The Global Gaming Market is expected to generate a revenue of more than $165Bn in 2020, with the major growth being driven by emerging markets like India and Southeast Asia. Growing at a 5-year CAGR of 9%+, the market includes hyper-casual gaming, educational gaming, the burgeoning e-sports arena, and the emerging AR/VR ecosystem.
In terms of revenue, mobile gaming accounts for a whopping 48% share, followed by console (28%) & PC (23%). Mobile’s success can be attributed to their effective in-game monetization strategies that are now being emulated across the console & PC sectors too.
The true disruptor in the industry is the emergence of cloud gaming as a serious alternative to traditional hardware-oriented gaming experiences. With high-end, 5G handsets becoming cheaper by the day, publishers are leveraging cloud gaming to bring the AAA game-playing experience to 6” screens.
Current Landscape of the Gaming Industry
Approximately 2000 companies in the industry offering services across 2D/3D development, Cloud platform development & e-sports have secured funding to the tune of ~$3bn!
With its cloud gaming service (codenamed xCloud), Microsoft is leading the pack in cloud gaming.
Cloud gaming has sort of democratized high-end games/console access to previously out-of-reach customers. They have managed to achieve this by leveraging Content Delivery Networks with minimal downtimes and latency. This has also opened the pathways to reach the wider audience base of casual gamers.
Service providers eager to make a mark here can focus on any of the below areas where research is still ongoing:
- Spectator gaming
- Development of Streaming Platform and Services
- Cloud Streaming
- Cloud Virtual Gaming
- A platform for interoperability for Games
Cross-Platform Play which is console-agnostic is another benefit of cloud gaming.
The gaming market is always in a state of flux where experimental technologies are often used to deliver cutting-edge experiences. To ensure optimal release cycles that can guarantee maximum consumer engagement, studios are increasingly relying on data analytics.
Curating Analytics-Driven Experiences
Data Analytics helps improve game development and draw more players on to the platform. The exponential increase in data generated by always-connected consoles & mobile is feeding the ever-hungry data machines to extract insights about consumer tastes and preferences.
Game studios Activision & CD Projekt Red have remastered their evergreen hits like Call Of Duty & The Witcher for modern consoles. Thanks to insights from their data analysis strategy, they correctly identified and met the demand for such products.
Another niche area that data models are predicting future demand is in augmented reality gaming.
Artificial Reality, Real Opportunity
AR/VR gaming delivers stunning, photorealistic, immersive gaming experiences at a never-before-seen quality, though the price tag can be a bit discouraging. Despite requiring specialized hardware, their popularity is only increasing among both serious and casual gamers
Development of hand-tracking tools, Instant AR environment creation, & smart wearables are emerging areas of research that service providers need to keep track of.
Emerging research areas here that service providers can cater to include:
- Usage of Synthetic media
- Realistic gaming
- Learning essential for adaptable games
- Smarter games
- Creating Authentic environment through better visuals
More Opportunities for Service Providers
Service providers should leverage this boom as early as possible to gain significant market share. As per our analysis, the following services will be in high demand in the coming decade of gaming:
- Game Statistics Monetization
- Ad Targeting
- Automated Testing
- Payments & Micropayments
- Cybersecurity
- Blockchain-based games
- Cross–Platform Play
- User interface & Biometrics
- Virtual Character Development
Service providers like HCL, IBM, Capgemini & Cognizant have already made forays into the industry by leveraging their expertise in AI, Big Data, & Cloud.
A detailed report on their workloads can be seen in the full report.
The gaming market is hyper-competitive. Indie developers, against all odds, have found great success here. With the right mixture of passion & ingenuity, they have overcome the technology barrier. However, for the bigger players, leveraging cutting-edge tech will mean the difference between Game On or Game Over.
Without the right industry insights at the right time, it can be dangerous to go alone. Arm yourself with real-time market movements & sales opportunities.
This Braindesk report was developed by Draup for Sales using the proprietary Universe & Ecosystem tools.
