4 Developing Gaming Trends From The SXSW Gaming Conference in 2017

The SXSW Gaming Conference 2017 remains an industrial platform for gaming industry trends. 4 significant trends are set to dominate the core gaming market in 2017!:

1) E-Sports

In the 1990's the likes of the NFL and NBA would laugh mockingly, at the mere prospect of big-name sports licensing company such as ESPN, sponsoring competitive video-game tournaments. MLG silenced all of the critics. In the modern era, E-sports revenue is expected to exceed an annual earning of 1 billion dollars by 2020 with millions of dedicated fans internationally. This is a serious business, and the industry players need to step up their individual coverage! There is serious money to become made in this competitive emerging trend! Professional e-sports players have now been able through raw skill to amass real wealth. 

It is precisely because of E-Sports true competitive and financial potential that microtransactions, loot boxes, and Pay-To-Win scenarios are detestable industry practices that must cease. The heart and soul of great multiplayer gaming lie in video games with high-skill gaps and equal opportunities for skill and glory. Pay-To-Win is like one NFL team getting pumped full of steroids against another team with no advantages. This dishonors a competitive and lucrative industry, and the E-Sports leagues need to take serious precautions to ban all Pay-To-Win multiplayer titles to ensure only the most skilled gamers bring home the cash and the distinction of victory!

2) The Rise of VR, Augmented Reality & Oculus Rift Technology

When Nintendo released the Virtual Boy in the 1990's era, it flopped massively. The virtual reality technology was crude in its execution with a limited amount of games. The modern gaming industry suffers no such setbacks with technology such as the Oculus Rift and the rise of Augmented Reality! Superb titles such as Echo Arena, Edge of Nowhere and Minecraft are making full use of Virtual Reality. 

Meanwhile, Pokemon GO was one of Nintendo's best selling titles in years, primarily turning real life into a Pokemon battlefield. Imagine this concept taken to the next level by Nintendo, with next-generation console graphics instead of sprites allowing you to fight custom designed Pokemon in an MMORPG combined with augmented reality. The sales numbers would be in the billions of dollars on the premise alone!

3) Diversity & Inclusivity 

As much as hardcore gamers may like to pretend that they can carry the modern industry alone, the fact remains. Current gaming companies need to reach broader and more substantial demographics to boost sales figures. Nintendo understood this concept exclusively with the Nintendo Wii, designing a console designed to attract both casual and non-gamers into the fold. This strategy allowed Nintendo to beat the Xbox 360, with Nintendo Wii sales figures topping 101.63 million for Nintendo, as opposed to Microsoft's 84 million. This victory occurred despite at the time, the Xbox 360's superior graphical capabilities compared to the Nintendo Wii.

The Wii U was a step away from this formula, trying to cater solely to Nintendo's dedicated first party market, and the console was a flop. The Nintendo Switch is succeeding, due to its balance between appealing to both hardcore and casual gamers. 

More women need equal representation in the gaming communities as players themselves, despite whatever childish rants angry men devise because this will increase the industries bottom line. You expand and diversify your marketing portfolio, or watch your niche market and sales figures subsequently shrink! It's simple economics.

4) Youtube & The Online Influencers Juggernaut

It is official, the Internet is the future of the video gaming market. Youtube channel artists such as PewDePie and Angry Joe have amassed millions of subscribers. Gamers used to have to purchase a game or read a magazine to see if a game was worth buying. Now players have multiple streams to view gaming content before they pre-order or purchase. They can view aggregated game previews, Lets Plays, reviews and editorials all with the click of a mouse!

Social media and interconnectivity has also throughly infiltrated the industry and dominates the landscape! Now gamers can share highlight reels, chat with gamer friends and post content directly from their consoles as well as PC's, and sync high scores and DLC patches through both their smartphones, computers, and tablet devices. The rise of cloud storage poses more opportunities for innovation, as limitless server clusters will eventually power the next generation of dedicated servers, enabling thousands of gamers to play against each other in real time!



2017 has been a complicated year for video gamers. A balance of terrible and fantastic gaming releases, with a tenfold increase in the potential of technologies such as the Oculus Rift, Augmented Reality, and Social Media to connect gamers worldwide as never before. There has never been a more exciting time to leap into this industry, but one element remains abundantly clear. Developer greed needs to take a backseat for the core followers to stay loyal customers!