Published on February 7th, 2020 | by Sumit Bhowal
0New Opportunities in The Gaming Industry For 2020
Video games are reshaping the way we interact with the world. In recent years, the gaming industry has placed a major emphasis on innovation, driving major tech giants to create new technology to serve billions of gamers across the globe. The rapid evolution of gaming technologies has created new opportunities in this $152 billion industry. Read on to know more about them.
Virtual and augmented reality gain momentum
The Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) segments of gaming are still on the rise. Many believe that shipments of VR and AR headsets are projected to reach record hit numbers this year. While the use of Virtual and Augmented reality is common in education and healthcare, their widespread adoption for entertainment and gaming is more recent. In fact, many online casinos have realized the potential of these technologies and are offering VR casino games to their customers. With VR and AR, it’s now possible to play scratch card games in UK that offer immersive and realistic gaming experience.
According to Indeed, the share of job postings per million for the AR and VR roles in the gaming industry has increased by 1314.44% since 2014. In addition, the share of job searches for AR and VR roles also increased by 951.89% during the same period. Data provided by Indeed shows that the number of job searches made close aligns with the overall positions available. Interestingly, the top cities offering jobs in this field have shifted since 2018, and Charlotte and North California have emerged as the frontrunner.
Esports shows promising growth
Although esports is still relatively new to the market, it is a booming segment, with revenue projected to exceed $1 billion by 2020. The competitive video games pit players from across the globe against each other and have evolved into a full-on spectator sport. In fact, esports tournaments are broadcasted on all major streaming platforms.
According to esports job site HitmarkerJobs, jobs in this sector grew 185% from 2,497 to 4,638 in the second quarter of 2019. Data provided by them shows that the number of paid jobs in esports increased 210% from 1,912 to 4,028 during the same period. Paid opportunities also saw a proportional increase of 10.21%, jumping from 76.64% to 86.85% of the overall total.
Los Angeles, New York, Houston and San Francisco are the four cities that currently dominate the esports job market. Over half of all the esports job postings are in the metro areas, while the other 50% are dispersed across the country.
Limited opportunities for developers and designers, but new interest in other areas
Although esports, VR and AR continue to thrive in the gaming industry, the outlook is somewhat less rosy for some game studios as they made big bets on new technologies to keep up with the rapid pace of disruption in the gaming industry. Surprisingly, many large studios closed in 2019 and this trend might continue in 2020.
In terms of the number of postings for developers and designers, the good news is that they only dropped 3 and 4% last year.