Despite global economic setbacks in 2020 due to COVID-19, the gaming industry has seen significant revenue and profit growth. However, in a surprising move, the industry may be moving into uncharted territory with plans to include on-demand game rentals and subscription services using cloud systems.
Perhaps the most intriguing beneficiary of the COVID-19 situation is the gaming industry. As people started to spend more time at home, even the busiest amongst us have 30 minutes or more to kill zombies or play FIFA or Madden on their consoles, computers, or phones.
An Unexpected Future Direction of the Gaming Industry
For a long time, gaming analysts said that the future would be dominated by AR and VR — augmented and virtual realities. Maybe there is truth to it. Nevertheless, something completely different is trending currently — cloud gaming services.
Google, Nvidia, Microsoft, Sony, and many other companies already have working projects allowing you to launch state of art games even on old devices. You can rent a game with a per-minute charge or buy a subscription from a service, which is a revenue stream that proved effective on Apple and Netflix.
However, you may ask, “Won’t companies suffer from these services?” There is such a possibility. Therefore, IT giants do not actively promote gaming services, despite the fast development of the sector since 2013.
Taking into account the development rates of digital technologies, it is logical to assume that cloud gaming services can drastically reduce the sales volume of consoles for one thing, but streaming services, game development, and console manufacturing are controlled by the same companies who can select what sectors to promote.
Consequently, the gaming market may expand beyond this initial stage of development. Consumers have shown considerable interest in paying only a few dollars for a monthly subscription rather than a hefty sum for a console and its games.
Nvidia and AMD may become great supporters of such liberalization of the cloud gaming services because these companies are the industry leaders of graphics processors.
