Over the decades since gaming was first introduced, we’ve seen many, many changes in technology, the format games come in, and even the ways in which they are played. Over this period, it has also gone from being something of a cottage industry to become a global phenomenon worth an estimated $159 billion a year.
Naturally, much of this revenue is generated by the purchasing of the games themselves, with around 2.7 billion players all around the world. But the barrier for many more people may be the high cost of games and the hardware to play them on. So, could it be that, in the interest of expanding the market still wider, a different business model could be deployed – a model in which the games are free to play?
The Mobile Model
This may sound like an outlandish suggestion. After all, games are notoriously expensive to produce both in terms of the development time required and then in the huge marketing and publicity budgets required to ensure that they get the launch that they need.
However, the explosion in mobile gaming has created a very different landscape for the sector. With many thousands of different games having now been created for mobile platforms, none of which require an up-front purchase, players have gradually been directed away from the idea of paying for the game itself. This has proved to be a very effective business strategy for developers who have created other revenue streams such as in-game purchases and other offline merchandise such as collector’s cards.
They recognize that the important thing is to get players playing – a strategy that you’ll also find in another very successful sector that has not been existence for very long either – online casinos. Many of these offer a wide range of free slots games to play that gives players the chance to explore their favorite games before committing to paying for them too. The quality and variety of the games on offer mean that the casinos can be reasonably confident that players will choose to pay to play before too long.
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The Rising Costs of Consoles and Games
A further consideration has to be the increasingly high prices of both of the consoles to play the games and the purchase price of the games themselves. Already there are rumblings about the forthcoming PS5 and whether it is really going to be worth the anticipated $500 that it’s expected to cost. And, with the new Xbox expected to be on the way at around the same price, it will surely exclude a large number of players from being able to upgrade from their current consoles.
Then there’s the cost of the games themselves. Yes, the developers can justify this in terms of the thousands and thousands of people-hours that will have taken to originate, create, and test a game. But if the finished product is simply beyond the pocket of many players, this will make it increasingly hard to recoup the money through the traditional channels. So, what’s the solution? It must be to seek alternative routes that earn money but through less direct means.
More In-Game Purchases
Mobile games have proved that they can generate huge amounts of income through in-game purchases. So, maybe it’s time for console games to up the ante on this front too. By increasing the ways and opportunities to receive in-game payments from players over a period of months and even years, there is the potential to raise far more than the amount an original purchase price would have been.
Looking to Licensing
There is also surely a great deal of potential for game developers to do far more on the licensing of their games, whether this is for creating linked merchandise or even selling film options in the style of Lara Croft and other big-budget movies whose origins have been in video games. In an ever-more-connected media world, link-ups are becoming more and more common. So, why not make them more profitable too?
The eSports Opportunity
You don’t need us to tell you just how huge esports has become. While video games undoubtedly benefit from the exposure these provide, perhaps they’re missing a trick when it comes to seeing the revenue-generating potential too. This could work in a number of ways, perhaps by using the royalties model of the music industry, or just by charging tournament organizers for the right to use their games. Still, your chances of earning big money are higher than winning a lottery (you can check your odds on this site!).
Of course, we are a very long way from free console gaming at the moment, and it’s more likely that the monthly fee for streaming games is going to be the preferred way to make console games more affordable. But console gamers can always hope that one day, they really will be able to play for free.
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