The Evolution of Gaming
Gaming has evolved from single player games that were solely designed for and solely charge the players, to increasingly social games designed for both players and the audience. Where is the future going?
Gaming has evolved over time, and this will continue.
The image below shows some of the key changes over time, and where it might be headed - namely, massive multi-player games where spectators are involved such as in the Hunger Games:
Of course, I don't know the future - this is a working hypothesis.
Key Questions/Hypotheses:
- What are all the reasons for and against why these trends will continue (more social, designed for audience, monetize through audience, more interactive/more of a spectators’ sport, etc)?
- Are there specific examples of companies/games that have already demonstrated the ability to infuse the audience into the game Hunger-Games style?
- Will there be many new Hunger-Games-styled games that are popular, or will it look more like traditional sports where the top few dominate attention and the rest are much more niche?
- What are all of the arguments for & against the traditional sports model vs the ‘traditional’ esports business model (in terms of monetizing the players vs the audience) ? Said another way, what are the benefits of each method?
- Will these games all be streamed on the same platform or on their own platform? What are all of the advantages & disadvantages for one central streaming platform vs each game having their own streaming avenue?
- What are all of the arguments for & against owning the streaming platform vs a game/brand vs an individual team vs the underlying software engine vs somewhere else in the value chain?
- Which area is more interesting: (a) The streaming adjacencies outside of gaming (e.g. just chatting), or (b) The ‘gaming’ adjacencies outside of gaming (e.g. education/concerts etc)
- What are the arguments for and against VR & AR being a part of the next few stages of the gaming evolution?
- Which areas will the increased quality & popularity of ‘gaming’ and the increasingly social nature of games like Fortnite impact the most and why out of: (a) Traditional sports, (b) Social media, (c) SVOD, (d) Traditional education, (e) Other pastimes/all of the above?
- Has COVID-19 resulted in a permanent shift in behavior, or just a pull-forward of the demand curve from 1-2 years out? What are all of the arguments for & against each side of the argument?
- Other