Move over PS4 and Xbox One, PC gaming is here to stay.
“One of the key points the report attempts to make is that the explosive growth of game video content and eSports is directly related to the free-to-play business model and running games as a service,” said Warman. “Post-launch marketing is crucial in getting people to spend more time with your game or game brand and ultimately to spend (more) money within the game. Not surprising, free-to-play titles are stimulate live game streaming and sharing of video content. At the same time, traditional companies like Nintendo are shunning free-to-play and preventing the sharing of video content by its gamers”
Riot has invested heavily in its video production group, hiring Emmy Award winning team members to capture the stories behind the players. The independent game publisher and developer has also invested millions in its eSports season, which gave away $8 million this year alone. While the company doesn’t make money directly off these initiatives, it does profit from the global online exposure and community that comes back to play the game.
“By 2016, PC free-to-play MMO games revenues will total $13.3 billion globally with a compound annual growth rate, or CAGR, of 19.4%.,” said Sander Bosman, Manager of Research at Newzoo. “Only smartphone and tablet gaming shows a comparable growth going forward. Mobile gaming will grow at an average annual rate of 19% for smartphones and 48% for tablets, grossing $13.9 billion and $10.0 billion in 2016 respectively. Combined, they will take a 27.8% share of the global market, up almost ten percentage points when compared to this year. Overall game revenues will grow at a CAGR of 6.7% to $86.1 billion by 2016.”
The number of gamers worldwide will rise from 1.21 billion this year to 1.55 billion; driven by PCs and the continued explosion of mobile gamers. When you look at the hardware of the latest smartphones and tablets, these devices truly are PCs in their own right. From a screen perspective, games played on the computer screen gross more revenues than games played on TV: $27.6 billion, or 39%, versus $25.4 billion, or 36%. Worldwide that is. The PC platform continues to shape trends and lead innovation in the industry in terms of game genres, free-to-play business models, eSports and video content.
There’s great growth potential with PC gaming, especially in countries where the cost of next gen, and even current gen, consoles is prohibitively expensive. Future growth within the games industry will be primarily driven by emerging markets, illustrated by the fact that 14.9% of the world’s population currently accounts for an astounding 73.6% of all gaming revenues. This population/revenue gap is expected to shrink over the coming years as the online population continues to grow within emerging markets, leading to an increase in active and paying gamers. PC gaming will follow this trend, with the largest growth expected in the Asia Pacific and Latin American regions.
