Video games continue to advance and inspire millions. Today we have an extremely strong competitive scene and more eSporst titles than ever. Moreover, there are lots of gaming IPs that have inspired successful TV shows Arcane, Last of Us, God of War, the Witcher etc. In other words, big studios are able to capitalize even more on their big IPs. Successful or unsuccessful ventures also dictate future trends. After all, business decisions are extremely data-driven, and this is why we can predict future trends.
Mobile Gaming Trends
The number of mobile users continues to increase. In the year 2021 116 billion dollars was spent on mobile games, and 100 billion was spent in the year before 2020. However, there are lots of categories in mobile gaming. The leading genre with over 20% of all downloads are puzzle games, and casino apps are at 19%. In other words, gambling plays a huge role in this market, and new operators continue to appear. You can easily find lots of mobile casinos UK providers and browse their games. The number of available slots is incredibly high and reaches thousands in some instances.
Strategies and RPGs are also dominating the mobile market, as they are right behind puzzles and casinos. But surprisingly enough, shooters that are heavily advertised aren’t as prevalent, and they barely go above 5%. So, we might see more adventure puzzles, new casinos, and new RPGs for mobile in 2023.
Uncertainty of Pay-To-Earn
P2E games have been a big buzzword for quite some time, but it seems that the hype train is slowing down. This model is incredibly hard to sustain, as developers mostly invest in funds or rewards for players rather than in meaningful gameplay. A lot of big promises were made for many of these titles, but it’s simply impossible to deliver on these promises.
This genre is usually closely tied to NFTs, and since this market is crashing the games are undoubtedly affected. Once players figure out this isn’t a viable get-rich-quick plan, they simply lose interest. Almost all P2E titles aren’t that good, and if the community decreases there’s just not a good reason to stay. Also, if external motivation is used to keep players engaged, then it’s doomed to fail the moment funds start to dwindle.
Entertainment and Gaming Growing Closer
As stated popular IPs in the gaming industry make for entertaining TV shows or movies. Although this wasn’t true in the past, some of the recent releases really changed this downward trend. There are many projects lined up thanks to the box office success of Sonic the Hedgehog, Warcraft, and Detective Pikachu. These aren’t masterpieces but are undoubtedly an improvement on previous movies inspired by video games.
Netflix is a perfect example of how games and TV shows are becoming closer. They have a whole mobile games section that continues to expand and uses these popular IPs. After all, the company is struggling to improve its revenue streams, and a ban on password sharing wasn’t received very well by the users. However, adding new entertainment options is definitely a step in the right direction. Bigger companies like Amazon are also trying to penetrate the gaming market, so it’s not a stretch to think Netflix might start to work on more demanding games.
What About VR?
Virtual reality is no longer a new concept, and it still didn’t take off. It’s somewhat similar to Xbox’s Kinect and Nintendo Wii which wanted to change how games are played. That being said, VR has a lot more potential, especially in education and in delivering other forms of content. So, what’s the problem? Well, user experience is still lacking, as there are only a handful of games that are enjoyable on VR. Luckily this number is steadily increasing, and a lot of SonyPlaystation players do own a headset.
Another reason for stagnation is a lack of investors, the equipment isn’t as accessible, and there isn’t any product that has made a huge success. Metaverse was promising to really make VR boom, but we are yet to see if they will live up to this promise. It’s also worth pointing out that gamers love to spend hours playing. Wearing a headset for such a long time is very uncomfortable. So, the design of the product needs to be adjusted as well. All things considered, this trend won’t die out in 2023. We will continue to get new VR titles, and hopefully, some of them will be a massive success.
Conclusion
To sum up, there aren’t going to be any big new trends in 2023. We will continue to get updates on popular eSports titles, and we will get new mobile games. Players are getting tired of certain IPs and hope that new releases will begin to dominate in certain genres. We will likely see a decline in the P2E sector, and maybe some innovation with VR.