New Platforms; New Consumers

The core game industry has usually been slow to fully appreciate new non-hardcore platforms. Again and again, we’ve seen outsiders understand what is necessary to drive these markets forward, whether it is in mobile games, serious games or in social networks.

The industry is also going through a very tough learning curve right now in keeping non-core gaming consumers happy. The business is learning to compete outside its own space, as consumers search around for novelty.

Potentially, the biggest challenge facing the game industry is selling more than one gaming experience a year to Wii owners, mobile gamers, Facebook members, social gamers etc.  These are not consumers who ‘become’ gamers, but consumers of mass entertainment who sometimes play games, if the right experience is sold to them.

The companies we currently view as ‘the game industry’ have no monopoly on the gaming time of casual consumers. Nor should they.

Game developers cannot afford to view each non-hardcore hit (say, SingStar or Guitar Hero) as evidence to imitate, but as evidence to innovate. Consumers, hardcore or otherwise, demand novelty.

Nurturing Talent

The game industry is enjoying a certain cachet as a hot business for bright young creative people. University courses dedicated to game and game creation are mushrooming.

But not all of them are as valuable to the game industry as might be hoped. Much work needs to be done to make sure graduates are able to meet the ever-changing demands of working in a fast-moving, technically challenging business.

The game industry also has a responsibility to reach out to all levels of education, to encourage youngsters to aim for a career in gaming; and get attain the relevant grades. This must embrace all areas of our culture. Demographically, the game industry does not accurately represent the population at large; nor even its consumer base.

Finally, the games business must make sure it remains an attractive career option with fair monetary compensation and an inspirational cultural and creative life.

Much work has been done in offering a better balance between life and work, but few game industry professionals work less than 40 hours a week.

Online Worlds

Social games animate children and adults alike. The ability to play with other people has a special resonance. Online worlds are being created at a rate that is, frankly, alarming to game producers.

They are often branded outside the game industry; related in some way to other entertainment media. This means that the onus to create profits is not so great on the producers that may be seeking to extend their brands for purely marketing purposes. Or they are maintained with advertising revenues.

Either way, as we have seen with the game industry’s own greatest online universe, World of Warcraft, such can entirely crowd out any other forms of play and must be viewed as serious competition, especially given the grip they have over today’s children.

These are games that the game industry must either create themselves, or learn go live with; even though, potentially, they offer the greatest threat.