Video games market set to grow by nearly 10 percent this year

[Scorpus]

According to the latest report from research firm Newzoo, the global video games market will grow by around 9.4 percent this year. The company estimates that global revenues for video game companies will rise to a whopping $91.5 billion in 2015, up from $83.6 billion last year.

If the same level of impressive growth is sustained over the next few years, global revenues will hit $107 billion in 2017. This is an increase on Newzoo's previous estimates for the game market in 2017: last year, the company estimated that the global revenues would hit $102.9 billion by 2017, indicating the market is growing faster than expected.

Newzoo claims that increasing revenues for Chinese gaming companies, as well as the continued success of mobile gaming, will be the main contributors to market growth in 2015. With growth of an estimated 23 percent, China's gaming market is set to record marginally higher revenues than the United States', at $22.2 billion versus $22.0 billion.

The same company has also released a chart that depicts which public game companies recorded the highest revenue for 2014. Tencent, owner of League of Legends developer Riot Games, is the top earner with $7.2 billion in revenue, followed by Sony ($6.0 billion) and Microsoft ($5.0 billion).

Companies that round out the top ten highest revenues are all major players in the games market, which shouldn't come as a surprise. These companies include EA, Activision Blizzard, Apple, Google, Nintendo and Ubisoft.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/60459-video-games-market-set-grow-nearly-10-percent.html

 

[TomSEA]

This sounded exciting until I saw Apple and Google in the listing of game producers. This 10% increase will come from mobile games meant to run on phones. They should have a classification all their own.

 

[davislane1]

What's their p. margin? Expenses? Net? Revenue means nothing without context.

 

[Footlong]

People need to learn how to write reports and people also need to learn how to read them. AAA games are facing a crisis. The traditional gaming market is not growing with the increased cost of production for that segment. While it's true that mobile gaming is growing, most mobile games don't break even, let alone profit. Gaming is the next bubble, until someone prove me wrong the next video game crisis is "night".

 

[davislane1]

People need to learn how to write reports and people also need to learn how to read them. AAA games are facing a crisis. The traditional gaming market is not growing with the increased cost of production for that segment. While it's true that mobile gaming is growing, most mobile games don't break even, let alone profit. Gaming is the next bubble, until someone prove me wrong the next video game crisis is "night".

It isn't the next bubble; it is one of several current bubbles. Frequent production delays, insufficient sales (compare est. sales numbers to est. AAA production & marketing costs), increasingly frequent consumer disappointment, lack of original AAA content (new IPs), inability to extract noteworthy performance from new hardware (consoles), conspicuous increase in the frequency of day-1 software problems...

The only question is how long AAA can manage to walk on thin ice, before it finally gives way.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Well there's not much on the PC side of things apart from Batman, and maybe 1 or 2 others. That's the only platform I take an interest in.

 

[wiyosaya]

Personally, I think it looks like Star Citizen is blazing a new trail.

 

[davislane1]

Personally, I think it looks like Star Citizen is blazing a new trail.

I'm really hoping that game delivers. Been following it for a while now and it seems to be threatening to be a complete game changer. Not only as a game, but for the viability of crowd funding.

 

[BlueDrake]

Personally, I think it looks like Star Citizen is blazing a new trail.

I'm really hoping that game delivers. Been following it for a while now and it seems to be threatening to be a complete game changer. Not only as a game, but for the viability of crowd funding.

Problem is we have to hope something that massive, doesn't have a serious issue when it does actually launch. It would end up being a large blow to multiple areas, not enough to cripple the market but shake up some confidence at least.

I'm all for the big devs considering an indie branch, similarly to how Clover was in all respects. Test their ideas with a smaller budget, and hopefully expand to have something worthwhile. Just they would rather settle into one formula and not rock the boat, due to the overly inflated budgets of these games.

 

[davislane1]

Just they would rather settle into one formula and not rock the boat, due to the overly inflated budgets of these games.

Big dev has its hands tied in regard to this. A major part of what has grown budgets is bigger and more visually impressive, more dynamic games. What took 5 or 6 guys 15yrs ago now takes 50+. They could go smaller & less technically sophisticated, but then they'll lose business. They also can't afford to reduce costs by cutting marketing budgets, for the same reason.

The only way that situation is broken is when people stop buying their games, forcing them to change their business models. Bubbles must burst before a healthy "fundamental" environment can reassert itself.

 

[Guest]

I had a conversation about this with some friends a few weeks ago. There doesn't seem to be much new exciting content out there. Almost as if games are stepping backwards. With EA, Activision, and Ubisoft controlling the market, its the same crap over and over every year. There is nothing new to look forward to anymore. And it will never change if people are still lining up to buy the incomplete garbage games filled with recycled content and day one $1.99 DLCs.

We need some new ideas and new developers again. Not "shooter game 9" or "Adventure game 12"