Trends Shaping the Gaming Industry in 2020 and Beyond
The gaming industry is in a constant state of flux, with companies operating within the sector working hard to take advantage of all the new technology that is being released.
As a result, key trends are regularly emerging for the gaming industry - so we have picked out some of the most important to watch out for in the coming months.
Emerging markets key to growth
Growth has rarely been an issue for the gaming industry, but emerging markets appear to be becoming more crucial than ever for companies determined to continue their expansion.
Projections released by Newzoo suggest that in 2020, the gaming industry is going to be worth more than $160 billion, with those revenues up by more than seven per cent on 2019's figures.
Console gaming was always likely to be in for a big year and the impending release of new machines from both Sony and Microsoft, the two leaders in the market, has excitement levels high across the industry.
Those new consoles are likely to be top of the Christmas list for adults and children alike at the end of this year with pre-orders already starting to sell out before they are even released.
Southeast Asia is one of the markets expected to grow at the fastest pace for the gaming industry this year, with companies keeping a close eye on the Middle East & North Africa region.
More types of offers and promotions
All that growth means more competition for customers, with gaming businesses such as online casinos having to work harder than ever before in order to attract people to join them.
With so many different sites out there for people searching for somewhere to start an account, fresh types of offers and promotions are likely to be launched over the course of the year.
While a lot of these sites usually offer no deposit offers, this type of promotion might well find itself shunted into the shade if another offer takes off in a big way during 2020.
Finding the balance between making promotions generous enough to give people a reason to sign up and avoiding them becoming too costly to give away will continue to be a big challenge.
Online casino sites also have to keep in mind that it is not enough to convince customers to join them by getting an account, they need to make sure players come back for more regularly. This means offers and promotions cannot just be aimed at new users, with rewarding loyalty also close to the top of the list when it comes to trends shaping this part of the industry.
Gamers demanding cross-platform as standard
Cross-platform has had a big breakthrough in the last couple of years and continues to be a trend shaping the industry in 2020 and beyond.
Gamers now expect to be able to play all of their favorite titles on a number of different platforms and, on the whole, the industry has been able to step up and meet that need.
The upcoming consoles from Sony and Microsoft both have some form of backwards-compatibility too, meaning gamers can keep playing titles on a different machine.
Fortnite and Rocket League are among the major releases in recent years to have embraced cross-platforming and they are setting a path for the rest of the industry to follow in the future.
Even games that most expect to be consigned to one platform, like the Football Manager series, are branching out with the 2021 version set to be available on the new Xbox console.
Some platforms will be able to retain exclusives, but cross-platforming is here to stay for sure.
Cloud gaming finally set to take off
Experts have been predicting an explosion in cloud gaming for a long time, but it seems that 2020 is the year this will finally break through into the mainstream.
The Stadia project from Google deserves a lot of credit for this, with gamers starting to embrace this kind of model, which works as a subscription similar to Netflix's monthly payments.
It is fair to say it is still early days for cloud gaming, but this looks certain to be a big part of the industry for a long time to come.
At the moment cloud gaming is still seen as being quite niche by the general public, but as an alternative option its popularity is certainly on the rise.
With no need for consoles or downloads, cloud gaming has a lot of plus points that will help to ensure it is a trend shaping the gaming industry into the future.