What does the future actually look like for gamblers? I've put together some data for you to give you a rough idea of what to look forward to in the world of gaming.
In this article you will find the numbers on the demand for popular games, as well as forecasts from game developers.
Which concepts and technologies will prevail in the future? You will find out all of this now.
Game developer predictions
Here are the most exciting predictions for the future of gaming from an article by THE STANDARD.
Gregor Owner of Mi'pu'mi Games
Just as we already know from the film industry of the 80s, there will also be a refocusing in the gaming industry. The focus is on content and narrative. The latter describes the representation in narrative form.
In the course of this, the technology will be reduced. Stories should be more prominent in the future. This is intended to broaden the demographics of globally active players.
Surprisingly, new types of peripheral devices such as VR glasses will not have the desired or hoped-for status, since the physical medium is clearly being pushed into the background.
Peter Ehardt of Iron Mountain Interactive
In the various games, the social hub is becoming increasingly important. People are distancing themselves and spending more and more time playing games, alone or with friends.
As a result, interactions and communications in the games should take on simpler and more direct forms. The required hardware will become superfluous thanks to "cloud gaming", even if a little time will pass before then.
With these views far beyond the horizon, it makes sense to consider the future-oriented "quantum computing". The quantum processor defines a processor that works on the basis of quantum mechanics.
In the course of this, we can also look forward to “Augmented Reality”, i.e. the extended reality in the field of gaming. This will result in fantastic and exciting possibilities when it comes to interactions between players.
Rainer Angermann from Rarebyte
There is currently a clear trend towards “Games-as-a-Service”. We can therefore assume that large manufacturers will increasingly try to retain players.
Namely to their franchises, which can be realized in part through the manufacturer's own sales platforms and the resulting various possibilities.
This could mean that the manufacturers will no longer publish on Steam and will do everything they can to make larger profit margins. Indies are therefore likely to be left behind, as they will continue to struggle in the future to increase the visibility of the games.
Michael Putz from Bongfish
Augmented Reality will create a whole new category in gaming sometime in the near future. Meanwhile, the new generation of consoles rolling towards us will raise the bar.
At least in terms of graphic opulence and interaction. In the area of "mobile gaming", the "casual gamer market" is probably already saturated. Instead, "core games" are aiming for the mobile entry, which is proving to be possible thanks to new and powerful hardware.
Best example "Fortnite". In addition, the future of gaming envisages eliminating the boundaries between PC and console in the long term. New games can be played on all end devices.
A request for PC and console versions:
Reinhard Schmid from Orcari Games
E-sports will prevail. This is the Netflix model for games and its streaming options. In addition, in the future we will be able to see large publishers bringing more and more smaller games from a wide variety of indie developers.
Denis Mikan from Kunabi Brother
The topic of e-sports will no longer be stopped and instead will continue to grow. Many people think that "Virtual Reality", "Augmented Reality" and "Mixed Reality" dominate the world of gaming.
But the technology will not be decisive, as the focus will be on the content. However, there is still a lack of groundbreaking ideas in this area. There is also the question of what the "Fortnite Generation" will play tomorrow.
Is the console or the PC in demand?
In the last 5 years the demand for Console games on idealo.de a significant increase. Especially games for them Playstation 4 from 2016 to 2018 were able to trigger a steadily growing interest in buying among the players.
It is not without reason that these games are among the favorites of idealo users. However, the supremacy is likely to come to an end soon, because the demand for Nintendo Switch games has developed rapidly on idealo since their introduction.
In 2017, demand was still below that of its competitors Xbox One. A year later, however, things looked different, with 2019 seeing another surge in demand. This meant that competitors like Sony were left behind for the first time in the first half of 2020.
In contrast to console games, PC games had to admit a significant decline. This has been going on since 2018, although demand had already fallen by 1,5 percent compared to the previous year. In 2019, there was a further 27 percent decline.
The observation period refers to five years. Compared to console games for Nintendo Switch and PS4, demand for PC games fell by 73 percent. Overall, demand fell by 2016 percent between 2020 and 34.
However, the buying interest should also be taken into account here, which was 37 percent higher than was observed with games for the Xbox One. In general, when looking at the overall demand for PC games over the past five years, there has been significantly less interest.
And this seems to be a never-ending trend: In 2016, there was a 76 percent increase in demand for console games. In the first half of 2020 it will already be 90 percent.
