The gaming industry has come a long way from the days of Super Mario and Pac-Man. Now, it’s a major part of the global economy. It dictates how people play, connect, and even work. Today’s games are not made purely for entertainment. They help companies test new ideas and technologies, turning them into hubs for business innovation.
With revolutions in design, AI, and data analytics, the gaming industry has become one of the most exciting types of interactive entertainment. It combines creativity and technology to give players activities that feel more real and engaging than ever before.
How Gaming Is Improving Digital Transformation
In recent years, the gaming industry has helped push new technology. Every generation of games has birthed faster Internet connections, powerful PCs and desktops, and smarter software. Players don’t want their gaming sessions to remain the same. As such, companies are constantly trying to create new things to keep their customers interested.
Business Trends in the Gaming World
Below is a list of technologies that have grown stronger due to their integration with games.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Artificial Intelligence is everywhere today, but it first took shape in games. Concepts like poker probabilities, used for years to predict outcomes in this game, now form the base of AI systems in modern gaming. These make possible results from known and hidden information to help the AI make logical decisions. With this technology, computer-controlled characters can act and react like real players.
Electronic Arts (EA) uses AI in its soccer games to make sure players move and act like the humans they’re modelled after. Riot Games has used AI in its League of Legends’ servers to restrict toxic behaviours from players.
Blockchain and NFTs
The blockchain allows the ownership of in-game tokens, for example, a non-fungible token relating to weapons, outfits, or even some characters. A few of these can be used without cost, but other characters and items should be bought with money. On this blockchain, you can also sell the items you own to other players.
In 2021, Ubisoft made the development of Ubisoft Quartz. The system allows buying, selling, and using non-fungible tokens, better known as Digits, in some titles from this developer.
Besides Ubisoft, other developers have their systems on the blockchain. This has created a new economy on the web that connects gaming with banking and art inside a shared digital space called the ‘metaverse’.
Virtual and Augmented Reality
Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are technologies that create for players an impression of being inside a game. Following its innovative strategy, in 2016, Sony Interactive Entertainment developed the PlayStation VR. This tool can be used to examine virtual worlds in games such as Wanderer, Zenith, Fracked, and After the Fall.
That said, Nintendo launched its AR system via the 3DS in 2011 on games like Mario Kart Live and Pokémon GO. This initiative is cool, as it uses your console’s camera to make in-game objects appear within your immediate surroundings.
Advanced Data Analytics
To learn what players enjoyed and disliked about their games, game developers use in-depth data analytics.
This is a software that records gameplay and detects errors. Data collected from this system is then sent to developers. This allows them to patch bugs and include content that many players will really like.
For instance, the company behind the popular Fortnite game, Epic Games, provides an analytics feature that logs into both player engagement and balance issues.
Modern Business Models in Gaming
Game developers have adopted creative ways to get money and stay popular around the world. Some of the noticeable routes they’ve adopted include the ones below.
Free-to-Play (F2P) with In-Game Purchases
You can download most video games for mobile and console for free. But a lot of things you need for the gameplay you can buy using real money once you launch the title. These include weapons or special outfits.
That is exactly what Tencent Games has done in titles like Honor of Kings and PUBG Mobile, while making the games very inclusive and bringing in billions of bucks in terms of revenue.
Games as a Service (GaaS)
This model means that games never truly end. Instead, their storylines continue via updates and events. Epic Games has just shown how lucrative this idea can be with Fortnite. Periodically, the creators of the title add new maps and seasons. They also do regular reworks of the very popular Battle Pass system that rewards players simply for playing.
Subscription-Based Gaming
Gaming companies earn through monthly or annual charges for access to their services. For example, if you subscribe to Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass, you get complete access to thousands of games. It gives a chance for the players to try out more activities, while the company will have regular income. A win-win situation for both.
Cloud Gaming
This allows players to engage in games through the internet. With cloud gaming in the mix, players don’t need to purchase expensive consoles to play games that tickle their preferences. Microsoft has a service called Xbox Cloud Gaming that lets you stream your favourite titles on your PC or smartphone.
Cross-Platform Play
In the early days of the gaming industry and the creative economy, you could only play with other people using one console. But things have changed, and you can play with your friends over the internet. On Tencent Games’ PUBG, for example, people in different locations can play together using their PCs or mobile devices.
User-Generated Content (UGC)
User-generated content is one created by players on a particular game. Roblox from the Roblox Corporation is a great example of this. In this game, players can create exclusive worlds and challenges. Games like this take user creativity to the next level.
Mobile Monetisation and Hybrid Models
Many games available on mobile devices involve hybrid models that combine advertisements and in-game purchases.
On Tencent Games’ PUBG Mobile, for example, you’d need to watch video ads to get rewards. If you’d like to get these extras faster, you’d need to purchase them using your money.
eSports
eSports allows players to compete against each other in various tournaments. Finishing in the top positions of such competitions helps you to qualify for a part of their huge prize pools.
Riot Games, which developed Valorant and League of Legends, has tournaments that can have the best compete for six to seven-figure cash awards.
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