Gaming has become a popular mainstream activity enjoyed by people of all ages, backgrounds, and class status. This wasn’t always the case though, whilst anyone could play games, they were mainly an activity enjoyed by younger men.
So how did gaming go from a niche hobby to a mainstream form of entertainment?
Changes in Marketing
A big reason for the change is that gaming publishers have changed their approach to marketing. Before the 2000s, a cliche philosophy of targeting sports and action games to men and creating a separate range of ‘pink’ titles for women that, unsurprisingly didn’t sell well.
Things changed thanks to several coinciding events. One of these was Nintendo’s release of the Nintendo Wii, a console that was targeted as a social games console rather than something you played alone. With a more intuitive way to interact with games, it meant groups of people of all ages would gather around a TV to bowl, bat, and box in a variety of games and competitions. Meanwhile, the Japanese company’s DS handheld console did something similar for gaming on the go.
At the same time, new entrants to the market like Zynga and King began releasing casual titles like Farmville and Candy Crush, using social media to grow their users by encouraging players to invite their friends on Facebook.
Doing away with the distinction between games for men and women, creating an association of gaming to be an activity that can be done together, and the social aspects of Facebook invites helped to change the perception to being a hobby for everyone.
Reducing Barriers to Gaming With Different Business Models
Video games can cost £50, £60, or even £70 to buy up front. That’s a lot of money to fork out, especially if you’re not sure whether you’re going to like it. This made video games inaccessible to many players who either couldn’t or didn’t want to spend so much on this type of entertainment.
The problem is that developing video games to the scale, scope, and standard expected by players today costs a lot of money and it needs to be paid for somehow. Over the last decade or so, video game publishers have found new ways to monetise their content.
The main method has been through microtransactions, which are additional payments you can make in the game to buy extra content. This began as new maps and features for existing games but soon evolved into the free-to-play model that many games use today.
This approach allows players to download and play a game without paying a single penny upfront, removing the risk of paying for something they don’t like. Hit titles like Fortnite, Candy Crush, and Runescape all follow this model, demonstrating how successful it has become.
iGaming brands have also recognised this trend with many offering bonuses. For example, PokerStars Casino has a range of ways players can unlock free spins to use on eligible slot games. These can be obtained as part of a promotion or as a reward for completing a challenge and then used to play the applicable slots for free.
Platform Agnostic Gaming
Gaming used to be reserved for powerful computers and dedicated consoles which meant the barriers to entry to acquiring the right hardware were relatively high. Combined with the older marketing approach, it’s easy to see why fewer players had access to gaming platforms.
Today, that’s changed. Computer hardware, in general, has improved, meaning people carry powerful pocket computers with them wherever they go. These smartphones have more computing power than the likes of the PlayStation 2 or Xbox 360, allowing them to run many games from that era with no problem.
Casual titles are also readily accessible on mobile devices, smart TVs, and through a web browser, giving players millions of different video games available at their fingertips.
The ability to play games on any device means casual players don’t have to make a special effort to take up this hobby. It’s simply a case of opening an app and browsing the list of options.