Well Played, Corona
WHO (2019): classifies gaming disorder as a disease.
Less than 12 months later.
WHO (2020): partners with the gaming industry to encourage people to play games with their #PlayApartTogether campaign.
It really didn’t take the World Health Organization long enough to change the nature of their relationship with the gaming industry. However, it isn’t the only one changing the rules these days. Since the coronavirus pandemic hit us all, many new unexpected rules and norms have emerged. No touching, mask yourself, home is heaven, wash your hands while singing “Happy Birthday” twice and so on. Therefore, we shouldn’t be all that surprised when even the prestigious WHO is setting new norms unexpectedly.
WHO along with giants of the gaming industry launched the #PlayApartTogether campaign to help people stay connected with each other remotely during self-isolation. An absence of entertainment and socializing options as a result of the lockdowns and physical distancing around the world has been a boon for the world of online gaming and especially mobile gaming. Mobile gaming occupies the largest share of market revenues and users in the pie of online gaming. It is also growing at an exponential rate compared to PC and console gaming globally. As a result, this article would henceforth largely focus on coronaviruses’ impact on mobile gaming alone.
Ongoing Trend
Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma on an AMA session with Inc42 said that gaming is likely to emerge as one of the top 3 gainers out of the COVID-19 crisis. The ongoing trend in online gaming only makes such predictions more plausible as the trend has been phenomenal.
WinZO Games, a vernacular gaming platform, witnessed a surge of 3x in online traffic, according to the platform’s co-founder Saumya Singh Rathore. Paytm First Games COO, Sudhanshu Gupta, also reported a 2x increase in the number of new users. Singh also notified that users on average are spending approximately triple the time gaming making it an all-time high for WinZO. One of the largest publishers of online gaming in India, Win2Games, also reported that users have increased by 3–4 lakhs on a daily basis.
With or without COVID-19, the gaming industry has been a booming one. Mukesh Ambani even sees it as “the next big thing.” The Media and Entertainment report 2019 by KPMG predicts the number of online gamers to go up to 365 million in India by 2020, an increase of 65 million from 2019. The report confirms that affordable smartphones coupled with cheaper and faster internet connections are leading to a growth in the number of online gamers. The pandemic, devastating for many businesses, seems to be a rather productive catalyst for mobile gaming. This resilience and growth shown by mobile gaming during times of crisis naturally makes one ponder about the long-term effects of COVID-19 on mobile gaming. Will we see new normals in the world of mobile gaming post the crisis or is this only a short-term growth effect?
As agreed by many, it is too early to be exact with how coronavirus will affect the world and instil new normals. However, we must pay attention to how COVID-19 is accelerating the gaming industry. I believe that focusing on the following emerging strengths in online gaming is a gateway to identifying new normals and opportunities for the world of gaming. Henceforth, I will recognize some strengths and then consider potential opportunities.
New Strengths
- Lower customer acquisition cost
Firstly, in self-isolation, when boredom, anxiety and stress are higher than usual, gaming as an activity has become one of the few forms of active entertainment. It not only helps pass time but is also an entertainment choice that is cognitively loaded and as a result more engaging and attractive during lockdowns. Secondly, the prevalence of multiplayer games (where players can invite their friends) coaxes more and more people to participate because of a fear of missing out. Games like Houseparty and Psych got a huge boost and became the most played games since the lockdowns started as they let users play and connect with known people.
Personally, I have seen myself and a lot of people around me use these games and apps to catch up with friends which otherwise would have taken the form of a dinner or a conference call. Even though a game like Psych doesn’t let people have the exact same experience as they would have had while dinner, it does help one get the same joy of connecting with one’s friends!
A lack of socializing and entertainment substitutes due to the extraordinary circumstances of the world coupled with unique gaming opportunities available has facilitated the onboarding of new users on gaming platforms without greater expenditure on advertising. Thus, this reduces the customer acquisition costs for gaming platforms.
