Gaming industry: structure and development prospects. The market of game industry

The gaming industry has undergone significant changes over the past 5-10 years. This is due to many far from trivial factors. This will be discussed in the article.

Trends

According to the world's leading analysts, the game industry market is undergoing changes. The revenue from computer games is estimated at tens of billions of US dollars. However, the information varies depending on the sources of information. Obviously, the vast majority of the market was captured by video games. Social games are given less attention.

However, in view of the demographic and age nuances among players from different countries, the popularity of video games and the demand for game consoles are expected to decline.

It is believed that avid gamers who prefer traditional video games on disk media are people aged 15 to 40 years. And also, the shift in economic priorities as a whole should be taken into account. In other words, not everyone has the opportunity to purchase a powerful computer that meets the requirements of a new game (such as "The Witcher 3" or Mass Effect: Andromeda), so the balance is smoothly shifted towards social games, accessed through social networks. Either the preference is given by a mobile application based on Android or iOS. And these games are very different from traditional ones.

Accordingly, the gaming industry is seeing a smooth decline in revenue from video games and an increase in that from mobile applications. If video games only bring developers finance at the point of sale (no matter whether it's about tangible stores or how to implement them via electronic platforms), then gaming applications have monetized content, which contributes to more dynamic capital growth.

Analytics

The modern game industry in many ways exceeds the musical one. Compare this only with the film and television industry. Nevertheless, due to changes in the demand for games, many technologies for the analysis of the project are being developed. Speech, of course, is about social games, as well as online games, which bring a more dynamic income due to detailed monetization of aspects of the project. In the case of classic video games, only the volume of sales can be analyzed.

Elements to be analyzed:

• DAU and MAU - the number of users per day and month, respectively;
• Ratio of one indicator to another: DAU / MAU;
• Degree of involvement - reflects the amount of time a player spends in the project;
• Coefficient K - reflects the average increase in the number of players in the game; Something like the "degree of insanity" on the game world;
• ARPU - the average amount of money a person puts into the game;
• LTV - the value of a particular player, depending on the overall finances invested in the game project, attracting friends via referral links, participating in the life of the project (actions, contests, events), as well as actions outside the game for the purpose of advertising the project.

Monetization

The future of the gaming industry boils down to studying the patterns of behavior of players of a particular project, studying their involvement, as well as the propensity to click on advertisements or in-game tips that help master the mechanics of the project.

Based on the data obtained, business models are compiled:

1. The income due to the subscription fee by the player. That is, the right to enjoy the gameplay is paid. An example is WELDER on iOS.
2. Ordinary game with Donat. That is, customers are investing real money to purchase goods inside the game that contribute to the pumping of the character, winning battles and more comfortable gameplay. There are a lot of such games. The introduced "real" is "a pass to the big leagues". From developers it is only necessary to observe the delicate balance between donates and ordinary players. In projects where there is an irresistible gap between the two groups, people do not stay long.
3. Monetization in the form of in-game advertising. Here, too, everything is simple: when an action is announced, a banner is displayed on the screen. An example is the "Mysterious House", distributed through the social network "VKontakte".

The market of the game industry is crowded with companies offering mixed versions of business models for the development of gaming projects. And also the mechanisms of external advertising to attract new gamers.

Let the computer game industry develop by leaps and bounds, but the sphere of game analytics is still in its infancy. Not fully implemented the whole kaleidoscope of mechanisms that take into account the individual gaming needs of each internal customer. And technologies based on the principles of working with relational databases are not designed to store exabytes of information, and certainly are not adapted to work with such a volume of data. This amount of information is provided by the number of actions that are committed by the player.

It is necessary to implement NoSQL technologies, the methods of which differ from traditional DBMS.

Online Casino

Another aspect of the gaming industry, which involves entering money into the game. Often when watching the series on any site, you can hear the advertisement of the next virtual casino - slot machines, free of charge offering to play. It's about "frisin" - free attempts to rotate the game drum, not providing reinforcement attempts any monetary iteration. In case of a win, the balance is replenished for a certain amount.

