Game Development Trends: Transfiguring Gaming Industry

The gaming industry has boomed significantly in the last few years, especially after the coronavirus pandemic. In 2021, there were more than 3.2 billion gamers across the globe, and the industry revenue in 2021 is estimated to be around $198.40 billion.

Despite such huge numbers, the experts suggest that there is a massive room for growth because of technological evolution. The gaming industry’s development runs parallel to technological advancement and relies on innovative tools and software. As per a report by Mordor Intelligence, the gaming industry valuation is expected to reach a total value of $339.5 billion by 2027.

This represents a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 8.94% from 2022 to 2027. With such potential for growth, the entrepreneur, developers, and publishers must understand and capitalize on the game trends shaping this landscape.

Thus, this article will go through the top game development technologies and trends in 2022.

Top Game Development Trends For 2022

Let’s first go through the top game development trends for 2022 mentioned below

1. Blockchain-Based Gaming

Blockchain is famous for the robust data encryption technology, and it is not just impacting the e-commerce industry but has also become a promising sector in gaming with a wealth of opportunities. Blockchain technology is helping businesses by providing a secure environment for their blockchain apps and preventing hackers from unwanted access or transactions. Integrating blockchain technology with crypto has laid the foundation for a new niche of games like play-to-earn, pay-to-earn, and NFT-based gaming.     

In 2020, the blockchain game market was valued at $175 billion; by 2023, it can grow to $218 billion. Gamers will spend $168 billion in-game purchases, and Blockchain development makes in-app purchases in games safe and secure.

2. Cloud-Based Gaming

In cloud-based gaming, gamers get on-demand gaming or gaming as a service in which gaming content streams to users’ devices by cloud. So, the users don’t need to download or install games on their devices like PC, smartphones, or tablets.

In cloud-based gaming, a fast and reliable internet connection in cloud-based gaming is imperative as it involves sending content from cloud servers to users’ apps or browsers installed on devices. The gamers can play games on the remote cloud server and interact with everything through their device.

This technology existed for a long time, but its infrastructure was the major roadblock. However, big tech giants and cloud service providers like Google and Microsoft stepped in and made it possible to make it available for the global audience quickly.  Today, many gaming companies can deploy their games on their servers and make them available to international gamers.

The subscription fee is quite nominal in cloud gaming, and the gamers get a sense of recreation. The most appealing feature of cloud gaming is its flexibility.

3. E-Sports

The electronic sports (E-sports) gaming industry has been on trend for many years and exponentially growing after COVID. It refers to the world of organized yet competitive video gaming, where gamers from different league teams play against each other. Some of the highly popular games in the e-sports industry are Fortnite, League of Legends, Counter-Strike, Call of Duty, Overwatch, Madden NFL, etc. These gamers also have millions of fans worldwide who watch their gaming tactics. The winning prize of teams or individual players can be millions of dollars. They also get funding from sponsorship, endorsements, and team salaries.

The first e-sport game Intel Extreme Masters tournament, was started by Intel in 2007 at CEBIT. Competitive gaming was around before that too, but the Intel event was highly organized with a pool of prize money. The community wanted to move towards organized, stadium-based tournaments, where ESL and Intel stepped in.

The industry is growing in both money and popularity. In 2017, the world revenue was estimated at £565 million, and in 2021 it is estimated that 474 million people watched eSports worldwide.

4. Augmented Reality (AR) Gaming

Augmented Reality (AR) gaming integrates visual and audio content in the game with the user’s environment in real-time. It is different from VR gaming, in which a room is required for the immersive environment. In AR, an existing domain is used, and gamers create a playing field.

One of the most popular AR games was Pokemon GO which has features like a gyroscope, clock, smartphone camera, and GPS, facilitating a location-based AR environment.

Generally, the gaming environment in AR games is built from user surroundings, like in-game characters climbing from coffee tables to sofas on virtual bridges. In AR gaming, creating new environments is challenging as once the user fully explores an environment, they want a new one. So there is always a demand for a new climate in AR gaming.

5. Crypto Gaming

When we hear the word crypto, the first thing that comes to our mind is cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency has gained much popularity in the last few years as it is a highly secure and trackable currency. The popularity of cryptocurrency has also led businesses to invest in crypto gaming.

Earlier, there were centralized games in which the characters, skins, weapons, and all other codings couldn’t be used for any other game. However, in crypto gaming, everyone associated with the game can own a part, meaning that users could transfer their rewards and purchases to other games.

As the games are built on blockchain networks, every connected computer has access to equal amounts of information which decentralized the control and gives equal power and authority to the players and creators. The developers can either build the complete game on a blockchain, or they can use it for the in-game currency.

