Video Game Investors, In recent years, video games have become much more than just a form of entertainment. The gaming industry has ignited the start of greatness and is set up for amazing growth over the upcoming decade.
Game publishers have explored new ways to sell their products, venture outside of console-based gaming, and give players an entire experience that engages them for hours on end.
A massive surge in investment has happened over the past few years because the writing is on the wall – there’s enormous growth potential, and it’s only getting started.
Here are some major trends that will continue to impact game investors in upcoming years.
1. Mobile spending will increase by 12.6%
Several statistics reveal that mobile gaming has been growing exponentially and will continue to grow at a fast pace as more consumers continue to gravitate toward mobile gaming.
As per GamesIndustry.Biz, mobile spending increased by 12.6% in 2021 year-on-year between Google Play and the iOS App Store.
It was a 9.9% increase from the previous year in the iOS App Store and a 16.6% increase for Google Play.
However, in spite of the increase in mobile spending, total in-app spending decreased in terms of percentage across the board. The total in-app spending was 67.4% in 2021, as compared to 71.7% in 2020.
The steady rise in mobile gaming can be attributed to the fact that gamers no longer need to wait for the latest console. Instead, they can download any game they want to play later and enjoy it at school or at home on their smartphones.
2. Subscription gaming will be competitive
Video game investors are taking note of the rise in subscription-based gaming. Over the next few years, investors will be watching closely to see how another segment within the gaming industry, subscription-based gaming, grows.
If you look at video game companies like Nintendo, it has already started strengthening its Switch Online subscription, and subscription gaming is serving as a delivery system for services like cloud gaming.
Sony also has plans to launch its own Game Pass competitor, Apple offers Arcade subscription for premium mobile gamers, and Nvidia and Amazon provide monthly subscriptions for cloud gaming products.
There are many games that don’t require WiFi to play. One example is the game “Angry Birds.” Another example is the game “Super Mario Run. It’s a good idea to download free Android games without WiFi or no internet. You can also download offline games that are meant to be played without an internet connection.
3. GPU prices are coming down
Owing to the global shortage of graphics cards for gaming in 2021, it was difficult for gamers to get hold of one at a fair price. However, GPU prices are coming down in 2022.
The sales declined for Nvidia GeForce RTX 30-series cards such as the RTX 3090 to 185% of their retail price in early January and are currently down to 177%.
Also, AMD prices dropped to 178% and then again to 167% of the Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price.
4. Apple and Google will partly open their closed app store ecosystems
Apple and Google are notorious for keeping their app store ecosystems closed. They vet every app before they let it in.
However, owing to fallout from the Epic vs. Apple lawsuit, it is anticipated that Google and Apple will open up their ecosystems.
Regardless of the impending new restrictions on anti-steering, Apple maintains it can still gather payments made by third parties outside of its App Store.
And since Japan has also imposed restrictions on anti-steering, Apple is going to let publishers get in touch with app users through email in case users accept such permissions.
All these imply that Google and Apple will open up their ecosystems to customers and publishers to some extent.
5. Game IP (Intellectual Property) value increases
There is a quiet, albeit fast-growing, trend involving what is known as Intellectual Property (IP) – which is basically everything that can be protected and owned (patents, trademarks, copyright, etc.). This can include game titles and also the characters within them.
And thanks to several excellent, commercially successful video adaptations, publishers are putting more effort into making new game-related IP and crossing game IP into different media.
For instance, League of Legends’ Jinx came to PUBG Mobile and Fortnite, thus promoting Netflix’s Arcane to the fans of these games.
Also, Horizon’s Aloy came to Fall Guys, Genshin Impact, and Fortnite, displaying the IP of a single-player game to multiplayer live-service games fans.
6. Gaming will be the biggest metaverse trend
Imagine you can interact and communicate with anyone in a virtual world. Or you can play any game, work, meet with friends, and buy anything you want without leaving your house.
All of this is the metaverse, in a nutshell. The top three metaverse tokens, Axie Infinity, the Sandbox, and Decentraland, by market capitalization, are all related to gaming.
As per the CEO and founder of crypto market analysis firm Santiment, Maksim Balashevich, gaming will undoubtedly remain the dominant trend in the metaverse sub-sector.
Wrapping up
So, these were some of the top video game trends that video game investors should look out for.
From the dawn of the gaming age, video games have been nothing more than a source of entertainment for millions of people. But in recent years, the world has seen a shift from merely playing to actively investing in the industry.
For investors, this has led to major growth and made great opportunities for those willing to buy stock for major game publishers.
Read more: Five Top-Rated Mobile Games for Smartphones