As a rule, the number of "spins" is strictly limited. The principles and mechanisms for building a business model are the same as for any "one-armed bandits" in real life. They are simply called in reality differently - slot machines. Free to win something in them rarely from whom it turns out. Nevertheless, the income from such resources is rather big.

The game industry in Russia on the example of Mail.ru

This company is in the RF is not the last place in the development of this market sphere. For example, "Maylovtsy" contributed to the debunking of the myth that computer games are the lot of antisocial people and do not fall under the criteria of "serious pastime".

Annually conducted by the company Mail.ru Group research in the field of game space analytics found that the average age of the Russian gamer is 27-29 years. Particularly difficult for the company was 2015, when a lot of players left the segment of social gaming applications (previously seen growth was about 20% compared to 2014), but a number of releases of online games saved the situation: the Armata project, Black Desert, SkyForge . And also known to all cult online shooter called Warface.

According to statistics for 2016, mobile games by popularity and volume of income are almost equal to social ones, according to the head of the IT-Territory studio Vasily Maguryan.

Printed editions

Interactive entertainment is not the only component of the industry. Here still carry printed editions. Gaming magazines, designed to cover the events of the gaming world, talk about events timed for the release of a new project, are an integral part of this area.

The most famous printed publication in Russia is the magazine Igromania, published since September 1997. Popularity owes colorful covers, posters, as well as a way of submitting material - written in plain language, understandable to a wide range of fans of video games. The circulation totals 180 000 copies.

Game magazines are devoted not only to games, but also to computers in general: hardware, programming, databases, the Internet, technologies and software. An example of such a publication is the slightly less famous magazine "The Hacker" - it has been printed since 1999, the circulation has already exceeded 220,000 copies.

Career in the field of games

The dream of any experienced gamer (bordering on easy insanity) is to work in a company that supports your favorite game. In principle, it is not difficult. Depends only on a number of circumstances: education, the desire to work and develop in this direction, the presence of the company in the city, as well as vacancies. Of course, this is an online game. Possible occupations in the gaming industry are lower.

The programmer . Naturally, the name speaks for itself. The development of the game is a lot of hours of writing flamboyant script commands, correcting the broken codes and (the most terrible) digging in someone else's code to identify the error. A programmer must be able to write in many languages. The profession is universal and highly regarded. But the game industry does not allocate much money for its internal IT component. Therefore, if you are interested in money, it is better to go to IT outsourcing, rather than to develop games. Or at all to trade in gas.

The artist . Another indispensable component of the industry. But there are more difficulties than the programmer. If the style of drawing does not converge with corporate and gaming, the applicant will quickly be refused. All because of the fact that it is difficult to describe exactly what requirements must be presented to the job seeker when creating a job.

If you lack the abilities of both a programmer and an artist, but it attracts work in the gaming industry, you can try your hand at the role of community manager . It is necessary to know the game well, to participate in the life of the gaming community, and also to find the office of the gaming company in the city.

If you succeed, you can grow up to the producer . These grow most often from KM-s. Requirements for the candidate are simple, but severe: adequacy, responsibility and common sense. At the same time, the producer, like the game designer, is something like a jack of all trades: a little marketer, a little community and not only.

Actually a game designer. This becomes most difficult due to a number of duties that can not be entrusted to an ordinary "person from the street". The man of this profession thinks out the game mechanics, simulates the whole geometry of the levels, develops paths of movement in the terrain, and not only generates ideas on which a game will be created. If there is interest in this specialty, it is recommended to first try yourself in the field of modmeykerstva. Fortunately, the game industry is very rich. There are even a lot of mod-sites, where everyone can try their hand (Portal 2, Unity, RPG-maker).

More options

If an IMO project is implemented, the need arises in positions such as PR specialists, marketers, support services, testers. Each profession has its own functions. If at the dawn of online games one department often performed several functions, then with the development of the gaming industry, this phenomenon began to occur less and less.

