In 2015 the global digital game market revenue to reach $ 49 billion
On December 24, according to technology blog website Re/code reports, market research firm SuperData Research (hereinafter “SuperData”) that the global digital game market revenue to reach $ 49 billion this year, including mobile and PC gaming accounted for 95%. in the mobile and PC game market, free games and more into the mainstream – completely different from the console game market.
Joost Van Dreunen of SuperData co-founder and CEO said, but not these game industry wrongly deemed to be a revolution. Gaming industry some of the biggest trends this year is driven by veteran game company. He recently said in an interview with Re/code, the games industry “success” criteria basically the same.
Van Dreunen interview talked about the economics of free games, the growing integration of Asian and Western games, as well as the prospects for next year. The following is an edited version of the interview transcript:
Q: now compared with last year, digital gaming industry what is the biggest difference? The biggest change occurred in what field?
Answer: the digital gaming industry and also differ from last year, including both specific incidents include the overall feeling. Specific events are King listed, the overall feeling is that mobile games have attracted unprecedented attention. Of course, “playing House” (Gamergate).
These things are messy, if you put them together you will find the games industry continues to mature. Gaming industry will eventually mature. During the next year and beyond will be really interesting, we have a huge audience, broad appeal and media economy, rather than only a few publishers dominate the industry.
Q: King, Supercell leading mobile gaming company, and established game companies like electronic arts, Blizzard will become part of the new era of gaming industry yet?
Answer: the problem is that we are concerned about the entire industry is only part of the industry. At present, we have a mobile games and digital distribution, but 80% of the traditional games industry rules still apply, game industry still needs marketing, also need to be developed. You can set up team? Do you have a solid marketing plan? Is there any measure allowing players to play more games? How to increase player loyalty and lifetime value provided to players? These issues still exist, but we need to solve these problems in a different environment.
In Subversion, King and Supercell company was a great success, but this is because they have engaged in the gaming industry for over 10 years. They are experts in the field and the game veteran, their success is built on the accumulation of knowledge and skills.
Q: we talk about the problems with the game for free. SuperData said recently, the average revenue per mobile game users of slowed growth in subscriber acquisition costs, that is how it works?
Answer: that is already more than a year. With the mobile gaming industry matures, development costs are also rising. People like a well-made game, vendors need to really cool marketing campaign. For example, in New York, the bus stop has a legend of the candy crush soda (Candy Crush Soda Saga) ads, these ads do not come cheap. Grand Theft Auto 5 (Grand Theft Auto v) with a budget of $ 260 million, half for the development of half used for marketing. Like it or not, mobile gaming, too. Mobile games industry is growing, but the costs are also on the rise.
Q: who can subvert the current free market leader?
Answer: you first need to determine which free game market? If, for example, refers to the free game market in the West, I think that kind of threat is part of Asia‘s leading companies–NCsoft, Nexon, Tencent, which free market has a thorough understanding of the game, just a matter of figuring out how to appeal to Western audiences. So this is a way to subvert the current market leader, non-traditional business in different markets will play a significant role in Asia, the no man’s land of the OL Take-Two (Borderlands Online) and the Blizzard of ‘ call of duty Online (Call of Duty Online) are sought after, they have a high level of playability, well-made, and let users play for free.
Small game companies still has a chance for the success of a game, but not as easy as a couple of years ago. Next year, the company through the acquisition of innovation, such as King … acquire small companies, using their intellectual property to develop a successful product is an innovative solution for big game company.
Q: after the intervention of Chinese companies as mentioned above, changes in the competitive landscape of the market, because we are talking about “gaming as a service mode”?
Answer: this is EA, Blizzard, Ubisoft and Take-Two in transition need to solve a problem. They used to go on sale in the first few weeks after received the vast majority of profits, now they must adapt to the release cycle extended to 12 games, and even 24 months. Manufacturers must continue to develop and maintain servers, providing customer service to online players, it’s a different business model.
Q: we talk about PC games. This year is the world of Warcraft (World of Warcraft) issued 10-year anniversary, although pay less attractive, the player still increased from 3 million to 10 million. This is world of Warcraft special, still showed vitality in the subscription model?
A: it goes without saying that such a phenomenon is unique to world of Warcraft. MMO like wow (massively multiplayer online game) aimed at promoting players social events, usually players will not abandon in-game friends, to play a new game, this game has high stickiness. Game industry is very competitive, very unstable. Free of the League of Legends (League of Legends) in erode the market share of pay for play.
Q: is different from PC and mobile games, hosts games area, based on retail pricing is still the mainstream model, why is that?
Answer: free hosting games already exists, but its development will take time. In the United States, PlayStation 4 users spend on games average about $ 18 a month, Xbox One user about $ 17, game makers lower share of total revenue. In the field of mobile games, free games for 75%-95% per cent of revenues. in the host field, this proportion is much lower. Players still prefer to have the CD, or download the complete game, free games are easier to accept.
Q: we discussed above is the game industry this year, can you predict the next changes in the gaming industry?
Answer: the gaming industry next year there may be several aspects of change: possible mergers in the industry, primarily through the acquisition of innovation and gaining market share, I suspect there may be scope 1, 2 comparable with Microsoft’s acquisition of Mojang multi-billion dollar takeover deals, such as the acquisition of other companies Ubisoft. If you can’t convince the shareholders ‘ own digital distribution policy is reliable, game companies have to buy other companies.
The second change is hardware-the virtual reality. The success of virtual reality, we will have to wait. Most game companies took a wait-and-see attitude on the virtual reality technology. Unlike the mobile game, is, virtual reality game development costs are high.
There is the Asian market, Microsoft and Take-Two had been considering entering the Asian market. Tencent may make acquisitions, China will become a major topic of game industry next year. I think the West when entering the Chinese market, the company will experience problems, because cultures vary greatly on both sides, they have to consider a lot of factors.
so why there is so many people doing this