The Future of the Gaming Industry

Last Wednesday’s discussion at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, The Future of the Gaming Industry, left me feeling dismayed rather than excited about what to expect from my beloved pastime. According to the industry experts speaking at the event it would seem that ‘mobile’ and ‘social’ are the buzzwords for the foreseeable future. Mobile gaming and Facebook gaming are all well and good for the casual, passive gamer but where does this leave those who crave technical innovation and engrossing narrative experiences?

According to Nicholas Lovell, founder of the blog Gamesbrief, the industry is going to split into three distinctive types of games – dominant triple-A blockbusters such as the Call of Duty series, persistent world subscription-based games like World of Warcraft and independently developed games. He said we are now getting to the stage where only a “few big players can experiment in the medium” with huge financial backing. Judging by the condition of the games currently being released by these major players, there’s cause for concern.

Take the aforementioned Call of Duty as the prime example. The last two editions of the franchise - Modern Warfare 2 in 2009 and Black Ops last year – were each unveiled to a media frenzy of a magnitude not before seen in the industry. But why? They are mindless, unoriginal and built on technically flawed foundations and aging technology (check out my scathing review of Black Ops). Their target market, however, is casual gamers who play solely online for the social experience it offers. It would seem this rapidly expanding audience do not care about such trivialities as whether a gun recoils in the correct way, or whether the game’s engine is horribly outdated. What they want is to be able to turn on their games console, pick up their controller and shoot people whilst having a laugh with their mates. This is the market the vast majority of publishers will focus on, and where the big money will be spent, inevitably alienating smaller developers with bigger ideas.

Mobile gaming is advancing technically and becoming more sophisticated in content. The market for portability is ever-present, and with Sony and Nintendo focusing more on the area and developers of games for smartphones offering up an increasing number of exciting and reputable titles, it seems this industry cannot fail to grow rapidly.

Going back to social gaming, Tom Chatfield, author of Fun Inc.: Why games are the 21st Century's most serious business, said “Facebook is going to generate hundreds of millions of dollars” for those who develop games for the site. He added that we are living in a “value generation” where the “quality of attention” offered by games, now accessible enough for pretty much everyone, “is of a much higher value than other media”. Games based on simple, proven mechanics, such as Farmville and clones of Scrabble have grabbed the attention of an incredible range and volume of Facebook users. It was mentioned that half of the 600 millions Facebook users have installed some form of game app, leading developer Michael Acton-Smith to believe that in the future the question won’t be “do you play games?”, but “what games do you play?”