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The History Behind It
The online gaming industry is worth over $150 billion, making it one of the world’s biggest markets today. In comparison, the film industry is worth around $40 billion, and music is worth around half of that at around $20 billion. Therefore, it is almost three times as big as these industries combined. But where did this phenomenon begin, and how did it get here. Let’s look at some of the key milestones that help build the industry.
- The Nineties – Online gaming begins, and the industry starts to snowball as more and more people worldwide begin to purchase PCs and have access to the internet.
- 2003 – The first service becomes available, allowing gamers to purchase games online.
- 2004 – World of Warcraft becomes the first multiplayer online game to have over ten million active subscriptions.
- 2007 – Online games become available to mobile platforms.
- 2009 – Minecraft is launched and becomes one of the highest grossing games in history, selling more than 175 million copies.
- 2015 – It is estimated that 1.5 billion gamers now play online multiplayer games.
- 2016 – Pokemon Go is launched, and it becomes the most significant selling mobile game in its first month of existence.
- 2016 – Present Day – Various platforms launch online gaming where you don’t have to have a console to enjoy them.
Mobile gaming is becoming big business.
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There are many online gaming types such as PC gaming, console gaming, mobile gaming, e-sports, and casino. Each industry has grown year upon year, but perhaps the most prominent industry nowadays is the mobile gaming one as this has cross over features. For example, you can now play casino games on your mobile smartphone by visiting an online casino website, where you would find a variety of casino games and some exciting bonuses. Much like the new Ainsworth title, Rameses Rumble which is a huge hit with gaming fans. This means that you often don’t even need to download any software and that gaming is available anytime, anywhere. A study conducted in 2019 showed that almost 2.5 billion people worldwide were playing online games on their mobile phones. This has been helped by the development of app stores which has given us easier access than ever to these games. The mobile gaming market is growing at such a fast pace that it is steadily gaining on the top two mobile app categories: social media and shopping.
Where is the industry heading?
There are two main areas that the online gaming world is moving into, and they cloud gaming, and real-time personalization gaming. Let’s look at each of those markets and see where they are heading.
Cloud Gaming – Although this is one of the smaller online gaming markets with a worth of around half a billion dollars, it is expected to be one of the fastest-growing ones. It is expected to grow by a little under 50% over the next six years, which will make it one of the fastest-growing markets in history. This is already somewhat in progress as gaming giants Playstation and Microsoft already offer these services on their gaming platforms. However, the development here will be in the hosting sites themselves as users eventually won’t have to fork out hundreds of dollars on consoles. They will be able to visit a website, log on and have access to thousands of games at the click of a button. Internet services and providers are driving this market because as the internet speeds continue to increase, it will improve reliability. It will also bridge the gap in the market between providers at this moment in time; a PlayStation gamer can’t play against an Xbox one. There is also the benefit of purchasing game add on’s such as new missions or new characters that you would have usually have had to wait for the next edition of the game to be released. The game can also be updated throughout, meaning if your favorite NBA player got traded to another team, this could be updated in the game.
Real-time Personalization Gaming – Real-time AI personalization is the future of gaming. It means you will never have the same experience twice when playing a game that keeps it fresh and unique to you. What this service will essential do is adapt to your gaming style, wants, and needs and tailor a game to suit you. This is being developed in other sectors, such as having an online assistant to help you with various things, like Alexa and google home. It is also being experimented with in the education sector significantly to help children learn and develop. As we all know, kids progress at different speeds and stages, but the education system doesn’t always cater to this. This AI technology will help teachers tailor their teaching styles to suit each child in the classroom. Of course, this technology is around us now through apps like Netflix that recommend movies and TV shows based on our viewing history. It’s all about developing this technology and catering it to the users’ needs which is what AI is all about.
