Since its introduction, the Internet has rapidly changed the way in which we communicate and spend our recreation time. Many people today would find it impossible to go a few hours let alone a day without the use of a mobile phone or being connected online.

The Gaming Industry has be changed unrecognizably due to the internet with many companies who manufacture consoles etc. benefitting from this increase in usage, with their profit margin’s increasing as a result. This has the opposite effect when there is a system failure as in the case of Sony with a loss of $171 Million when the PlayStation network went down. (Schreier, 2011). The internet has made gaming a powerful force with Australia’s media sector expected to expand by around 4.1% over the next five years due interactive gaming and the internet continuing their rapid growth (Sandev, 2011).

The growth in the usage of Internet and social media sites is said to have stimulated the growth of online gaming (Fernandes, 2014). The continuous rise in the number of Internet subscribers along with the increased social network accounts is seen as a market driver. The free and assessable nature of the Internet is driving up the demand for online gaming (Fernandes, 2014). More people are now using the Internet, which means the growing demand for entertainment on it.

The Internet revolutionised gaming to a social platform. Users are now able to communicate on platforms such as PlayStation and Xbox. In the past. ‘The Gamer’ was perceived as an introvert personality, spending hours in an isolated room staring at a screen. I believe perception of Gaming has now changed and elevated to be a ‘cool’ activity practised by a cross section of society in a wider social context such as competing on mainstream television channels and organised tournaments. Recent internet dependent game “League of Legends” airing a tournament on BBC3 where the winner was awarded a prize pool of $2.13 million. Although there can be a dispute about the difference between ‘causal’ and ‘hard-core’ gaming one thing that cannot be disputed is the correlation between online gaming and the ‘money making Juggernauts’ (Silverman, 2011) it has created such as Zynga.

Despite gaming being a social platform, social media, is another factor that is causing an increase in online gaming. This is due to the many users playing games on social media platforms such as Facebook. It is estimated that over 200million people play social games (Marketme.co.uk, 2014). Social games use the relationships of friends and their competitive nature, mixed with an addictive game to attract players and keep them hooked and the use of the internet makes these games more accessible. It is therefore plausible to suggest that the rise in social media use is directly linked to the rise in social gaming.

One of the main ways that the Internet has influenced the Gaming industry is through applications on mobile phones. Mobile applications are the basis of trends set to define the future of video games. More young people has access to mobile phones and parents allow their children to play more games using them without concern, as they become more and more acceptable and the norm in today’s society (Stuart and Webber).  In recent years parents would have objected to their child playing video games, today most parents play games themselves, most commonly on their phones. This is evident by the increase in popularity of games such as Candy Crush netting over £865 million in 2014 as a result of users purchasing the game. (Dredge, 2015)

References 

Dredge, S. (2015). Candy Crush Saga players spent £865m on the game in 2014 alone. [online] the Guardian. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/feb/13/candy-crush-saga-players-855m-2014 [Accessed 27 Jan. 2016].

Fernandes, M. (2014). Rising social network accounts and internet usage is driving growth in the social gaming market – WhaTech. [online] Whatech.com. Available at: https://www.whatech.com/press-release/23567-rising-social-network-accounts-and-internet-usage-is-driving-growth-in-the-social-gaming-market [Accessed 28 Jan. 2016].

Marketme.co.uk, (2014). Rise in Social Media Causes Increase in Online Gaming…. [online] Available at: http://www.marketme.co.uk/rise-in-social-media-causes-increase-in-online-gaming/ [Accessed 28 Jan. 2016].

Sandev, M. 2011, “Interactive gaming to spearhead media growth”, B & T Weekly, [Online].

Schreier, J. (2011). Sony Estimates $171 Million Loss From PSN Hack. [online] WIRED. Available at: http://www.wired.com/2011/05/sony-psn-hack-losses/ [Accessed 27 Jan. 2016].

Silverman, M. (2011). The Influence of Social Gaming on Consoles. [online] Mashable. Available at: http://mashable.com/2011/02/22/consoles-social-gaming/ [Accessed 27 Jan. 2016].

Stuart, K. and Webber, J. (2015). 16 trends that will define the future of video games. [online] the Guardian. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/23/16-trends-that-will-change-the-games-industry [Accessed 27 Jan. 2016].

Is there a demand for ways to make money gaming?

The option of playing games online for money may seem like a dream job to some. The thought of having to wake up at 6/7am to do a 9-5 everyday is enough to give anyone a nightmare, when you could earn money from the comfort of your own home by playing the games in which you love. However is there really a demand for this?

Gaming for money also called ‘wager matches’ is where two players compete against each other to win. Both players who are competing put up the same stake and the game begins. The winner of each match takes away all the money and if the match is drawn the then money returns to the competitors.

There is another way in which people play games online for money through the website service of Twitch. Twitch has over 45million users and 1 million people uploading videos of themselves onto the site (Dredge, 2014). Twitch users can stream themselves gaming online whilst being paid through subscriptions and or donations. The games you are able to play for money vary from consoles such as PlayStation and Xbox to PC games such as League of Legends.

In 2014 EA Sport removed Virgin Gaming from within the actual FIFA game where it was called ‘Arena.’ Arena is a facility which allowed gamers to participate in wager matches. They discontinued this due to less than 0.2% of players using this service. Although 0.2% may seem like a small amount but FIFA 2012 sold over 3.2 million copies (Sinclair, 2011) within the first week. 0.2% of those who bought the game in the first week is 6,400. This number would grow throughout the year, especially over the Christmas period, with many users receiving the game as gifts. This suggests that Virgin gaming still had the potential to generate large amounts of revenue.

Many users on social media search for ways in which to play ‘FIFA for money’ which is just one of the possible games you can play online, above are some examples

Although not all the above users search have expressed a direct need for a platform where they can play their games for money it does however show there is a market for it. Personally I have seen my friends play of money and believe I know many people who would especially if there was a safe reliable platform to do so.

Google trends (above) show that in June 2014 topics around FIFA were searched over 150 times relative to the total search-volume across various regions of the world.
Twitch facilitates users that would like to stream and watch game streaming. Those who stream also give their own audio commentary. Twitch differs from YouTube as the stream can run without pause for as long as the streamer allows. Streamers are also able to upload short clips accessible 24 hours a day.

With the number of Twitch audience doubling from 20 million in 2012 to 45 million in 2013 it is evident that there is demand for the service is provides, which is allowing users to stream themselves for money and cash returns. The rise in users is also reflected by the rise in interest shown by Google Trends (graph above) reaching it’s highest point in 2015.

This research shows that there is a demand for ways to make money gaming online and I would expect that demand to grow as it becomes more accessible and more well known.

References:

Dredge, S. (2014). What is Twitch, and why does Google want it?. [online] the Guardian. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/may/19/twitch-youtube-live-games-google-acquisition-pokemon [Accessed 21 Jan. 2016].

Easports.com, (2014). The Future of EA SPORTS Arena. [online] Available at: https://www.easports.com/fifa/news/2014/changes-to-ea-sports-arena [Accessed 21 Jan. 2016].

Sinclair, Brendan (2011). “Publisher estimates football simulation’s sell-through as “the most successful launch in EA Sports history,” calls it the biggest launch of 2011 so far.”. GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Retrieved October 5, 2011.