From a 8-bit palette and deeply throttled game models to life-like yet larger worlds, gaming has come a long way. The first Xbox when it was released back in 2001 was one of the biggest jumps in in-game technology. However, the advent of graphics and tech, as we have witnessed in the last few years, has been mind-numbing. The game worlds are no longer limited by polygons and texture restrictions are now generated on the fly by complex computations barely scratching the prowess of the machines and providing immersion that’s never been experienced before.
We have entered the golden age of gaming. India’s digital gaming has undergone exponential growth in recent years and is speculated that the growth momentum is likely to continue in the coming year as well. The industry has given rise to a massive influx of new gaming mediums. We have also witnessed a hike in international game developers and publishers coming to India to work with Indian companies and this drift will continue for the coming year as well.
Come 2022, what’s going to take this engagement/ immersion several steps ahead is “Metaverse”. In a metaverse gaming environment, individuals will have the chance to participate as never before. In fact, the future metaverse will probably feel like one’s inside the largest digital game ever made (something straight out of movies like Ready Player One). In addition to making gaming more immersive through a combination of AR and VR, the metaverse is poised to result in better engagement and monetization for games.
A key component of the metaverse market will be NFTs. This will allow players to legally reap the benefits from their participation in the success of a game. Additionally, assets used within the game world are designed as NFTs, having value among players, and can be sold for profits. With giants like Facebook (now Meta), Microsoft, and Epic Games jumping in, Metaverse is here to stay.
Another trend (more like a present reality) is mobile gaming, which has emerged as the strongest vertical in the gaming industry and mobile games are top sellers in app stores, dominating 3/4th revenue shares. Grabbing market share from big manufacturers is never easy for indies, however, the surge of mobile gaming has provided mom and pop shops easy distribution via the Google Play Store and Apple AppStore.
Coming to consoles and PC (mainstream gaming), there’s a massive push towards digital sales and integrating cloud for storage of the game data with easily accessible broadband connection across spheres.
Over and above, the gaming industry in India, and the world at large, is undergoing rapid development and widespread growth. We will see new genres of gaming to keep the engagement levels high, and live streaming of games will continue to be popular as it was last year – it is the multiplayer levels that keep the gamers engaged.
2022 looks as promising as the last year it was for the gaming sector and we can probably see some prominent trends in the gaming industry to rise by 2022 and beyond.
(This article has been contributed by Lakshya CEO Manvendra Shukul and AnimationXpress does not necessarily subscribe to these views)