The industry of video gaming has emerged as the one that is armed with every important thing to deal with the turbulence of the pandemic. This industry witnessed a skyrocketing escalation because consumers are confined at homes. The good thing is the video gaming industry is doing everything from its side to keep its customers engaged. Virtual concerts, celebrity influencer participation, and branded crossover events show no sign of the receding of this industry. People’s engagement with cheats, hacks and other goodies for Escape from Tarkov has been getting a new taste. This is powered by a willingness to play various free-to-play video games and of course, uninterrupted mobile connectivity.
As people are stuck at homes, their engagement with video game content and video games has increased manifold. And so it does not sound strange when people say that they remain engaged with mobile devices all day long. At this height of lockdown, 55 percent of the United States consumers were spending their time playing video games. These statistics become more impressive if you make a comparison with the reach of time-shifted and live television that remained restricted to 83 percent amongst the adults of the US.
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The Time Spent With Video Games
Today, people admit that they spend more time with different video games. In fact, these people have outspent on video games too. Towards the beginning of the year 2020, the earnings from the games were only 6 percent and it was before the pandemic took control over the lives of the US people. With the progression of the year, the game earnings doubled and it rose to 14 percent for the remaining part of the year 2020. The most important thing is consumers’ interaction with games has gone beyond playing these games directly. Numerous audience members prefer to watch video games habitually and this equation is the same as playing them.
Commonly, GVC (gaming video content) is popular with millennials and it is acknowledged as an online video content that deals with games. Though 71 percent of millennial gamers did report watching GVC last year the audience for GVC shot up to 1.2 billion from a meager 18 percent. And so, it generated above $9 billion in revenue. Twitch, a live streaming provider plays a huge role in advancing with GVC and it aided the battle royale platform.
Jumping into the Bandwagon
Some big tech companies have engaged themselves in seizing the moment of the success of video games and putting it to good use. Amazon, Google, and Apple are developing gaming products. Apple Arcade has evolved from the house of Apple. This is a game subscription service. After this, Google launched Stadia and it permits users to stream significant game titles from the Cloud directly in place of fussing with a physical console or downloads. In the year 2014, Amazon acquired Twitch and it is considered the highly popular platform where you can watch gamers playing games. This is rumored that it will very soon launch its game-streaming services. These newcomers will challenge some gaming mainstays, such as Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft for getting an impressive market share.
Mobile gaming too has been ranking impressively this year in comparison to last year. Some augmented reality and Virtual reality games are continuously climbing up in revenue. Culturally, it is assumed that gaming has managed to break the niche corners and they will become more mainstream with each passing day.
Artificial Intelligence in Video Games
AI or Artificial Intelligence describes the computer algorithms that permit machines to learn and think like humans. In a video game, AI would be able to teach for being unpredictable in a manner that human players will. They will discover ways in which they would outsmart human users.
Artificial Intelligence might also propose benefits in the process of game development. And so, game developers have been continuously experimenting with the process of using AI for forming games that evolve based on the feedback of the players. For instance, an algorithm of AI is capable of responding to the choices of players to automatically and fast develop novice characters, challenges, elements, and worlds in a game. And so, it can form challenges and levels that players can explore according to their wishes.
Virtual Reality in video games
People tend to confuse between VR and AR and so, they use these terms interchangeably. However, they propose different experiences to the players. Virtual Reality games immerse players in the worlds that the software has created utilizing hardware, like HTC, headsets, Facebook, PlayStation, and Google. AR games also include a digital layer and they superimpose graphics and video. The good thing is VR has a good future and an area that has the potential to grow is education. A few medical schools have begun to use superior quality VR applications for helping students in engaging themselves in many simulated surgical experiences but without risking their lives.
