The year 2021 was the finest for gaming in decades thanks to COVID. To keep from going crazy after the pandemic took us all home in 2020, we had to come up with ways to amuse ourselves. As a result, several of us began playing video games all night long. With the influx of hundreds of new gaming streamers and content producers in 2021, the online gaming community grew even larger and more significant. Many people have discovered that playing online games with their friends is a fantastic way to remain in touch and have fun while at home. In 2021, technology became a vital part of our daily existence since we had to figure out how to communicate and work from home. During COVID, playing video games became an opportunity to relax and have fun. Most of these new trends originated in the communication technology and gaming sectors, which worked to find methods to evolve in a way that made our lives easier.
Even by today’s standards, 2021 was a fantastic year for the gaming sector. The video game industry was estimated to be worth a staggering $198.40 billion in 2021, but the majority of analysts believe there is still a tonne of room for expansion. By 2027, the gaming business is anticipated to be worth $339.95 billion in total, as per Mordor Intelligence.
To put this in context, the compound annual growth rate from 2022 to 2027 is 8.94%. Developers and publishers must be aware of the gaming trends reshaping the market to take advantage of the enormous expected growth shortly. Let’s take a deeper look at a few of the most prominent game trends that are already in motion or that will be in 2022.
When it first came out in 2016, Pokémon Go! was a great hit, attracting thousands of players from all over the world. The Pokémon firm typically sticks to the same formula for its games. Nevertheless, they succeeded with both Pokémon Go! and Pokémon Legends: Arceus that year. Was it the success of the Pokémon brand or the application of augmented reality that attracted so many players, both old and new, to this game? Maybe it was a mix of the two. As the name suggests, augmented reality uses technology to enlarge the real world. To bring gaming into everyone’s homes and daily life, numerous companies in the gaming industry are now investing in augmented reality concepts.
VR transports the player into the gaming world, as opposed to augmented reality, which brings games into the player’s reality. Gaming in virtual reality has been around for a while, but it just had a significant resurgence. Since so many businesses outside the gambling sector are placing bets on this technology, it appears to be here to stay. Even though Tim Sweeney and Mark Zuckerberg predicted the metaverse would not exist for many years, their businesses’ seeds started to grow in 2022. Companies all across the world have understood that physical proximity is not necessary for cooperation and communication. The use of virtual reality games allows team members to interact and get to know one another. VR headsets are already planned for release by several technology companies, including Meta’s Cambria, Apple’s VR headset, Sony’s PS VR 2, and Apple. Even some, like the Oculus Rift, are already available on the market. Virtual reality gaming is already a reality and will continue to be so.
When people say they got into gaming during COVID, they don’t simply mean they started playing online games; many people also started showing an interest in game production. We started searching for ways to amuse ourselves and ways to use that time productively, such as learning new talents and creating our things, as a result of spending so much time at home. For this reason, a lot of people began enrolling in online courses to learn more about the video game industry. Some businesses used this as an opportunity to provide simple software that anyone may use to create video games at home. Roblox is a platform where you can design and program your games and share them for other people to play; you can also play games created by other users. These factors contributed to Roblox’s rise in user popularity. The video game business is aware of this and wants to participate in how technology is enhancing people’s lives. The video game industry is betting on this trend by creating games that assist users in creating their games. People want to create their goods and profit from them, for as by making and selling video game merchandise.
It’s not new for gamers to earn money by streaming their gameplay on Twitch; the practice has been gaining popularity for years. Player-to-player trading has, however, been a new layer added to the online gaming business model since the introduction of NFTs. The video game business is open to collaboration with the crypto community. Even though a sizable percentage of the gaming community has rejected them, play-to-earn games are already widely available in digital marketplaces. To safeguard the community, the video game industry is looking for ways to outlaw this. Player-to-player trading appears to be popular among gamers, therefore this might appear in games soon.
A few years ago, it seemed like any attempt to adapt a video game for cinema or television would fail; today, we can see that’s not the case. We can see that video games can succeed in a TV format because of the two successful seasons of Netflix’s adaptations of The Witcher and Arcane (the League of Legends series). Both Detective Pikachu and Sonic the Hedgehog showed that video games can also be movies. Illumination is producing an animated Mario Bros movie with a huge cast that will be released later this year, along with the Sonic sequel. However, this trend in gaming doesn’t end there. Crossover appearances by video game characters help to promote their properties. Jix from League of Legends as well as Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine made appearances in Fortnite last year to promote the Resident Evil movie and Arcane, respectively. To advertise the new Horizon game, Alloy made appearances in Genshin Impact, Fortnite, and Fall Guys. Due to the endless Fortnite crossovers, Nathan Drake also appeared in the Uncharted movie campaign. Fans love to see their favourite characters everywhere, thus in 2022 gaming and in the years to come, we can anticipate seeing more crossovers and movie adaptations.
Nintendo has been a pioneer in the video game business when it comes to mobile gaming, although it is not currently seen as a trendsetter. Through Pokemon Go! Nintendo is producing a hit mobile game after another, from Mario Kart World Tour to Pokemon Unite right now. Given that practically everyone in the world has access to a smartphone, it makes sense to wonder why the gaming industry is focusing on mobile. On the other side, Steam will launch Steam Deck to give PC gamers portability (and PC games to the handheld console audience). So it appears that portability and mobility are increasingly prevalent in 2022 video games.
Video games have become a major form of popular entertainment. The video game business has discovered a method to connect with young people and show them the value of being unique. In recent years, AAA games have featured major characters with a variety of racial backgrounds, body types, and sexual orientations. From The Last of Us: Part 2’s protagonist and antagonist to Overwatch’s diverse cast of characters. We can anticipate seeing more of these characters in popular games who assist to combat racism, homophobia, xenophobia, and other forms of hatred by normalising differences.
Due to the increased interest in game development, the gaming industry has made it simpler for everyone to sell their works and has aided them in reaching their target markets by removing obstacles. The independent game market is expanding, but it is also getting crowded. Too many options are available, which causes a daily influx of new products onto all channels. While it is simpler for developers to reach players, it is also more difficult for them to be noticed by them.
Amazon created the freeware Lumberyard cross-platform game engine, which is assisting developers in launching their businesses in the gaming sector. We might start to see more and more gamers making their games and Twitch-streaming them. The gaming community will be introduced to a whole new experience through an exchange of original works between gaming broadcasters who play one other’s unique productions and write evaluations for YouTube.
“Feeling First” is a game creation methodology that prioritises feelings when creating a video game. The gameplay, graphics, and narrative are dictated by emotions in this method, giving the video game industry a new way to operate. A startup called Funomena specialises in “feel engineering,” which involves making games with players’ feelings in mind.
Many individuals throughout the world began playing video games during COVID, bringing them into their daily lives. As more players invest time in creating their games, video games are no longer just a means of pleasure but also an expression of creativity. Fans who want to feel and experience reality in new ways in the games and who want to be represented in them are now influencing the direction that gaming will take. 2022 gaming started by surprising us and laying the groundwork for the near future of the video game industry. However, it is already clear that the future is promising. Get the finest of 2022 if you want it.