Mahi Sall, Advisor, Fintech-Bank Partnerships, Payments and Financial Inclusivity
January 25th, 2023
Mahi Sall is the CEO & Founder of FinXpair, a Berlin-based strategic advisory boutique firm focu[...]
9 Consumer Trends Currently Impacting the Gaming Industry
Oct 14, 2022
Image: Pexels/Garrett Morrow
The gaming industry sets the pace for many industries that are related to it. As far as size and influence go, it is a behemoth in the larger context of world industries. A fanbase or following of 3.24 billion people across the world makes you safe daily from many of the ups and downs that mess around with other industries, but there are still waves to be ridden in the world of gaming! From playing in the best online casino to driving a racecar on the best tracks in the world to hunting down demons in fantasy land, the gaming industry is prone to outside trends and influences. Trends forming and rolling into the structure that already exists in the world of gaming will help to reshape the industry and help it evolve into the best possible version of itself as time goes by. Let’s look at which consumer trends are currently influencing the gaming industry the most.
1. Diversity and Inclusivity
The understanding that we have imposed an impossible set of beauty standards and an overwhelmingly European or white way of seeing the world onto most industries has been a rocky road, but acceptance and changing of this can only improve any industry! Diversity and inclusivity have been some of the hottest buzzwords of the last few years and have impacted gaming and game development in many ways. More space has been made for women in a typically male-dominated world, characters are being voiced by a far more diverse voice cast, and the characters themselves are developed to include a wider range of body types, genders, and ethnicities.
2. New Generation Consoles
The race for the next big thing has not excluded the gaming world from its quest for domination. Ever since the first console was created, developers have been looking to what comes next, and creating new, better consoles has been what drives this sector. Newer consoles operate differently than the older models in that physical copies of games are often no longer needed. The rise of subscription services has given birth to a whole new sector that looks like it's here for the long haul.
3. New Payment Methods
The subscription services that we mentioned in the previous point are entirely new payment options for gamers. That, along with the fact that a chunk of the new games released, especially on mobile, are largely free to play, is changing the financial landscape for gamers and studios. Instead of paying for a whole game, now they pay for some in-game exclusive content instead!
Image: Pexels/Ivan Samkov
4. Esports
Though eSports may have had humble beginnings, they have become a huge event not only for the players themselves but also for spectators at the events and all over the world. The prize pots for these tournaments have become life-changing.
5. Cloud-Based Everything
The move towards cloud-based computing and gaming is changing the gaming industry slowly but surely. The limitations of individual devices are being bypassed by using remote servers to do all the hard work. The quality of the gaming experience has been radically improved, and as cloud technology and usage improve, this will be a more and more regular occurrence.
6. The Move To Mobile
These days, your smartphone can do most things that our PC or laptop can do and often at the same speed and quality. The move towards smaller, better mobile technology has impacted the gaming industry in a huge way. Mobile gaming has gone from being the smallest and lowest-income sector to having more than half the market cornered. More made-for-mobile games are being released today at a higher quality than ever before.
7. Indie Platforms
As with the rest of the industries in the world, there are currently a number of huge companies who have a very large share of the market. A big consumer trend making waves in gaming is the rise (once again) of the indie platform or competitor. While huge companies may have the financial backing, indie companies are in a position to interact with their audience and customers and interpret their needs from the ground up.
Image: Pexels/Andrea Piacquadio
8. Creating Hype
Gaming has taken a page out of the books of the fashion and film industries by offering advanced sneak peeks of their work to help build the hype for new releases a long, long way in advance. The more excited your consumer base gets, the more likely you are to have an excellent and profitable release.
9. Reboots and Remakes
Taking another page from the film and fashion industry’s books, the gaming industry has refused point blank to leave the table until they’ve squeezed every drop of goodness from the meal.
See: Future of Web3 Gaming: Play-to-Own (Ecosystems)
Remaking games and rebooting franchises have brought separate generations of fans together over newer versions of old games.
Wrap Up
Consumers' wants and needs dictate the direction that any consumer-based industry takes. We can't wait to see how the gaming industry develops!
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