In 2021, the video game industry experienced significant growth across its various platforms. However, one statistic stands out: 52% of the market was captured by mobile games , surpassing PCs and consoles, a reversal of the trend in previous years.
App stores invested €14.375M in that period to attract users, and the results show that consumers spent €115.025M on games, a 16% increase compared to 2020. This is where competition between brands intensifies, as they no longer just create productivity tools, but also seek to develop gaming products, one of the sectors with the greatest growth projections.
The video game industry is changing; mobile and cloud gaming are looming.
Video games have been constantly evolving. The first versions that tug at the heartstrings of nostalgic gamers are those from Atari and Nintendo , but as technology advances, they become more complex and capture the attention of millions of young people and adults.
Although its presence isn't as strong as that of the music and film industries, recent studies indicate that 26% of the world's population (approximately 2.000 billion people) participate in video games . Furthermore, it is projected that by 2022, the sector's revenue will exceed €194.301 billion, with a primary focus on mobile and cloud gaming.
A market study presented by Hootsuite states that two out of every three gamers use their smartphones to play games , with Aftermath, Mario Kart Tour, Candy Crush Saga, Clash Royale, and Garena Free Fire being the most popular. This growth is attributed to the fact that a large portion of the population owns a mobile phone, while consoles are somewhat less common.
50% of smartphone users, who in turn represent more than 30% of the world's population, use their devices to play games, most of them being young males.
On the other hand, there are mobile devices designed specifically for gaming, which allows for better graphics , they can be used anywhere without any limitations, and most companies have the same titles for all platforms.
In another trend, cloud gaming generated nearly €1.400 billion in 2020 , allowing users to enjoy a vast number of titles without downloading them to any device. All that's needed is a good internet connection and a compatible operating system.
There, games function like a cloud-based console, allowing you to play any game you like without needing an expensive computer . This is why many companies are investing in this method, further developing these catalogs and leveraging the hardware's advantages to attract new users.
Furthermore, Xbox Game Play boasts an app that allows you to enjoy its services on some Samsung Smart TVs , so you can play without a console. It offers a catalog of 100 cloud-based games and claims to already have 25 million players. Nintendo is also moving in the same direction with its own service, although it's less robust than its competitor's.
Is a future without consoles looming? Xbox and PlayStation seem to know it.
José Garcés, a marketing specialist at Amdocs, is convinced that consoles are destined to disappear, so companies will focus all their efforts on cloud gaming. This group includes Sony, Microsoft, PlayStation, and Xbox, to name a few of the industry giants.
In the first week of July, Xbox Game Pass announced the new titles coming to the platform, primarily focused on the power of the cloud. One of the advantages is that the servers stream videos at maximum quality and deliver a video that plays on the smartphone ; it doesn't need to be downloaded to any physical location. This marks a new format in the world of video games, which typically require a download speed of at least 20 Mbps.
For its part, Sony is continuing to adapt its popular video games for mobile devices, seeking to boost its mobile business. Alongside this, it aims to strengthen its cloud gaming service to reach a wider audience . Analysts maintain that the company wants to give its games a special feel, as if they were playing on a console, although they had a poor experience in the past with the Xperia Play phone, launched in 2011, which wasn't very well received by fans.
Old-school gamers still haven't adapted to the times and maintain that the cloud gaming experience isn't the same as having the game installed on a computer or console. And in a way, a slow internet connection can lead to some difficulties, but in countries with high-speed internet, this helps reduce the costs of owning a sophisticated computer or buying a different game each time . With a subscription, you gain access to a vast catalog similar to that of audio and video streaming services.
Apart from the Xbox service, there are others that offer online games, such as Stadia and Luna, but there are also immersive and augmented reality projects underway, which suggest that in the future consoles will take a back seat.