2. New customer segments and behaviour
Online and mobile gaming have so far been dominated by 18–25-year-olds. However, amidst lockdowns, there has been a slight change in the demographics. Working population from age groups 25–45 with more time available due to work-from-home routines and a need for indoor recreation have also started indulging with casual gaming. To everyone’s surprise, Ludo and other age-old games like Rummy and GTA San Andreas have become a quarantine quirk. Ludo King tops free games charts on Play Store and many celebrities and influencers have even taken to social media to share about their lockdown time being spent with Ludo.
Further, the older population has found innovative ways to play games and keep themselves entertained with their friends over commonly-used social platforms like WhatsApp. ‘Antakshari’, Housie and Trivia are some games that are being executed over WhatsApp even when these games exist on mobile and web. This shows the inadequacy of these games and players’ desire to engage socially with their friends while playing. Arpita Kapoor, CEO of India’s first vernacular social gaming platform, Mech Mocha, said: “We are also seeing a rising trend in video/voice chat usage while gaming on Hello Play.” Such large-scale evidence of personally observed behaviour confirms the increased need for the element of social interaction while gaming.
3. Better chances of monetization
According to Nazara Games CEO Manish Agarwal, the way to monetize the gaming products in India is by inducing the behaviour of collaboration and competition amongst the users. The self-isolation and lockdown period around the globe is giving all consumers ample opportunities to both collaborate and compete with their friends across time zones and as a result, gamers are very likely to pour money into games either when they are losing and want to compete with their friends in order to win or when multiplayer games instil a fear of missing out amongst friends. Additionally, an increase in average user time will also help monetization as Singh mentions that “users who spend more time are easier to monetize”.
New Opportunities
- Games become synonymous to coming together, chatting and challenging
With greater popularity of multiplayer games and more engagement via features of chat, voice and video during gaming in lockdowns, the gaming industry can identify the strong appeal for games that can include socializing features and let users play with and against each other. Social features of chat and calls and the ability to play with known people could become a new normal, a new must-have for every game post-COVID-19.
With regard to opportunities, there’s one for social platforms like Whatsapp and Slack to become even more involved in their user’s life by offering them a convenient way to play games with their contacts. Since these channels are extensively used for communication and have communities (groups, channels of friends) formed, having gaming additions to cater to this community’s entertainment needs could be valuable. Other social platforms like Snapchat and Facebook have already entered this arena and are even able to monetize through advertisements on this segment. Recently developed gaming habits of users might open doors for other social platforms to enter the gaming space.
2. Product Improvement
With a sudden spike in the number of users, an increase in the amount of time spent on gaming platforms by users, and diversification in user demographic, the gaming industry can understand its users and their patterns better. This is a great time to launch and test various game features, gather behavioural data and iterate to build refined gaming products for different customer segments. Prolonged exposure to gaming due to lockdowns might also help users get accustomed to new features and ultimately help form habits that outlast the COVID-19 crisis.
3. Adjacent Business Opportunities
3.1 Streaming Services
An increase in gaming activity will also impact adjacent businesses like that of game streaming where players record themselves while playing games and viewers watch. During the lockdown period, streaming platforms like Twitch and Youtube Gaming reported an increase of 10 and 15 percent respectively in new users. With a spike in live streaming, scope of opportunities, creation and innovation increase for streaming services as well. Facebook has already started focusing their product development in late March towards this segment after noticing the ongoing trend.
3.2 Gamification in EdTech and Ecommerce
As online education and e-commerce garner greater acceptability due to coronavirus, design innovations that include gamification may become increasingly popular, suggested Accenture Ventures MD Avnish Sabharwal. According to the Media and Entertainment Report 2019, gamification is used by various sectors that are transactional in nature to increase user base and drive user engagement and customer stickiness. Paytm First Games is a great example of the same. Higher gamification will enable a greater space of opportunity for game developers and designers. Not only will the arena of gaming expand in ways we haven’t imagined but also the demand for developers and designers will be higher.
Way Ahead
The above-listed opportunities become more realistic as the ongoing strength and trend flourishes. Even though it’s likely that the trend discontinues after lockdowns end and time spent at home significantly reduces while in-person socialization increases, the short term effect on the gaming industry would achieve the online gaming growth predictions earlier than projected, lead to new trends and a faster acceptance for gaming. Opportunistic entrepreneurs can make use of this adversity to pounce on the newly available opportunities and innovate for a world that is changing.
