Game Game Game
The gaming world has been going crazy, or rather the world has been going crazy over gaming.
Case and point : Fortnite
Fortnite has redefining gaming, it has managed to turn a nerd past-time of — spending a Friday night in-front of a computer/console into something cool. There are even dances and virtual parties ¹
Its been a big couple of years for gaming.
Apple is planning a game subscription service, Google is making some big announcement in gaming and there was that little issue of Pokemon GO.
Fortnite earned more digital revenue than any other game in 2018, according to SuperData’s latest report. Epic Games’ all-conquering battle royale title earned $2.4 billion last year
SuperData also cited Fortnite as a key factor in pushing digital games revenue up 11% to $109.8 billion across Mobile, PC and Console. Mobile was the lead digital games platform overall, with $61.3 billion of the market, followed by PC with $35.7 billion and Console with $12.7 billion ²
However, the biggest movement was in free-to-play console games, which generated 458% more revenue last year than in 2017.
SuperData again pointed to the Fortnite factor as an explanation for that huge growth.These are the top ten free-to-play games by revenue for 2018, according to SuperData:
- 1. Fortnite, Epic Games — $2.4 billion
- 2. Dungeon Fighter Online, Nexon — $1.5 billion
- 3. League of Legends, Riot Games, Tencent — $1.4 billion
- 4. Pokemon GO, Niantic — $1.3 billion
- 5. Crossfire, Neowiz Games — $1.3 billion
- 6. Honour of Kings, Tencent — $1.3 billion
- 7. Fate/Grand Order, Aniplex — $1.2 billion
- 8. Candy Crush Saga, King, Activision Blizzard — $1.1 billion
- 9. Monster Strike, Mixi — $1.0 billion
- 10. Clash Royale, Supercell, Tencent — $0.9 billion
If I where Google or Apple I would be watching this and thinking how can i get firmer foothold in on the gaming industry. A 458% Year On Year jump in revenue is no joke
The Top Grossing iOS app in 2017 was a game — Pokemon GO (over $2 billion)
War of the Consoles
My first console experience came when i was 7 years old and a friend of mine had just got a “Nintendo 64” for his birthday. The entire township gathered at his house on a daily basis, just to experience 5 minutes of pure gaming pleasure. Don’t get me wrong we had some form of exposure to gaming. We played Pac Man, Street fighter, Mortal Combat at the local Spaza shop’s Arcade machine, but constantly had to fork out money to do so and if there was a Arcade specialist then we all had to stand and wait and watch as he/she spent hours finishing the game.
The “Nintendo 64” changed all that and now you could restart a game whenever you wanted to without any coins.
Off-course we didn't have the original “Nintendo 64” but cheaper Chinese knockoff’s that would overheat and you would have to put outside to cool down. The games came in yellow or white cartridges and you could buy one that had a million games in one cartridge.
I remember the day i got a “Nintendo 64” and how i couldn't sleep and just stayed awake staring at it.
We used to call it a TV game and you would connect it to the TV via RF cables and tune into a certain UHF frequency to play the games.
Every parent complained that it ruins the TV….
Then came the Sega and if you had one of those you had either been very well behaved, belonged to the mafia or had friends in white places.
Brief History of Sega
The Sega Saturn was a 32-bit fifth-generation home video game console developed by Sega and released on November 22, 1994 in Japan, May 11, 1995 in North America, and July 8, 1995 in Europe. The successor to the successful Sega Genesis.
The Saturn was initially successful in Japan, but failed to sell in large numbers in the United States after its surprise May 1995 launch, four months before its scheduled release date. After the debut of the Nintendo 64 in late 1996, the Saturn rapidly lost market share in the U.S., where it was discontinued in 1998. Having sold 9.26 million units worldwide, the Saturn is considered a commercial failure ³
Sony PlayStation One
Then came Sony and the console game was never the same again.
A friend of mine, up the road, got a Sony PlayStation one and it was a game changer . Smooth graphics, no overheating, no cartridges and dare i say ‘sexy’.
I remember borrowing it from my friend and never bringing it back...
The PlayStation console was released on 3 December 1994 in Japan, 9 September 1995 in North America, 29 September 1995 in Europe, and 15 November 1995 in Australia. The console was the first of the PlayStation lineup of home video game consoles. It primarily competed with the Nintendo 64 and the Sega Saturn as part of the fifth generation of video game consoles.
The PlayStation is the first “computer entertainment platform” to ship 100 million units, which it had reached 9 years and 6 months after its initial launch. PlayStation went on sale in Japan on December 3, 1994, a week after the release of its rival Sega Saturn, at a price of ¥39,800. Sales in Japan began with a “stunning”success, with long lines in stores, and it sold 100,000 units on the first day, and then two million units after six months on the market ⁴
Sony had captured the market.
PC Gaming
When I started varsity i got my first proper PC(Personal Computer), I previously had a 486 and getting anything to run on that machine was a mission.
My new PC had a AMD chip and finally i could play PC games.
We had a Gaming community that gathered at the computer labs(to do assignments)and illegally played counter strike against each other, those are some of my best memories from varsity.
