GAMING

H O W TH E I N

T E R N E T HA S C

H A N G E D TH E

I ND U S T R Y

THE HISTORY OF VIDEO GAMES…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-Gdl5tj2Hs

GAMING INDUSTRY PRIOR TO THE INTERNETThe 1990s were a decade of marked innovation in video gaming. It was a decade of transition from raster graphics to 3D graphics and gave

rise to several genres of video games including first-person shooter, real-time strategy, and MMO.

Handheld gaming began to become more popular throughout the decade, thanks in part to the release of the Game Boy in 1989.

Arcade games experienced a resurgence in the early-to-mid-1990s, followed by a decline in the late 1990s as home consoles became more common.

Mobile phones began becoming video gaming platforms when Nokia installed Snake onto its line of mobile phones in 1997 . As the game gained popularity, every major phone brand offered "time killer games" that could be played in very short moments such as waiting for a bus.

Mobile phone games early on were limited by the modest size of the phone screens that were all monochrome and the very limited amount of memory and processing power on phones, as well as the drain on the battery

HOW THE INTERNET HAS CHANGED GAMINGThe internet has changed gaming in 10 main ways:

Online FAQs – players can ask questions and share answers quickly. It can give clues on how to complete games so players don’t get stuck and lose interest.

Microtransactions – small purchases online to allow further gaming/upgraded gaming. Piracy Explosion – internet allows pirated games to be shared between an unlimited amount of

people. Gaming News – internet has enabled gaming news to be constantly published; no longer have to

wait for monthly releases of news in magazines. Mod Communities – players who post videos of them gaming have becom very popular and have

also popularised certain games. Patching – problems in games are much easier to fix. However some argue that this has made

game developers lazy as its not as serious if bugs slip through. Multiplayer Fan Communities - fan communities spread the word about anticipated games and can be polled by

developers looking for fan reaction to various things during game development. Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives Persistent World Games - Online Multiplayer – online games make it more fun and interactive, can play with friends and

strangers.

THE INDUSTRY NOW…The industry’s biggest consumer market revenue streams in

2014 were Digital Console and PC (£1,048m, +18%, split between £573m for consoles and £475m for PC), Boxed Software (£935m, -6%), Consoles hardware (£915m, +46%, thanks to strong PS4 and Xbox One sales) and Mobile gaming (£548m, +21%)

The digital sales of games (£1.5bn) are bigger than the combined digital sales of video and music (£1.3bn)

http://ukie.org.uk/sites/default/files/cms/UK%20Games%20Industry%20Fact%20Sheet%2026%20January%202016.pdf

This shows that since the proliferation of the internet, gaming on PCs has become more popular, and even overtook console gaming in 2010.

EXTRA STATISTICS

This shows that since the proliferation of the internet, gaming as a whole has been increasing greatly due to the online gaming input.

STEAM- Steam is a multi-player platform developed by Valve Corporation- Used to distribute games and related media online. - Provides the user with installation and automatic management of software

across multiple computers- Entails community features: friends lists/groups, in-game voice and chat

functionality- As of September 2015, over 6,400 games are available through Steam- Steam has had as many as 12.5 million concurrent users as of November

2015- it was estimated by Screen Digest that 75% of games bought online are

downloaded through Steam in October 2013- 2015, users purchased titles through Steam or through Steam keys from

third-party vendors totalling around $3.5 billion representing 15% of the global PC game sales for the year

- In 2005, third-party games began to appear on Steam; Valve announced that Steam had become profitable, and although digital distribution could not yet match retail, profit margins for Valve and developers were far larger on Steam.

- Large developer-publishers, including id Software, Eidos Interactive and Capcom, began distributing their games on Steam in 2007.

- By May that year, 13 million accounts had been created on the service, and 150 games were for sale on the platform.

STEAM…This shows that Steam is a growing industry as the users are still increasing.It’s clear that accessing games online has become much more popular in recent years as there are more active users. This could cause an issue for companies selling disks and cartridges.

BENEFITSAudience

• Allows people to connect internationally for all sorts of games.

• Online games enable more players, so the game is more fun and interactive.• Prime social outlet.

• Easy to access game tips and tricks from others.

• Cheaper to download games.• No need to spend money on new

games as they can simply upgrade them.

• Tutorials are now available to help the audience get through games.

• Can build a career from playing the games.

Industry• Gaming companies found seemingly

limitless ways to entice them to buy things – enhances experience.

• Digital development enables ‘patching’ so fixing problems is quick and effective.

• Can provide upgrades rather than spending money on producing new disks.

• Can restrict some things on the game to encourage players to purchase things –

profits.• Internet provides 24/7 coverage of the

industry• Easy, free promotion via gamers who post

about the games. Some have millions of follows so reach a massive audience.

• Technological convergence enables games to be accessed on a range of applications

DISADVANTAGESAudience

• Purchasing the hardware and software can be very

expensive• Has been said that games

have a negative effect on the health of players, as

its not active and is played for hours.

• Due to interactive nature of video games players are

more vulnerable to the influence of others

Industry• Physical games more expensive, audience less

likely to buy it as they are usually available to

download online• The violent nature of some

games has led to bad publicity, as some blame the games influence for crimes -

could effect sales

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR GAMING?As the internet becomes a more prominent part of people’s

lives, gaming online will continue to grow meaning that (as seen on the graph on the left) the use of consoles and handhelds will continue to drop due to the growth in online and mobile gaming which has already begun to happen (graph on the right).

THE L

ONG TAIL T

HEORY

The Long Tail Theory shows how physical sales have lessened as more games are introduced because these are available online for download. The internet enables the availability of more titles, so consumers often go online for more variety. Therefore, there will be less physical sales, and more sales on digital distributors such as Steam.