Here, Edge investigates the 20 biggest challenges facing the game industry, and how they might be overcome.

They include the obstacles we face in the changing ways games are made, marketed and sold. Also, the shifting profile of consumers, new competitors and strange technologies.

Gaming is a business that has always been able to claim a good record in the face of change and yet, never quite good enough. Again and again, the business has been stumped by events that were sometimes predictable, though often not.

These are the 20 issues we think the game industry must, most urgently, meet in battle. But we welcome your additions in our comments session. The list is presented in alphabetical order.

Digital Distribution

Revenues from full-games digitally distributed have increased so much that entire companies are now building their strategies around non-retail futures.

There was a time when this prospect pleased publishers and developers mightily; they imagined a world without grasping retailers and their avaricious ways. 

However, with rare exceptions, there are few makers of games that are able to invest in the infrastructure necessary to retail games direct-to-consumers; ultimately, someone is always going to be a go-between. The music industry has shown us that the go-between can be just as inflexible on margins as bricks-and-mortar, and, in developing markets dominated by few players, often more so.

The go-betweens in the game space are often hardware manufacturers, offering not more power to third parties, but less.

Thus far, console manufacturers have done their best to create market-conditions that are good for consumers and publishers, but it’s inevitable that, should any player come to dominate the market, greater share will go to the distributor than to the creator.

All this assumes steady growth in digital distribution and a stately procession towards market-maturity; an outcome that seems fanciful at best.

The best publishers can hope for or encourage is a period of innovation and fierce competition which brings a variety of compelling, slick offerings to market, keeps any monstrous monopoly at bay, while avoiding a descent into chaos.

Meanwhile, they should embrace the dominant players, while staying open to newcomers and technology-innovators.

And, of course, they must continue to seek ways to monetize their current games through additional sales downloadable items; constantly offering value and innovation, testing the market with new ideas and business models.

Emerging Markets

In massive population areas such as China, Indonesia, India and Brazil, income is increasing rapidly, demand for entertainment is on the rise and demographics are young.

There isn’t a single executive in the game industry who is unaware of this fact. However, these markets represent enormous challenges. They are usually bureaucratic in nature, and difficult to penetrate, although that is changing for the better. They are always blighted by piracy. Their economies are unstable and erratic. Worse, non-Western consumers display an inconvenient taste for products that adhere to local cultures familiar and dear to them; these markets do not fit the homogeneity of the U.S / Western European capitalist ideal.

They go their own way. Chinese gamers, for example, play different games and display unfamiliar gamer habits. It is not practical to expect these markets to open up as new and large versions of Western markets. Even the largest operators in our business must invest heavily in local expertise in order to profit from these markets, and must do so with the full expectation of many mistakes and dead ends. Nevertheless, the right approach will yield results for open-minded and risk-prepared publishers.

The Entertainment Hub

The words ‘Holy Grail’ are a cliché when applied to such a concept as The Entertainment Hub. But what could be a more pertinent simile? Bold executives have spent years searching for a device that delivers all our entertainment needs, and have generally fell afoul of ogres and swamps. The idea has been derided as a fantasy.

And yet. Anyone with an Apple TV or even an Xbox 360 can see the benefits of a single device that offers downloadable entertainment content. It is not such a huge leap to imagine such a device  (or devices) offering a standard gaming architecture that offers downloadable interactive entertainment of a simplistic or even sophisticated nature. Why not?

Well, sure, there are plenty of reasons why not. But we live in an age of ubiquitous gaming devices, and living room entertainment portals will be added to the list soon enough. Question is, how big an impact will this Holy Grail have and will the industry, like Galahad, be ready to ascend?