HA3 - Task 4 - Industry And Market Trends

Each generation of gaming goes through it's own trends which then floods the market with a certain type of game or games that have similar aspects to them. The trends of this generation have both good and bad points with some trends being a positive on the community and further expanding the games industry while some cause a negative effect sending the games industry spiralling downwards.

Current Trends (2014):

The current trends at the moment are:

• Virtual Reality
• Free To Play
• E-Sports
• Mobile Apps
• Simulation Games
• Clones

Virtual Reality:

Virtual reality became extremely popular with the release of the Oculus rift which was a headset that allowed the player to become even more immersed with the game as this granted the ability for full 360 degrees of view left and right with 90 degrees up and down. This technology created a boom in the industry as you could make super realistic games from a fully first person experience. Games for this would even give some people motion sickness if there was a vehicle involved. The Oculus rift has had a very large positive impact on the games industry.      

Image Source: http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/14/oculus-rift-shares-developer-hardware-sales-data/

Free To Play (F2P):

However free to play games are creating a negative effect on the games industry as these companies are cheaply making games that they put on the store for free download which isn't the problem but the in-app purchases are the problem as they charge people money for an extra life, a new character or for better equipment. For example the game candy crush is free to play however to advance to the next stage you either have to wait 24 hours or pay to advance imminently. Also if you don't complete the level then you have the option to pay for more lives. This is happening because big companies see this as an easy way to make money and is turning the games industry into a negative thing.
Image Source: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.king.candycrushsaga

E-Sports:

E-Sports has become massively popular over the years with games such as League Of Legends and Counter-Strike: GO being two of the most watched and supported games. Companies like Twitch often stream these events when they are on with hundreds ad thousands of views. E-Sports has become good for advertising as teams are sponsored by big companies such as Razor and Monster and the main events are hugely invested in making the prize money a large sum. Some game developers often try to make their game perfect for E-Sports in the hope that it gets incredibly popular however nothing has yet taken League Of  Legends from the top spot. This is a positive as it is getting gaming recognized as a serious thing to millions of people however can have a negative effect by putting the community in a bad light with trash talk that gets out of hand (toxic community). 

 Image Source: http://driverlayer.com/img/lol%20esports/20/any

Mobile Apps:

Mobile games have always been around but have very recently become popular with game developers and customers due to the portability and addiction that they can cause. Game developers usually find it easier to create a cost effective mobile app rather than get too ambitious with a triple AAA title game that could put their company into the ground. It is also a lot quicker to create mobile apps which means that the same company could release a big amount of games in a small period of time that don't even have to be too different to each other. Mobile games are having a positive effect on the game industry as it gives people who are just starting out to get their games on the market for the public to download, play and review. Another advantage is that big named games are beginning to use mobile apps to support them such as Destiny with the Destiny Companion app were you can browse the forums and look at new, etc. However he negative only due to the free to play games/pay to win games.       

Image Source: http://www.gameinformer.com/blogs/members/b/will_sora_layton_blog/archive/2014/12/20/365-365-day-354-why-i-don-39-t-play-mobile-games.aspx

Simulation Games:

Simulation games became widely popular with the release of goat simulator and surgeon simulator which were both popular games due to things such as YouTube with many prominent youtubers playing these. Simulation games were entertaining at first and was good to see all the ideas that people would create. However these types of games soon became obnoxious when people would create games such as "Grass Simulator" and "Rock Simulator" just because that genre was popular so people like this would exploit this to just earn a bit of money.

Image Source: http://coffeestainstudios.com/games/goat-simulator  

Clones:

Creating clones of popular games has always been around but became popular with the game "Flappy Bird" being a extremely successful game which was also addictive and after being taken off the market many, many clones were created to try and steal the limelight and fame off the original game. This can have a negative effect on the games industry as it takes out the creativity side as you as just copying another game but changing a few factors which floods the industry with just essentially just one game.

Image Source: http://arcadesushi.com/best-flappy-bird-clones/