The video game industry is increasingly becoming one of the most successful industries to date, in 2007 it was estimated to be worth $18 billion. Today the BBC, the UK’s public broadcasting service, labelled the gaming industry to “worth more than video and music combined”. This is highly evident with the $3.86 billion increase since 2007.
Key companies in the Global North and the Global South
In the Global North, the video game industry has many key companies that are highly successful.
- Rockstar Games (North) – GTA V is their most successful game
- Travellers Tales – LEGO Batman is their most successful game
- Activision Blizzard – Call of Duty, Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon are their most successful games
In the Global South, there are also many key companies in the video game industry that are sucessful.
- Nintendo (Japan) – most known for Mario, Pokemon and the Legend of Zelda
- Sony Computer Entertainment (Japan) – responsible for the PlayStation 1 to 4 and the PlayStation Vita
- Ubisoft (France) – Assassin’s Creed is their most successful game
Regulation
Video games are regulated by the Gaming Rating Authority who use the well-known PEGI age-rating system. The VSC Rating Board are the administrator of the PEGI system which is covered in 20 countries – that’s just in Europe.
This age rating system provides consumers decide whether to buy a particular game for a child based on the suitability of a game and not the level of difficulty. In some respect, it works the same way the BBFC provides age ratings for films.
On the 27th of July 2012, the UK government declared that selling video games with 12+ age rating to underage children would not be a criminal offence, punishable with a hefty fine or even prison.
Market Trends and Challenges
The video game industry is increasingly becoming popular. In 2019, the global revenue for mobile games was 51%, console games being 25% and PC games have a revenue of 24%. Mobile games are currently on the rise with them earning $151.9 billion in 2019 as their net revenue, and they are expected to reach $165.9 billion in 2020.
Current market trends in the video game industry indicate that there has been a major shift between buying to streaming games via the cloud – for example, Project Xcloud and Google Stadia. Streaming video games introduces a challenge for the industry as they are now in competition with Netflix, who have previously introduced Black Mirror: Bandersnatch.
There has also been an increase of big gaming franchise such as Call of Duty moving from console gaming to mobile gaming. Handheld consoles are also making a big comeback, Nintendo are currently dominating handheld devices with the new Nintendo Switch.
2020 offers consumers something new with the speculated release of the Xbox X Series and the PlayStation 5, fuelling the console wars. Me personally, I will be a consumer of the Xbox.
—-> Stay bright, stay positive and shine // Emy
References:
Alfred. (2019). Infographic: Mobile Game Market Trends 2020. Retrieved from https://www.dotcominfoway.com/blog/infographic-mobile-game-market-trends-2020/#gref
BBC. (2019). Gaming worth more than video and music combined. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-46746593
Brandwatch. (2020). 5 consumer trends for the video gaming industry in 2020. Retrieved from https://www.brandwatch.com/blog/consumer-trends-video-gaming-industry-2020/
Bulik, B. (2008). Despite recession, video-game industry shows massive growth; Entertainment value, wide audience appeal, escapism may be why. (News). Advertising Age, 79(20), 6.
Dring, C. (2019). Revealed: the most successful UK game developers. Retrieved from https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-04-11-revealed-the-most-successful-uk-game-developers
Game Designing. (2020). The 50 top video game design companies. Retrieved from https://www.gamedesigning.org/game-development-studios/
GOV. (2012). New rules on video game classification. Retrieved from https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-rules-on-video-game-classification
Illumina Digital. (2009). How to understand computer game ratings. [Video/DVD] Teachers TV/UK Department of Education. Retrieved from https://video-alexanderstreet-com.hallam.idm.oclc.org/watch/how-to-understand-computer-game-ratings
PEGI. (2020). PEGI age ratings. Retrieved from www.pegi.info/page/pegi-age-ratings
VSC. (2020). Who we are. Retrieved from https://videostandards.org.uk/RatingBoard/
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