PR specialists and marketers. There are people who are able to briefly and clearly convey information to the interlocutor, to interest him in something. At the interview, they usually give out a test task: to offer a number of diametrically opposite business process options that can provide a high number of registered users in the project with a very small budget of the gaming company.

Service Support or technical support . Typically, you need knowledge of the PC, some aspects of the work of the company, in which there is a desire to get settled, and features of the gaming industry. And also the ability to convey information to the client. Most often this post implies interaction with conflicting clients, so literacy and stress resistance will be a big plus.

A little bit about online games

The game industry is the same business as cinema, tourism or music. Such aspects as the development of classic video games on CDs do not go against online, social games or mobile applications.

Differences are obvious: interactive entertainment in the form of browser-based online games means the infusion of money resources from the player to enhance the level of skill, elevation over other players. Such games can not "go through". They are eternal, prolonged, they require you to devote a certain time each day to the passage of daily tasks. And also several times a week there are some competitions between players (clans) for the right to have a certain prize.

Video games can be passed, they have a clear formed storyline (in contrast to the above) and do not require strict periodicity of online presence.

Often the player does not understand that the online project is created primarily for the earnings of the developers themselves, and not for the person to be able to play comfortably and do whatever it pleases. Failure to understand the basics of this business model leads to a negative attitude towards the developers, rumors that the project has rolled down and will close soon. However, they do not rush to fold. Updates go one after another, and the absence of a player for a long time leads to the fact that the character becomes weaker than others. When the negative has passed, the person decides everything back to the game and discovers that he missed a lot, the character is not as strong as before. This again gives rise to the negative and the thought that the game has slipped. An example is the RiotZone project from the above-mentioned company Mail.ru Group.

If you do not understand the above elementary things, it's better to use classic video games on PC in order to have a good time.

cybersport

The future of the gaming industry will definitely bring success to companies that have taken their niche in the global market. Nowadays gamers have already left the image of a typical homebody with an antisocial way of life. Many participate in the gaming championships, receiving real monetary rewards. Examples of this are Championships on Warface, Dota 2 and Hearthstone.

Games as such have ceased to be perceived as something unserious. Remained in the past, such stereotypes as "games generate maniaks" or "just wasted time." The industry has developed into a full-fledged conscious business.

In addition, Russia was the first of the countries where the concept of eSports was recognized. This happened back in 2001. And in 2017 the term was finally recorded and entered into the register on a par with other sports like football, hockey or basketball. That is, now on the territory of the Russian Federation, e-sports competitions can also be held. Winners can even be awarded an appropriate grade in this discipline.

In a match, games in which an element of surprise is provided can not participate. The most colorful and spectacular competitions were held around the world in the period from 2000 to 2013 in the framework of games such as Warcraft 3 and StarCraft. The team or single player who scored the most points in the final battle won the game.

Conclusion

In the end, it should be said that the gaming industry has a huge potential for development and is rapidly marching towards a great bright future. Studio-developers and their branches grow like mushrooms after a rain, occupying all new territories.

An example of this is the international company Plarium, which has branches in Israel, Ukraine, the United States, Great Britain. A relatively recently opened office in Russia in the city of Krasnodar. The company develops both online games and mobile applications.

And there are many such companies. Games are published almost every year. One is more colorful than the other. Once the idea of having your own PC seemed like a dream, now there is one in every family. Technical progress does not stand still, every new game that is released exceeds the previous one in terms of its graphic, technical and functional characteristics.

Because inveterate gamers have to save money for more powerful computers that meet the system requirements of projects such as "The Witcher 3" or Mass Effect: Andromeda. Playing on the minimals is very few people want, because in this mode it is difficult to enjoy beautiful landscapes and dizzying fights in the dynamic world of the game.

Naturally, the owners of powerful computers do not think about and just set the settings to the maximum, getting ready for the game space. This factor also ensures the development of the gaming industry, albeit very indirectly. It's like a wheel: cool games come out - powerful computers are bought, the specified PCs are bought - games with higher system requirements are released.

As it was said above, the computer games industry is developing rapidly, technical progress does not stand still. And everything is done so that everyone can enjoy spending time in their favorite game.