A Gamer’s Guide to the Gaming Industry – Part 2
It may be too soon for an update, with this being only the second article in the series, we understand that a gamer does not have much free time on his hands, as a moment spent away from Killzone 3 or Call of Duty: Black Ops is a few hundred positions lost
on the global ranking board.
The fact that the Interactive Entertainment Industry is capable of earning more revenue than Hollywood, with Black Ops raking in $650-million in its first five days of release, means that it is an industry which is no longer child’s play.
Another important thing we managed to establish were the major players in the industry and we could choose to ignore a few of them, but that would earn us the wrath of the fan boys.
To rewind to the start of video gaming history would be a waste, so it’s best that we start by explaining a few simple terminologies, which we at Bettor.com have come up with ourselves to help the reader understand better.
‘Yester-consoles’ refer to the previous generation of consoles, which include Sony’s PlayStation 2 and Microsoft’s Xbox.
‘Current Generation’ of consoles, PCs and Smart phones, refer to the platforms on which gamers are playing their video games right now. This includes Sony’s ‘it does everything, including getting hacked’ PlayStation 3, Microsoft’s ‘hardcore gaming, Red Ring
of Death-ing’ Xbox 360, the Nintendo ‘I need to’ Wii, Apple’s ‘overpriced must have’ iPhone 4 and the ‘I need constant upgrades in order to stay current’ PC.
Let us start then, with the new kid on the block: the iPhone 4. This not only refers to Apple’s handheld gadget, which can also make phone calls, but the smartphone market in general.
The boom in this market is something every phone manufacturer wants to ride. The three major players in this sector are iOS (Apple) and Android (Google). And yes, we said three but left out Symbian (Nokia) because, to be honest, it is having a hard time
keeping up.
To put things in perspective, here is a quote from a group of individuals who had too much time on their hands and decided to form a company which ‘provides mobile game and application developers real-time user data to recognize opportunities, proactively
fix problems and grow revenue,’ Flurry Analytics.
If the previous paragraph flew over your head, do not worry, all we need them for is a much simpler statement, "(The) total U.S. iOS and Android game revenue will surpass $1-billion (by the end of 2011)."
Too bad they will not have much time to enjoy all that money with the world ending just the next year in 2012 and all, but still pretty impressive.
In fact, the smart phone market is growing at a staggering rate and are now almost in direct competition with some of the portable gaming devices released by Sony and Nintendo.
Powered by titles such as the addictive ‘Angry Birds’ and the absurd yet infinitely entertaintaining ‘Fruit Ninja’ among a host of other games, the smartphones are slowly becoming the gadget of choice for portable gamers.
To find out how a game about cutting fruit whilst pretending to be a ninja and throwing birds at pigs is changing the landscape of the industry, read on in the next part of the article: A Gamer’s Guide to the Gaming Industry – (read ‘Part 2’) -
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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the editorial policy of Bettor.com
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