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Over three billion people worldwide now play video games, study reports

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Re: Over three billion people worldwide now play video games, study reports

#41

Post by manigandham »

chillwaves wrote: post #29
Baeocystin wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a single game, Fate/Grand Order, has grossed ~3 $billion, and that was as of last year. I'm sure it's much higher now. The amount of money spent by players in mobile makes everything else look like peanuts by comparison. https://sensortower.com/blog/fate-grand-order-revenue-3-bill...

Those so-called "gacha" games rake in a disgusting amount of money. Even as a casual player, I ended up spending a few hundred on one.

A few hundred dollars? What does that buy you?

Re: Over three billion people worldwide now play video games, study reports

#42

Post by [deleted] »

bitxbit wrote: post #36

This is a trend that will continue to accelerate. And I think we grossly underestimated how much time and money people are willing to spend on video games. Although, I think production has somewhat plateau’d in the past five years. There’s VR, but I believe there will be a new category introduced within the next five years that will change the gaming landscape.

[deleted]

Re: Over three billion people worldwide now play video games, study reports

#43

Post by Baeocystin »

manigandham wrote: post #41
chillwaves wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those so-called "gacha" games rake in a disgusting amount of money. Even as a casual player, I ended up spending a few hundred on one.

A few hundred dollars? What does that buy you?

Entertainment. No more, no less. You'd be surprised by how many of the asian F2P games are completely playable without spending a dime- yet people do anyway.

Re: Over three billion people worldwide now play video games, study reports

#44

Post by harimau777 »

rsynnott wrote: post #15
harimau777 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd argue that ultra-casual games like Candy Crush have so little in common with "core games" that it's not particularly useful to consider them the same thing. A similar situation: If I was discussing "board game culture" I think that most people would recognize that I'm referring the culture associated with games like Catan or Pandemic as opposed to people casually playing Tic Tac Toe.

> If I was discussing "board game culture" No-one's talking about 'board game culture', though. This is about whether people play video games. If you were talking about the board games people play, Catan would be a barely visible blip; it'd be all about things like Monopoly. Now if you were talking about people who consider playing games part of their identity, I'd be inclined to agree (though there are edge cases; P…

My point is that "people who play video games" doesn't mean much if you define it so broadly that it includes both people who play primarily core games and people who play exclusively casual games.

From a business perspective, they are unlikely to be the same target market. Gaming related memes and similar cultural artifacts are unlikely to be shared. Etc.

Re: Over three billion people worldwide now play video games, study reports

#45

Post by wgerard »

fuzxi wrote: post #34
rsynnott wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is such a weird attitude. If someone was to say (figures made up) "over two billion people worldwide now drink beer" then "if you count Budweiser then sure", would be a bizarre response. Candy Crush is clearly a game; this isn't really ambiguous. It's a mass market game that game connoisseurs sneer at, sure, but it's a game.

I get your point, but I think it's more accurately framed like so: "Over three billion people are now drinkers" "If you count having a glass of wine once a week then sure" The perceived snobbery is less about whether these people are playing games and more about whether they can be accurately described as "gamers", a term which has meaning beyond simply "players of any game(s)" due to its many (largely negative) conn…

I'm confused why there's some implication of diminished frequency with "casual" gamers.

On the subway, it's not uncommon to see people playing games like candy crush on their commute to and from work. The average subway commute is an hour long each way. Playing two hours a day is a decent chunk of time. Engaging in any other hobby for even 30 minutes a day would put you squarely in at least the "enthusiast" category by most definitions.

Even excluding commutes, it's quite common for me to see people playing mobile games during e.g. their lunch break.

So, I think a better analogy would be more like:

"Over three billion people are now drinkers"

> "If you count drinking a budweiser every day then sure"

Which, yeah, I would.

Re: Over three billion people worldwide now play video games, study reports

#46

Post by HenryKissinger »

bitxbit wrote: post #36

This is a trend that will continue to accelerate. And I think we grossly underestimated how much time and money people are willing to spend on video games. Although, I think production has somewhat plateau’d in the past five years. There’s VR, but I believe there will be a new category introduced within the next five years that will change the gaming landscape.

I'm more skeptical. VR will remain a niche, and future games will feature improved graphics. The new haptic feedback on the PS5 controller will add a minor feature. Other than that, games will remain the same on the fundamentals. Couch co-op may make a comeback.

Re: Over three billion people worldwide now play video games, study reports

#47

Post by schoen »

hindsightbias wrote: post #17
ashtonkem wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And you should. “Casual” video gaming, a term that carries unfortunate dismissive undertones, represents the most common form of video games played. The proliferation of the smart phone has undoubtedly helped here. Probably more so pre-pandemic. My observation when I lived in Chicago is that many people played these games while commuting via mass transit, I’m sure fewer are doing that now.

Decades ago, people did crosswords or read the paper/books while commuting. Do see a bit of sudoku. It would be interesting if there are music vs audiobooks metrics on today’s commuters. I get the commute escapism of candy crush but I’ve seen enough of that in homes/work to wonder.

I wonder if crosswords are moving away from a commute activity and toward a home leisure/hobby activity. (That's what I see, but I'm biased by the way I relate to crosswords myself and the way people I met through puzzle activities relate to them.)

Re: Over three billion people worldwide now play video games, study reports

#48

Post by 2muchcoffeeman »

bitxbit wrote: post #36

This is a trend that will continue to accelerate. And I think we grossly underestimated how much time and money people are willing to spend on video games. Although, I think production has somewhat plateau’d in the past five years. There’s VR, but I believe there will be a new category introduced within the next five years that will change the gaming landscape.

>* Although, I think production has somewhat plateau’d in the past five years.*

Production value or number of games? I still see lots of games being made. But there most stuff to wade through to find a good one.

Re: Over three billion people worldwide now play video games, study reports

#49

Post by rvrabec »

mumblemumble wrote: post #35
chillwaves wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the difference between video game addiction and other screen related addiction?

One is more fun than the others?

just happy i dont need to create a fortnite account to have a meeting yet.

Re: Over three billion people worldwide now play video games, study reports

#50

Post by beering »

brundolf wrote: post #39
glouwbug wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's right, Proton is amazing. I've been playing classics like Rome Total War on my Linux setup

Beyond that, most game devs today use established engines like Unity or Unreal, which typically have one-click build buttons for all major platforms. The level of abstraction has been raised, which affects not only game logic but even things like graphics APIs (DirectX vs Vulkan vs Metal) and packaging (installer, icons, etc). The bar has never been lower to throw in Linux support, even if you don't expect a huge mar…

I've seen it argued that releasing a Linux version (even using Unity/Unreal) is worse than releasing a Windows version that runs on Proton, because the Windows API is stabler and the Linux version will inevitably bitrot without continual updates.
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