(Sources retrieve from http://www.slideshare.net/Eth0s/video-game-industry-trends)
Just for gaming, people in the world even line up just right before the game launch in order to be the first to get the game that they have been waited for years. Below is a short video where people line up early in the morning just to get the game "Call of Duty : Modern Warefare 3".
Brief History
Video game industry starts as early as in 1970s. In 1972, Atari a gaming company introduce the arcade game "Pong". Then the game "Space Invaders" is also created and is sell over 360,000 arcade cabinets in the world wide and by 1982 the game generates 2 Billion revenue. The success of the Atari 2600 in turn revived the home video game market during the second generation of consoles, up until the North American video game crash of 1983 where a few gaming company went into bankrupt and crash the gaming industry. However by the end of 1970 as personal computer industry started to form, gaming industry grew along with the computer industry as well. In 1980s, he arcade video game industry would continue to generate an annual revenue of $5 billion in quarters through to 1985. The most successful game of this era was Namco's "Pac-Man", released in 1980, which would go on to sell over 350,000 cabinets, and within a year, generate a revenue of more than $1 billion in quarters; in total, "Pac-Man" is estimated to have grossed over 10 billion quarters ($2.5 billion) during the 20th century.
In the 1990s the significant advancements in game related technology were:-
- The widespread adoption of CD-based storage and software distribution
- Widespread adoption of GUI-based operating systems, such as the series of Amiga OS, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS
- Advancement in 3D graphics technology, as 3D graphic cards became widely adopted, with 3D graphics now the de facto standard for video game visual presentation
- Continuing advancement of CPU speed and sophistication
- Miniaturisation of hardware, and mobile phones, which enabled mobile gaming
- The emergence of the internet, which in the latter part of the decade enabled online co-operative play and competitive gaming.
Gaming Statistic and Trend
Gaming is not only just for entertainment but also will affect people's life. In Stephen's (2010) report, he mentioned that:-
- The U.S. computer and video game software publishing industry directly employs more than 32,000 people in 34 states.
- In 2009, these employees received total compensation of $2.9 billion.
- The total U.S. employment, both direct and indirect, that depends on game software now exceeds 120,000.
- For the four-year period 2005 through 2009, direct employment in the U.S. computer and video game software publishing industry grew at an annual rate of 8.65%.
- The U.S. computer and video game software industry’s value added to U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was $4.9 billion.
- The real annual growth rate of the U.S. computer and video game software industry was 10.6% for the period 2005-2009 and 16.7% for the period 2005-2008.
Below is a table regarding to Computer and Video Games sales from 2005-2009
Gaming industry is not only affect the employment in USA but also in New Zealand as well. According to my research, NZ gaming industry also boost it's employment numbers.
"At the AnimFX conference in Wellington this week, a survey of 21 game studios on their staff numbers was released by the NZGDA(New Zealand Game Developers Association). In the 12 months to September 2011, 114 game development jobs were created, boosting total employment numbers to 359 full time employees." (Sarah and Siobhan, 2011)
From the statistic and also the research I've made, it could see that game industry has earn far more than Hollywood movies.
Current Trends
Some claims that gaming industry is dying, however in my opinion I don't think that would be the case. With the evolution of the gaming consoles from Play Station (PS) to PS2, PS3,Play Station Portable (PSP) to PS Vita (PSP 2), while there's XBOX 360 and Wii gaming consoles; more gaming consoles has been develop and same goes with the personal computer as well. Advancement in 3D graphics and better performance of the Computer also assist in gaming industry where game developers create games that are far more interesting than ever before. Below are some pictures of the development of a certain game.
From the picture above, we can clearly see that the graphics improvement of the game. However, gaming consoles such as XBOX 360 and Play Station 3 has also develop a better gaming experience in order to overcome the Computer Gaming Industry. XBOX 360 introduce "Kinect" in 2010 where player gets to play game by interact with the gaming consoles without having any gaming controller but with just movement of the body. There is a camera and a motion sensor device that will detects the movement of the player standing in front of the device.
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| The Xbox 360 Kinect that allow the player to play a game by body movement. |
In the same year, Play Station introduce PlayStation Move where player interacts with the console by using a wireless controller wand. The device will sense the position of the controller wand and input into the game.
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| The position of the controller wand will let the console to imagine the player is holding the bow and arrow. |
Future Gaming Trend
With the introduction of 3D TV, Gaming industry is again bring up to another level. Players get to play game by experiencing 3D images from 3D TV. According to Tara (2010), 3D will be a major advancement for gaming, spurring new games, devices, and products to keep this area of entertainment thriving. The Nintendo 3DS will join Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 in the 3D gaming trend.Most of the 3D gaming require a special glass in order to view the graphic in 3D while what excited the gaming Fans the most is playing the game without the need of the 3D glasses. However, 3D gaming experience is currently not the most favourable for the players as the gaming will cause the player to be confuse and cause dizziness on first few attempts.
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| Future gaming will let players to play games in a 3-Dimensional. |
Improvement of the 3D technolog in gaming will achieve in the next few years where 3D glasses are no longer be needed and 3D images will be able to project out from the screen or monitor.
According to IGN gaming, future trend of gaming could also be where player could play game with only high technology of motion sensor such as using the Future motion sensor device "LEAP".
LEAP is a future concept device that could reach 200times accuracy of the motion of a person. It's not only use in gaming but as well as interact with the laptop as well. It’s more accurate than a mouse, as reliable as a keyboard and more sensitive than a touchscreen and people can control a computer, laptop or even gaming consoles in three dimensions with their natural hand and finger movements.
Future gaming is getting more advance where it will out pass our imaginary or even is what we imagine during our childhood. As for my own imagination, in future we might be able to play games and interact with people just like in the movie "Matrix" where we could wear a gaming visor and enter the whole new gaming world.
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