox system. Project Cloud, a game streaming system that lets users broadcast Microsoft Xbox games to PCs and other devices, was launched in 2019. The service became fully operational in September 2020 and is available to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers.
In 2016, Meta partnered with Unity Technologies to create a gaming platform. Unity Technologies creates a game development framework enabling individuals to create video games. Stadia, Google’s gaming service, was introduced only recently, allowing users to play streaming in incredibly high resolution. It is accessible via the Google browser, as well as smartphones, tablets, and desktop computers.
All of these “non-traditional” companies aim to make themselves a part of the posh gaming industry, making it possible for gamers to broadcast video games without having to use a computer or a video game device. Physical video games in the form of cassettes or discs, if you have noticed, are becoming increasingly rare as this trend continues to grow.
Considering video games are expensive to produce, they, like Hollywood, need to generate more cash from their intellectual side of the property. T-shirts, figurines, caps, mugs, and other merchandise are already available — the go-to marketing strategy we are all pretty familiar with. In addition to an anticipated television show of Assassin’s Creed and a long-rumored movie for Sonic The Hedgehog, the Halo franchise on Microsoft’s Xbox has migrated to various kinds of material including novels and comic books. This might become the model for all popular video game franchises, now, seeing the rate of success this tactic brings about.
In reality, Ubisoft’s blockbuster video game Assassin’s Creed was adapted into a film in 2016 starring renowned actors. In 2020, Sega’s iconic Hedgehog game was adapted into a blockbuster film featuring well-known actors, which broke the record for the largest opening night for a video game–based film.
Perhaps the most fascinating development in the gaming world is the shifting demographic of gamers. The potential of the video game business is promising, with a growing number of individuals playing games, a need for more engaging content, and a desire for simpler exposure to games.
The future of gaming is certainly exciting.
