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The state of the gaming industry

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The state of the gaming industry
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The video game industry made $108.9 billion in 2017, more than six times the profit turned by the music industry. In fact, in the UK, the BBC reports that gaming is “worth more than video and music combined” –despite the fact that it is the youngest of the three mediums.
The UK is not alone. Around the world revenue is being driven, profits are being turned and billions of dollars are being made – predominantly by the sale of video games.

The top 10 gaming markets, as of October 2018, are as follows:
1. China – $34.4 billion
2. USA – $31.5 billion
3. Japan – $17.7 billion
4. South Korea – $5.7 billion
5. Germany – 4.9 billion
6. United Kingdom – $4.7 billion
7. France – $3.3 billion
8. Canada – 2.4 billion
9. Spain – $2.2 billion
10. Italy – $2.1 billion
Figures are courtesy of Newzoo.com’s top 100 report, with VGsales.wikia consulted as well.

Digital is the way forward
Say goodbye to the big cardboard boxes of old. Digital is the new revenue driver for games.
Statista notes that US digital sales were up to 79% in 2017 versus 20% in 2009. In the UK, the trend is similar: a Eurogamer report notes that 80% of all sales are now digital.
In fact, investment management firm Piper Jaffray predicts that physical copies of games will disappear by 2022.

What do the 50 best-selling games of all time have in common?
The insights that follow are based on an analysis of the 50 best-selling video games of all time, as of 16 January 2019.
1. 62% of the games are preoccupied with action/violence in one form or another
2. 0% of the games feature a female-only protagonist
3. 38% of the games feature male-only leads
4. Only 9% of the games on the list feature a Hollywood A-lister

Diversity in gaming: Not a single game in the top 50 features a female-only protagonist

  • 0% of the games focus on a female-only story
  • By contrast, 38% of the games feature male leads
    48% of the games allow you to choose your sex/gender
  • 1 game on the list (2%) has an “unknown” protagonist (Need for Speed: Most Wanted) and 6 games (12%) don’t feature a human protagonist at all.

Games with female leads, like Horizon Zero Dawn, fall short of the top 50 despite outstanding results. In February 2018, Horizon was confirmed to have sold more than 7.6 million copies. The best-selling Tomb Raider game – 2013’s reboot – is closer to the top 50 still, netting 11 million sales in its lifetime so far.
Still, the lack of diversity is disappointing, and the results mirror a trend propagated by movies. Of the 50 biggest box office hits, only Frozen (Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel) and Beauty and the Beast (Emma Watson) afford a woman top billing.

But the situation is improving…

…The new Star Wars films heavily focus on the story of Rey (Daisy Ridley) and from a video game standpoint, developers are trying to redress the imbalance.
In terms of upcoming releases:

  • The Last of Us Part II will focus entirely on Ellie (she was a playable character in the 2013 original).
  • Gears 5 from the popular Gears of War franchise will put you in the shoes of Kait, bucking the trend of male leads in Gears games past.
  • Control, the next title from Alan Wake and Max Payne developer Remedy, will also have a female protagonist.

Violence remains a key selling point

62% of the games on the list are based around the central conceit of action, or violence.
The most popular genres all deal with it in one capacity or another:

  • Action-adventure – 30% (15 out of 50)
  • Shooters – 18% (9 out of 50)
  • Role-playing– 14% (7 out of 50)

“Action-adventure” encompasses a mix of open world titles like Grand Theft Auto and more tightly-constructed fare like The Last of Us – both styles are preoccupied with violence.
Shooters emphasise violence even more – this a genre in which you’re literally looking down the sights of a gun.
Finally, role-playing blurs the line, but conflict is at the heart of the Pokemon games (albeit in cartoon form) and Skyrim sees players battling otherworldly creatures with swords, bows and magic.

Need for Speed might be a big-name franchise, but only one game from the series makes the top 50

Five racing games make the top 50, but four of them are Mario titles.
The one that isn’t – 2005’s Need for Speed: Most Wanted – followed on the heels off the chintzy and celebrity-heavy Need for Speed Underground games and emerged at a time when sentiment towards the franchise was at an all-time high.
Most Wanted also arrived in a year populated with an unusual number of platforms. The game was released for the Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance, GameCube, PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Xbox, Xbox 360. This would have helped its sales performance.

