Gaming Industry Trends to Look Forward to Over the Next Year - Article
by Craig S , posted on 16 May 2022 / 6,519 Views
The following was produced in cooperation with Assaf Cohen.
2021 was a great year for games and, in many ways, gaming in general, although it did have its ups and downs. 2022 has continued that trend and has already been host to some huge releases, including Horizon Forbidden West, Gran Turismo 7, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, and of course mega-hit Elden Ring. And there's plenty more to look forward going into the holiday season and the first half of 2023 - and not just in terms of new video game releases - so let's take a look at we think what might happen.
Increased Console Availability
The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series have both been severely supply constrained since they launched at the end of 2020. That's pretty typical in the immediate post-launch period for new platforms, but the drought has stretched on much longer than normal for Sony and Microsoft's newest consoles as a result of high demand, supply chain issues, and a sustained chip shortage. Nintendo's Switch hasn't been immune to these problems either and the company has forecast a 10% reduction in sales as a result.
While the semiconducter shortage is due to persist through to 2024 according to Intel, there are good reasons to hope that the shortage of new consoles will ease towards the end of the year and throughout 2023.
AMD had previously expected the chip shortage issue to become less severe by the end of 2022, and even though that may no longer be the case, Sony seems confident it can ramp up production regardless. The manufacturer has projected PS5 shipments to hit 18 million over the next fiscal year (ending March 2023) - an increase of a whopping 11.5 million on last year - and it expects to hit this goal despite the ongoing supply chain and chip shortage issues.
It's not unreasonable to expect that Microsoft similarly expects the Xbox Series X to become much more widely available over the next year, much like the Series S has become in 2022. Nintendo likewise expects to ship 21 million units of the Switch in its fiscal year ending March 2023, which is a slight reduction on last year, but a remarkable figure for a platform in its sixth full fiscal year on the market.
So we can likely look forward to much wider availability of the PS5 and Xbox Series over the next year, as frequent shortages for them hopefully become a thing of the past.
A Wealth of New Titles
As we noted in the introduction, 2022 has already played host to some great releases. We've arguably had one of the best starts to a year in gaming history. The second half doesn't look quite as stacked, especially with the delay of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2, Starfield, and Redfall. But there are still plenty of great titles to look forward to for the rest of this year, including Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Splatoon 3, Gotham Knights, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, God of War Ragnarok, and Hogwarts Legacy.
The first half of 2023 is looking just as strong as the first half of 2022, in part thanks to those aforementioned delays. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2, Starfield, Dead Space, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, and Redfall are all now pencilled in for Q1 or Q2 of 2023. And that's assuming you don't have a large backlog of already-released games to work your way through from the last few years; if you're looking to extend your library without paying full price it's worth checking out DontPayFull.com to see what codes and discounts you can make use of when purchasing games.
Continued Growth of the Indie Market
The indie gaming market looks set to continue to grow; over the pandemic it reached new heights, in part thanks to the rapid rise of the free-to-play Roblox platform. Over half of all children in the United States reportedly use Roblox, not just to play games but also to socialise virtually.
On top of that, the continued success of the Switch, which often leads in terms of market sales share for indie games, as well as the competition between the various online game market places (PC and console), means there have never been more avenues for indie developers to distribute and sell their games.
Promotion work from the big 3 is also helping to shine a spotlight on indie releases, with Nintendo hosting regular Indie World showcases, Xbox's ID@Xbox scheme doing likewise, and Sony frequently drawing on the best of upcoming indies for its State of Play events.
Increased Pushback Against Bad Practices
We've begun to see increased pushback against some of the industry's worst practices. More media and community attention has been drawn to things like publishers considering introducing NFTs to their games, crunch work and harassment within development studios, poor (to say the least) management practices, and predatory microtransactions aimed at children. These things aren't yet going away, but they're attracting a bigger spotlight and more pushback than ever before, perhaps in part because they're entering the wider public consciousness.
Activision's numerous scandals are perhaps the best example of this - from accusations of abusive management, to harassment, discrimination, sexism, and threats of violence, the company has been hit by an avalanche of negative publicity over the last year. But the walls might finally be closing in on Bobby Kotick with Microsoft's takeover, and the Blizzard arm of the company has brought in fresh management thanks to the merger with Vicarious Visions and new external hires, so the company might be beginning to turn the corner. Even if it's a false dawn, the negativity publicity has been such a huge drag on Activision (and others hit by similar scandals, like Ubisoft) that other companies will want to do all they can to avoid being put in a similar position.
There are our top four gaming trends to look forward to over the next year. Did we miss anything? What are you most looking forward to? Let us know in the comments!
