Incremental Economics

The Evolution of Gaming

Jonny Cornish -

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