The five lowest-ranking genres in the top 50 are:

  • Arcade – 1 / 2%
  • Puzzle – 2 / 4%
  • Simulation, Virtual life – 2 / 4%
  • Miscellaneous – 4 / 8%
  • Driving, Racing – 5 / 10%

Hollywood lite: games don’t need well-known actors and actresses to sell well

In additional research on the top 50 best-selling games, we looked at how many involved a high-profile cast and whether this is a key selling point. It turns out, that while movies rely on big-name actors to make a splash, games are less dependent on star power to drive their wheels.

Only 15% of the 50 on the list feature a well-known gaming voice actor (a Nolan North or Troy Baker, for instance). This number drops to 9% when you tighten the net to Hollywood A-listers, who include:

  • Cara Pifko (Kinect Adventures!, 2010)
  • Ricky Gervais (Grand Theft Auto IV, 2008)
  • Keith David (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, 2009)
  • Samuel L. Jackson, Ice-T, James Woods, Danny Dyer, William Fichtner, (Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, 2004)
  • Michael Madsen, Michael Rapaport, Kyle MacLachlan (Grand Theft Auto III, 2001)

Rockstar’s recent titles, like Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption 2, have purposefully steered clear of Hollywood talent.
“[W]e don’t bring in name actors anymore,” Dan Houser, Rockstar co-founder, revealed to Vulture, “because of their egos and, most important of all, because we believe we get a better sense of immersion using talented actors whose voices you don’t recognize.”

Both Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption 2 rely on relatively unknown actors, and given their incredible sales success, it hasn’t hurt them.

6 games could potentially ship 10 million copies or more in 2019 and 2020

The top 50 Smash Hit Success list demonstrates one thing loud and clear: franchise names sell well. And with the PlayStation 5 and the next Xbox likely around the corner, game-makers will have yet more platforms to make money on.
In theory, something like FIFA 20 could appear on the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5; the Xbox 360, Xbox One and the next Xbox.
Expect 2019 and 2020 to be bumper years for this fast-growing industry.

Likely best-selling games on the horizon:

  • Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (based on the success of Nintendo first-party releases)
  • 2019’s Call of Duty (based on prior Call of Duty success)
  • FIFA 20 (based on the success of FIFA 18)
  • The Last of Us 2 (based on the success of The Last of Us)
  • Cyberpunk 2020 (based on the success of RPG fantasy games like Skyrim)
  • Metroid Prime 4 (based on the success of Nintendo first-party releases)

 

Original Source: Game Gavel

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Maximising Your Cross-Market Appeal

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Maximising Your Cross-Market Appeal
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With Bitblox introducing an entirely new breed of crypto-based price prediction games to the iGaming industry, we talked to CEO, Brandt Page, to discover how combining elements of both chance and skill with lightning-fast betting rounds has helped improve their cross-market appeal.

 

When Bitblox was first established, our core concept was relatively simple; we didn’t just want to provide players with a new twist on an existing format like slots or casino games, but instead sought to create an entirely new vertical that combined elements of chance and elements of skill.

One of the main drivers behind this decision was the fact that we wanted our releases to appeal to as broad an audience as possible – and I think from the figures we’ve seen so far, we’ve already had some notable success on that front in terms of the players that are engaging with our games.

Funnily enough, I was recently talking to the Head of Marketing from one of the operators that we work with and they told me they were struggling to place our games optimally. Initially, they’d put them in with crash and instant win content, but they soon discovered a lot of their in-game traffic was coming from sports bettors. A move to the sports betting tab followed, but the exact same-thing happened with casino players, leading to the games eventually winding up on the front page.

As this was going on, our games were continuing to post solid numbers with the customers who bet on both sports and casino – and all of this engagement was coming without there being any additional promotion from us or the operator. So why was it that our games were performing so well across these different player segments? I believe there are a number of contributing factors.

First and foremost, having this hybrid model of games of chance and games of skill that I’ve already mentioned has placed us in a fairly unique position within the iGaming industry. On the one hand, the simple premise of our Bitcoin-based titles – coupled with their attractive designs and intuitive UI – makes them highly accessible to casino players who are just looking to have fun.

On the other, the fact that Bitblox games aren’t based on RNG and are instead pinned to the real-time movements of the Bitcoin market certainly resonates with a sports betting audience. As they have the ability to follow the charts and use this information to inform their decisions, they definitely feel they have more control over the outcome than if they were playing a traditional slot.

Another key aspect of our cross-market appeal is the fast-paced nature of all Bitblox releases. With casino players being accustomed to the quick wins and instant gratification of slots and crash games and sports bettors also showing a growing preference for in-play wagering, we’ve ensured each game round is resolved quickly and that there are multiple opportunities for betting.

