UNLIKE many other industries that have suffered during the pandemic, the video games industry has reaped the rewards of a captive consumer base stuck at home.
This year’s E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) – the biggest industry event in North America – is currently being held virtually for the second year in a row (it usually takes place in Los Angeles).
It is here that companies like Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo announce new games and hardware. Major publishers like Ubisoft, Electronic Arts and Square Enix also show off their upcoming wares.
The big guns
Once again, after skipping last year’s event, Sony decided it would not attend E3, opting instead to hold its own event at a later still to be announced time.
Sony’s absence allowed Microsoft to take centre stage, sharing their nearly hour and a half presentation with Bethesda, a storied publisher they bought in March of this year for US$7.5 billion. This is part of Microsoft’s strategy of buying up companies to release titles exclusive to the Xbox (which will also release on the PC).
The Microsoft presentation was fairly straightforward in that it was a non-stop avalanche of trailers (some with actual gameplay) of 30 titles – such as ‘Halo:Infinite’, ‘Starfield’, ‘Forza Horizon 5’ – coming out over the next couple of years.
Microsoft made a big deal out of the fact that 27 of those titles will be released on Game Pass on day one. Game Pass is a subscription service where consumers pay a monthly fee to get access to an ever-growing library of games that they can download and play whenever they want, whether on their Xbox, computer, and soon, other devices. (Xbox Game Pass is currently unavailable in Malaysia.)
Subscription services like Game Pass, EA Play, and PlayStation Now are part of a trend for companies to keep consumers hooked to their brand. For about US$5 a month, gamers have access to a bunch of games, but to keep access to those games they need to keep paying the subscription fee. But for many, this is better than the alternative of paying the equivalent of US$60 for major titles.
It’s not that different from music and movie streaming services. And it is part of the larger trend of major corporations taking away the option of ownership from consumers.
Stand-alone vs games as service
For much of the past couple of years, Call of Duty – more specifically Warzone – has dominated the big-budget multiplayer first-person shooter arena. While millions still play Warzone and will likely play the next Call of Duty (still unannounced) scheduled to release later this year, there have been no shortage of complaints and frustrations.
This October, CoD’s nominal rival, Battlefield, will release its latest iteration Battlefield 2042 and its trailer and gameplay reveal this past weekend was treated to tentative raves.
Both franchises have been around for two decades and have millions of fans. But in a certain sense, they represent a different generation of gaming that the major industry players are moving away from. These are major titles that depended on consumers spending a big chunk of money every year.
But with the success of Warzone and Fortnite, among others, free titles that depend on gamers subscribing for more content are becoming more of the norm. It’s all about retaining customers and continuing to make a profit over an extended period.
Semiconductor realities
AAA games are all about pushing forward graphics fidelity, with all the bells and whistles like ray tracing, HDR and all the other marketing buzzwords. With that comes the need for graphics cards in PCs and consoles that are powerful enough to support these features.
What was unsaid during E3’s press conferences is that the worldwide semiconductor shortage will likely persist into the next year. Top of the line graphics cards for PCs are hard to find, and when available have tremendous markups. The new generation of consoles (PS5, Xbox Series X) that came out at the end of last year face similar problems and will not be readily available until deep into 2022.
But this is more an issue for consumers who want to be on the cutting edge and have money to burn. For the vast numbers of gamers out there, there are more than enough games with replay value, not to mention the independent games that don’t need expensive hardware. The video games industry as a whole will not be struggling in the near future at all. – The Vibes, June 15, 2021
