The video games industry has grown at an astonishing rate in recent years. According to Forbes, the video games market is estimated to reach over $300 billion by 2025. With billions of dollars in profit and over 2.5 billion gamers across the globe, we can expect video games platforms to continue developing in 2020 and beyond.
Here are the top game development trends for 2020.
Realistic gameplay through Virtual Reality
Virtual Reality (VR) is all about realistic and immersive simulation of a three-dimensional environment. VR is trending in the gaming industry, and both developers and gamers have benefited from this immersive technology. Today, there are more successful implementers of cutting-edge VR in their games. Also, the top game development companies have jumped on the VR movement to offer immersive gaming experience.
Virtual Reality is increasing the market value of the gaming industry and VR gadgets are getting in trend among gamers. Moreover, the awareness of VR is steadily growing among users. According to a recent report by Statista, the global Virtual Reality game revenue is expected to grow up to $22.9 billion by the end of 2020.
The rising popularity of mobile gaming
The rising popularity of mobile casino games, such as Pixies of the Forest and White Wizard along with Nintendo reviving its arcade games for mobile has definitely paved the way for future mobile game development.
Hand-held consoles have made a comeback in the form of secondary devices for smartphones, and tablets are another major contributor to the development in this area. In 2020, developers will be venturing into the field of mobile game development from basic gaming apps to high-tech console gaming.
Gaming in the cloud
Cloud-based gaming has proven itself to be one of the biggest disruptors in the gaming industry over the last decade. Cloud-based services are behind the rise of the subscription-based model in the video games industry.
Cloud-based subscription models offer tremendous ease of use and accessibility to gamers. Players can log in to their subscription, select a game by surfing through the library of available games and start surfing the game right away. As cloud gaming has made it seamless to access and play the games, it’s hardly surprising that it has shaken the video games industry to its core. The cloud gaming market is estimated to grow to $2.75 billion by the end of 2024.
Collaborative game development
The top game developers and studios have largely dominated the gaming industry over the years. However, the game development environment has now started evolving into a more collaborative one.
Game developers have started creating open-source projects to make collaborative modifications to the existing games. This has resulted in the rapidly emerging independent game developers. Development companies can share the files with independent game developers through SDK and develop the games even further.
Renewed focus on 3D
The video games industry is experiencing a revival of 3D technology. According to Mordor Intelligence, the 3D games console market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 15.15% between 2020 and 2024.
The effect of this is directly visible in the overall game design. As for game development, professionals are turning towards creating games that offer intensive entertainment through 3D technology.