In Games, Everything Is Changing

The amazing thing about games industry is that the only thing that’s guaranteed is that everything is going to change. In the late 90’s the PC’s (temporary) dominance ended with consoles coming on strong. Then console platforms kept shifting with Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft competiting for dominance. After that, Facebook and browser gaming came out of nowhere and started reaching hundreds of millions of people. And currently we’re seeing how Mobile Is Eating The World with the biggest shift yet. No longer a niche entertainment form, today almost everyone plays mobile games and as content creators we can reach hundreds of millions of people every single day.

That kind of reach is completely unprecedented. There is no other form of medium in the history of entertainment that would have been able to reach and engage such a wide audience on a daily basis.

TAKING THE LONG VIEW — Ben Cousins does an excellent summary on how the games industry runs in cycles.

And even better — on mobile platforms, you are connected to the audience and literally always in their pocket and at their fingertips. You can interact with them. You can connect them with other players via social networks.

In the past couple of years we’ve seen the following major transitions take place:

Business models — The audience has almost completely shifted from Premium to Free. This puts a lot of pressure to game developers and designers, as suddenly many of their old skills are obsolete and they have to learn completely new skill sets. On mobile, the audience is voting with their wallets and they are voting free. Today, 99 out of top 100 grossing titles are Free to download.

Publishing models — No longer dependent on a few major publishers, even small developers can now distribute directly on platforms such as iOS, Android and Steam. “Self-publishing” is a term that’s now a normal part of developer vocabulary and many of the successful developers are moving into publishing games from others. In the new ‘games as a service’ environment, many of the traditional publishers are now struggling and trying to adapt to the new world. The biggest issue for the publishers is that if a developer is successful, they no longer really need publishing for anything. And if they’re not successful, why sign their games?

Shift to mobile — Who wins the fight for the livingroom? Who cares? Consumers no longer consume content in a static location. Kids watch netflix on tablets and mobile. Adults view TV series in bed on their laptops. YouTube stars are more popular with youth than movie stars.

Games as a service — Nowadays, the launch of the game is only the beginning, the starting shot that begins a long marathon run of creating even more compelling content and improving the game and it’s performance even further. This is easy on mobile platforms and really painful and slow to do on consoles.

These transitions are now almost complete, and just like in a hurricane, there is damage too… This level of disruptive change can be brutal: the number of old console/triple-A studios going out of business in recent years has been stunning and sadly, only a select few remain. Games really has been an “adapt or fail” type of environment and unfortunately a lot of good studios have failed to adapt.

Apple Watch and other wearables will eventually have a huge impact on the way we consume content and the way that content is designed.

With the introduction of wearables it’s only a matter of time before the next big transition hits the industry. Just as mobile required different content, more approachable, more streamlined games, the most successful content on Apple Watch and similar platforms will be content that’s customs designed to leverage the device.

At the same time, the current changes in the industry and the way people consume content and make use of their time is creating incredible opportunities for those who embrace the transition and adapt to the new environment. The newcomers in the field can take significant marketshare in a matter of months, and so far we have only seen the tip of the iceberg. The pace is just picking up in speed and the games industry will never be the same again.

Exciting times…