The in-game assets players can be sold for real-world money. This trading of digital assets is increasing the demand for crypto gaming worldwide.

6. Wearables

For ordinary people, wearable refers to devices like smartwatches, smart rings, wristbands, and other wearable devices which can track body data and give accessible reports on smartphones and other devices. These wearables have high-quality sensors that can even monitor your sleep rhythm. However, these devices are not just limited to the health and fitness industry but also play a significant role in gaming.

Wearable technology has prepared games handy with being too persistent. It allows gamers to get immersed in their favorite games and stand up & walk around on the game’s map. This technology can create a fully immersive experience by creating a halo decks experience using both VR and AR.

It is a very lucrative market driven by a wide range of games, technological advancements, and innovations in wearable gaming devices. Wearable gaming technology helps users increase their physical activity by taking the gamers to the virtual world by moving their bodies in the real world.

7. 5G Arising

Speed plays a crucial role in every type of gaming, which is why the upcoming 5G internet technology is gaining much traction. The speed and performance of gaming is an essential aspect that helps drive business and revenues for game development companies. Users are always attracted to high-speed games as they don’t need to wait for minutes to initiate their prize-based competition.

8. Mobile Gaming

Earlier, gaming was only associated with computer or television-based games, but with the advent of smartphones, mobile gaming has become highly popular. In the last decade, it has become an ever-growing trend that will still increase due to smartphone use worldwide.

In 2021, it was estimated that the mobile gaming market would reach more than 1.5 billion users globally. This phenomenon appears on the list of the most popular games available on both the Google Play Store and the App Store.

Apart from professional gaming, the most attractive thing is casual gaming for those mobile users who are online for countless hours. As a result, companies and organizations like them can generate revenue and engage with a wide range of users or gamers.

Top Gaming Technologies For 2022

As you have gone through the top gaming trends in 2022, let’s look at the ultimate gaming technologies used in the gaming industry.

1. Unity

Unity is a top-rated game development tool having a 48% market share. It is a cross-platform game engine developed in 2015 by Unity Technologies. It is built on IDE, which stands for Integrated Development Environment. This technology has been used for different games for mobile devices, desktop platforms, web plugins, and consoles. It supports both 2D and 3D gaming. A beginner game developer can find it easy to learn and understand documents and guidelines. There is no charge for usage for the basic version, but higher versions like Plus, Pro, and Enterprise; you have to pay a fee.

There are photographic effects offered by Unity by which developers can even build exciting apps.

2. Cry Engine

Crytek was developed by a German game developer and is used to create video games across the globe. Its graphical outputs make it the most preferred gaming tool. Thus, for creating a game focusing on top graphics and better visuals, Cry Engine is used.

The developers also prefer CryEngine because of its feature Flowgraphs, by which they can create an astonishing & fascinating gaming environment. They can use it for creating graphics, animations, and better gaming experiences.

3. GameMaker Studio 2

This gaming tool is viral for developing commercial 2D games. Experienced developers and beginners with less experience can build a high-quality, user-friendly game in less time. The developers can create more complex and big games having powerful features like multiplayer networking, source control, 3rd party extensions extensibility, and real-time analytics.

4. Cocos2d-x

This gaming tool is free, open-source, and cross-platform for building games, applications, and other cross-platform programs. Cocos2d has several branches namely Cocos2d-x, Cocos2d-html5, Cocos2d-XNA, and Cocos2d-objc. It can also develop lightweights of sizes as less as 1.5 MB.

It gives you many features such as scene editing, game previewing, resource management, community support, debugging, and documentation. The gamers can develop games for platforms like Android, iOS, Mac, Windows, etc.

5. Unreal Engine 5 Triple-A Gaming

It should be a great choice if you want photorealism in the Unreal Engine. It is industry-leading and a popular AAA engine famous among game developers. This tool gives the best graphical quality, and you will not be required to install different graphics engines.

6. Godot Engine

Godot is like Unity for developing fully functional 2D games and 3D games. It is a popular feature-compact, multi-platform 2D and 3D game. The games developed on Godot have improved performance and fewer bugs & vulnerabilities. There is a drag-and-drop interface so developers can easily maintain scene elements.

7. Amazon Lumberyard

Amazon develops this game developer tool. It is a highly customizable cross-platform tool required for high-functionality game development. AAA quality tools are making the product more efficient and faster. It offers the most excellent features that allow you to access Amazon Web Services without hassle.

Wrapping Up

In this article, we have gone through the latest game development trends in 2022 and the best technologies available for game development. Hire the best game development company with expertise in developing advanced video, computer, and mobile games.