The video game industry has come a long way. From the first development of a missile simulation game by Thomas T Goldsmith Jr. & Estle Ray Mann in 1947 – without graphics – to today’s rich graphic intensive games such as Call of Duty and Crysis, to name just two.
Over the past 65 years, games have seen tremendous development in hardware & software. Today, games are available for entertainment, education, training, physical workouts (exercise), and lots more.
Initially, games were sold as dedicated software on data storage devices like disks & CDs but now the Internet has given a whole new dimension to playing games. These days, there are a number of websites available which offer many free-to-play Flash games of different genres & cater to a mass audience.
Social networking sites like Facebook have played a tremendous role in the expansion of casual as well as hardcore gaming.
The rise in popularity of mobile phones has added to the growth of mobile gaming. As hardware gets better for handheld gadgets, games, too, improve in terms of graphics & game-play.
Size of global market revenue
Revenue predictions as per Reuters Global Media Submit 2011
The gaming industry is split into 3 main categories:
- Social online games
- Mobile games
- Console games
Author: Anurag Yadav (Research & Development, MAAC)