T for technology – Game on

Even back then we owned gaming consoles and had several games that we took turns to play. It wasn’t a group shared experience but more sharing the remote with your siblings or a friend. We would rent games from the now extinct Movie Rental stores and try beat it in 24 hours. Other than that, you would need to go to an arcade and spend all your pocket money on trying to get your initials on the high score page.

As Technology avalanched the industry, it changed the movie rental industry forever, leaving it as “yesterdays hero” watching from afar.

Children, both young and old are entertained in immersive worlds or simulations of real life for hours a day, totalling up to an average of eight and a half hours a week. If you consider the hours spent at home in the last two years, the average sounds modest.

Nonetheless it is a booming $178 Billion industry that grows at a steady 14-15% yearly and estimated to be around $268 Billion by 2025. That is immense. Gaming overtook the Movie and Film industry several years ago. The Gaming industry is just so broad that it is hard to define. Especially f we consider the platforms available like Computers, Consoles and Mobiles. We then still need to split the consoles into brands like Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. Also, the genre of games offers a plethora of options for all types of personalities.

Although most of the gaming takes place on mobile phones or tablets and free to play games. Every few months there is a new “candy crush” that goes viral for a few months. These smaller games generate a lot of revenue from advertising as they fall under the “free to play” category. The biggest contributor regionally is Asian-Pacific with more than half of gamers then EMEA and only then the Americans and Latin America.

Internet connectivity added to game play and made the industry global. Platform interoperability is also important for a game release. Gamers on consoles can play against or with gamers on computer and mobile phones. Offering this experience, eliminates the hardware needs for some gamers that can’t afford to change to console or computer platforms for now.

This brings us to the next question. How many jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities does this booming industry create? Plentiful. In all facets of the gaming supply chain there are opportunities to enrich yourself and others.

Without the game itself there is nothing to sell. So, game development is a vital part of the industry. Much like a movie there aught to be a story line, so we need screen writers, music composers, sound engineers, actors, directors, animators. All of it. Software developers will create the logic and bring the visuals to life with intelligence built into the game. People need to have a responsive experience and those built into the games is astonishingly accurate.

Quality assurance is a vital element to releasing a game testing phase and can be one of the most frustrating parts for game creators. A game needs to be close to perfect before release, gamers are like fine dining aficionados, don’t expect a tip if the food isn’t 3 Michelin stars quality. Game testers earn about the same salary as game developers and designers.

Part of this development is road mapping future releases and planning for the next release. Most of these games have a sequel or a prequel planned based on the response of the audience. Here we would need Game designers and Project managers to pull together and plan.

Also, important to get the game out there and noticed. Luckily there are game e sports tournaments that helps millions of gamers looking for the next game to play. Interestingly, the rise of this phenomenon must be one of the biggest marketing tools available to the gaming industry as we know it. Apparently, a lot of people would just sit and watch someone else play a game and see them win a tournament. I guess compared to any sport it is still a discipline that requires practise and a lot of skill. All fair in love and world of Warcraft I guess.

There are many options and roles for any young person or someone looking for a change in career to venture into gaming. From the research it seems like in any business vertical, the guys on the business end earns the most (for doing the least), the corporate cats know how to get a product to market. On the creative end the salaries are very similar. Developers, animators, sound engineers, game testers all seem to make a similar living and is between $70 000 and $85 000 per year on average. So, for a person interested and invested in gaming, do some research, and try to get involved in one aspect of the industry. Rewards might be more rewarding than a simple high score at the local arcade.