When we first launched Up or Down?, which features one-minute betting rounds, we soon learned that even this timeframe is too long for some players. This resulted in us developing Up or Down? Turbo – a game which kept the same mechanics as its predecessor but reduced the betting window to 20 seconds – and this has gone on to become one of our most successful titles.

Keeping all this in mind, one of the things I’m most excited about is the upcoming release of our latest game, 3 in a Row, as I think this is a title that really ties everything I’ve talked about so far together. Designed to look like a slot machine, 3 in a Row challenges players to correctly predict how the Bitcoin price will move over three separate 20-second windows for even bigger payouts.

Intended to appeal to casual users and serious sports bettors alike, players can elect to either spin the reels for fun and select a random price sequence or use the bet builder feature to put together their own custom prediction. With the latter essentially functioning like an accumulator bet, players can select up to three possible combinations – i.e. Up/Up/Up, Up/Up/Down etc – and only one result needs to land for them to win, ensuring they stay engaged until the final seconds.

I believe that 3 in a Row can help build on the strong foundations we’ve laid down with casino and sports bettors and provide operators with another popular option that offers significant cross-market appeal. Based on what we’ve seen from previous Bitblox releases, the audience for titles that combine elements of chance and elements of skill is definitely out there – and I’m looking forward to our unique brand of crypto-based games being enjoyed by even more players in future.

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Gaming Corps to launch with lotteries in the USA via EQL games deal

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In-demand content provider extends reach into largest iGaming market in the world with its full suite of games made available via iLottery aggregation platform

Gaming Corps, a publicly-listed game studio based in Sweden renowned for creating industry-leading games, has made its debut in the US market through a breakthrough agreement with leading lottery provider, EQL Games.

The distribution agreement will see Gaming Corps’ full suite of games made available to EQL Games’ powerful iLottery Aggregation Platform, developed to provide lottery operators across America with direct access to a portfolio of proprietary and third-party games.

Following the integration, EQL Games’ lottery operator partners will be offered proven Slots, Table Games, Multiplier Games, Mine Games and Plinko Games, as well as titles under Gaming Corps’ innovative and trademarked Smash4Cash™ series.

The deal and integration come at a time of growing demand among online lottery operators in the US for non-traditional content, a format that Gaming Corps has excelled in, especially with its Smash4Cash™ games, which have been a hit with players in global markets.

EQL’s aggregation platform has been developed to allow online lottery operators to quickly and easily access content from multiple game studios simultaneously through one integration and one commercial agreement.

Its iLottery Aggregation platform simplifies the process of adding new games to an online lottery brand across regulated states. In addition to the third-party content provided via its aggregator platform, EQL Games has a portfolio of in-house titles.

This includes games produced under licence with Team USA which were rolled out by several state lotteries for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris this year, with new titles being planned ahead of the Winter Games in Milan (2026) and the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles (2028).

Juha KauppinenCEO of Gaming Corps, said: “The USA has always been somewhat of the holy grail for game developers like us, which has been further emphasised as markets in several states have become regulated. The potential in the American market is enormous, and the impact for us is a bit difficult to assess, but we have great hopes for the collaboration with EQL Games, which has an impressive platform towards U.S. lotteries.

“We believe it will have a significantly positive impact on our revenues. I would like to personally take the opportunity to thank EQL Games and Brad Cummings for the collaboration, and we are now working hard to complete the integration so that all our games will be offered to EQL’s customers via their platform.”

Brad CummingsCEO of EQL Games, added: “Including Gaming Corps as a supplier to the EQL Games iLottery Aggregator is an exciting step forward in our mission to offer unique, high-quality content to state lotteries. Gaming Corps’ expertise in iGaming, along with their unique game portfolio, fits perfectly with our vision of enhancing the lottery experience through dynamic and engaging content.”

 

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Public Voting Starts for Ortak x B.F.T.H. Arena Awards 3.0

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The highly anticipated Ortak x B.F.T.H. Arena Awards 3.0 has officially entered the public voting phase as submissions are closed.

More than 70 game providers have turned in over 160 submissions, including Tom Horn Gaming, Pragmatic Play and RubyPlay. Public voting involves enthusiasts casting their votes to pick the winner of the Game of Public Choice category.

The Public voting phase ends on December 1st 23:59 GMT+4.

Concurrent to public voting, the first phase of private voting also starts during which all participants who have submitted entries get the chance to vote for one favourite in each category. An international auditing company oversees this phase to eliminate duplicate votes and self-votes. This phase ends on November 19, 23:59 GMT+4.

The second phase of private voting will also take place with a jury of industry experts making their decisions based on the shortlist picked by participants during the first phase.

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