The onset of the global pandemic, COVID-19, caused disruption and horror across the world. As well as millions of people losing their lives, healthcare systems becoming overwhelmed, and people being confined to their homes for months on end, many industries across the world were heavily impacted by its ongoing effects.
The games industry wasn’t immune from these effects, sadly, and the pandemic has caused both long-term and short-term effects that are wide-ranging. It’s not all doom and gloom, though, because, amongst the many challenges that the pandemic created, there were also instances that opened our collective eyes to the opportunities available.
So, how exactly has the entire gaming industry been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and what does the future of gaming look like?
Table of Contents
The Big Companies
Every industry around the world has been affected in some way by the pandemic, which is on a scale that has never before been seen. As you would probably expect from months-on-end lockdowns, with millions of people confined to their homes with the internet as the main source of entertainment, the gaming industry has experienced a veritable boom. Steam, the online platform for purchasing, reading about, and downloading many games, has recorded its highest number of concurrent users since its inception.
Conversely, however, production for consoles slowed down, meaning that it was difficult to procure consoles such as the Nintendo Switch. Additionally, many of the world’s biggest gaming developers and companies have struggled, due to the requirement for at-home working, meaning that many big-name games have experienced delays to their release. Upon release, consumers have argued that they’ve been disappointing and not quite worth the wait, damaging large franchises and reputations. This isn’t universal, as some big releases have been welcomed with open arms, but the constant delays have negatively impacted some games’ receptions by audiences.
Rise of the Indie Games?
Whilst some of the bigger games companies have been unable to work during the lockdowns caused by the pandemic, there are some indie games companies where the developers have been in the unique position of being located in the same house, thus enabling them to continue building their game. And, with all that time on their hands, it’s easy to see how they spent most of their days!
Despite some of the examples of continued work and success throughout the last year, overall, the indie games world has suffered, as these sorts of developers simply don’t have access to the same types of funds that the bigger companies do, meaning it has been hard to sustain production and create the game they originally had in mind. Additionally, many of these developers don’t have the clout of commercially popular, mainstream games to rely on to continue gaining revenue, meaning that they have to rely on their marketing strategies to entice gamers.
Esports on the Rise
With so many gamers spending hours-upon-hours playing their chosen games and the lack of opportunity to socialize in real life, many have had the time to hone their skills.
The rise of esports was already prevalent before the pandemic, but it would seem that the pandemic has inspired what is being dubbed the normalization of esports due to the proliferation of esports events online by broadcasters, streamers, and gamers, which millions took to viewing and found they enjoyed! This looks set to continue in the future, with esports and increasingly popular past-time amongst youngsters who enjoy gaming.
The future of gaming looks uncertain. Yes, there are some highly-awaited games on the horizon and a rise in the popularity of esports, but the design and construction of games console components look set to continue to struggle, especially with the release of newer consoles that are in high demand.