People love playing games and they always did. Over time human history, invented different games, from hunting to board games. This helped our ancestors to relax and enjoy a fun time together. This is the same we look for in games today, downloading or browsing the latest games and playing online against people whom we never met.
The question is, how did games become so popular and in demand, resulting in a growth of the business model that brings a lot of money to gaming companies? Today, the gaming industry is worth billions of dollars, which calculates more than USD 500 billion currently. The industry is expected to show new advancements in the upcoming 10 years, increasing the revenue by at least 10%.
.........................
One of the reasons, of course, is the diverse landscape of gaming offers, including not only mobile games but also console video games. On top of this, the term gaming is a big umbrella under which another big industry has been earning billions of dollars, and it’s online gambling. But this is not all, the constant increase of demand from the users’ side, and the ever-changing offers by gaming companies contain other details that made the gaming industry this big.
Online Games Didn’t Come Out of Nowhere: They Were With Us Before
It is one thing to present a completely new product to the market, and another thing to refurbish old and well-known items and sell them to people. Online games were mostly the recreations of old and gold traditional games. Let’s take the example of poker. Its history dates back to the 19th century, and people used to play in physical casinos mostly. The advent of online casinos accelerated poker games’ popularity when internet users started playing real money poker not just for fun.
.........................
The familiarity of poker and other table games granted easy access to the gaming market where online casinos didn’t need to do much in terms of advertising and reaching out to customers. In fact, even though physical casinos had been living the best periods in the 1990s, the introduction of online poker games showcased the bigger potential of that game, and that physical casinos could never explore that potential, as online casinos did.
Taking advantage of well-known games, from poker to chess, and transforming those into digital experiences, gaming companies could position themselves strongly in the global marketplace.
The Invaluable Contribution of Smartphones
Without smartphones becoming the most in-demand tech innovation, online gaming wouldn’t have advanced as significantly as it has. Currently, 5,25 billion people from the world population of approximately 8 billion, use a smartphone. This large number of potential markets makes mobile gaming a field that still has a promising future.
.........................
Smartphones not only became a means of gameplay for gamers but also spread a new gaming culture among other people who might never identify themselves as gamers. Today, tech companies like Apple and Samsung strive to produce smartphones that are comfortable for playing games, including improved quality of the picture as well as audio capabilities. Subsequently, gaming experience and mobile usage go side by side.
About 3 billion people play games on their smartphones, and app stores have plenty to offer them. However, a quick look at the Apple AppStore statistics shows that the number of apps dropped over the years, decreasing by 30%. This is a result of some technical issues brought by the company, but it may also present the current dynamics of game development in general. Even if the market progression moves slowly, it is not because games come out of public interest, but because people have different preferences in terms of gaming devices, which brings us to virtual reality.
.........................
The Promise of Virtual Reality: Everything Just Begins
Virtual reality is the newest innovation the gaming industry is going to take advantage of. With Meta developing its Metaverse world and Apple preparing customers for the next year’s biggest presentation – the Apple Vision Pro, gamers are eager to see what’s next for them.
Apple announced the Vision Pro computers this year, scheduling the release for the next year. This gap is probably left for the developers to create Vision Pro apps and games. The computer itself will cost about $3500, becoming a real challenge both for the company and customers. If the sales of Vision Pro show a high volume, it means people are ready to pay for a better and more immersive working and gaming experience. Once this happens, the online gaming industry will find itself on another level of growth and income.
.........................
Almost unlimited capabilities of virtual reality devices can become the biggest influence on the gaming and gambling markets, growing the number of games and gamers, so the promise of virtual reality is quite bright and exciting.