We then started playing Fifa 2005 and dare i say that Fifa 2005 and Need For Speed Underground 2 are the two best PC games ever made.
Many a varsity nights were spent playing these games, sometimes at the expense of semester tests and exams….
But there was one key problem - PC Games require constant hardware updates.
To play a game that was new on the market you needed the latest graphics card and/or processor. Now a new gaming laptop can cost anything from $2000 and above.
PC gaming was just not financially practical.
So I moved back to my console days and bought a Sony PS3.
It required no hardware updates and I could play as many PS3 compatible games as i wanted. I could even rent games and plus it played movies and I could store my music.
The PS3 was released by Sony in 2006 and has gone on to sell more than 83 million units globally. It is not as successful as the original PlayStation ,which sold more than 100 million units, but still holds its own. Interestingly the most successful console is the Sony PlayStation 2 which has sold more than 155 million units.
So where is the gaming market going? What are the tech giants planning…
What is clear is that there is a great opportunity in video game streaming, in-app payments and possibly subscription services
Gaming Video Content Streaming
When Twitch launched back in 2011, the company focused on e-sports and gaming. During the site’s launch, Twitch had close to 3.2 million unique visitors per month. In 2012, the site grew to 20 million visitors per month, and by 2014, tech giants Amazon and Google both tried to acquire the site ⁵
In 2016 Twitch had 100 million users and counting, with over 7.5 billion minutes of video watched.
Gaming video content (GVC) is the most important, and massive, new media platform since social media ⁶
YouTube Gaming
Back in 2014, tech giants Amazon and Google both tried to acquire the Twitch . Amazon ended up beating Google to it, acquiring Twitch for $970 million.
Google then went on to launch YouTube Gaming in 2015, they created a separate YouTube gaming App
YouTube boasts more than 200 million viewers for video game content every day and 50 billion hours of gaming videos watched in the last year(2018), but struggled to drive adoption of their YouTube gaming App and build the sort of of dedicated gaming communities seen on Twitch.
In case you were thinking that YouTube gaming has potential and just needs some time Spoiler alert — YouTube Gaming is now officially dead.
In a blog post, YouTube announced that it’s dedicated YouTube Gaming app will soon cease to exist. The app will officially be retired In March 2019. Google admitted that the separate app was a bust.
But not all is lost, YouTube gaming will be on the main YouTube site youtube.com/gaming
Major gaming events and individual content creators alike have chosen to partner with Twitch due to its monetization options and a larger focus on community interaction. Something Google keeps missing…
The infamous Quad play — Battle of the clouds
Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Amazon and the like are all gunning to get developers to host their games in their clouds. Its a race to the Quad play and Amazon and Microsoft are leading the pack.
Engine — Cloud —Gaming video content (GVC) Streaming — Console/AppStore
Amazon
- Engine — Amazon has Lumberyard its new game engine service for helping developers build games and host them with the AWS cloud
- Cloud — AWS cloud
- AppStore — Amazon app Store, Console — ???
- GVC Stream — Twitch
All Amazon needs is a console to complete the quad play.
Microsoft
- Engine — ?? ⁹
- Cloud — Azure
- AppStore — Windows App Store, Console — Xbox
- Stream — Mixer
Microsoft just needs a game engine where developers can build their games.
- Engine — ??
- Cloud — Google cloud
- AppStore — Google App Store, Console — ???
- Stream — YouTube Gaming / Project Stream
But Google has something else up its sleeves : Project Stream
Google has unveiled Project Stream, a test of a Chrome-based streaming service that aims to let players dive into triple-A caliber games while armed with only a web browser and powerful internet connection. ⁷
Google recently sent out mysterious invitations for a press event at GDC 2019, without giving any hints as to what it will be about. There are rumors that the keynote will feature both the Project Stream game streaming service and a console that will utilize it.
So which console could Google Unveil?
NVIDIA® has some strong console experience, NVIDIA® and Sony Computer Entertainment jointly developed “RSX,” the powerful graphics processor in the PLAYSTATION®3.
NVIDIA also have another console called the Shield
So NVIDIA® has been hiding this badboy, a streaming media player that also serves as a gaming console.
The NVIDIA-Powered Gaming -Stream games from your GeForce-powered PC to your TV in 4K HDR at 60 FPS. You can even get NVIDIA-powered cloud gaming on demand with GeForce NOW and explore SHIELD-exclusive Android games.
Best of all it supports SHOWMAX and DSTV Now
Google could just do a partnership with NVIDIA and launch a Google Stream console that could look very similar to the one above…
Doing that could allow Google to tick that all important Console box and complete a quad play for now.
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There is the small issue of the Fornite mobile app not being available on the big App stores but rather on the Fortnite website but more about that later
¹ — Fortnite Marshmellow concert
² — Fortnite tops the charts
³ — Rise of Saturn
⁴ —Rise of the PlayStation
⁵ — Amazon is twitching
⁶ — Gaming Video Content
⁷ — Full Steam ahead
⁸ — The Shield
⁹ — Microsoft does have Game Engine Visual Studio but this pales in comparison to Unity, Lumberyard or Unreal Engine
