2018 was a huge year in gaming with bumper revenues, re-imagined classics

Business Standard: 2018 has been a big year for video games – and not just because of the games that were released.

We’ve seen broken revenue records, burgeoning discussions about the labour that goes into producing games, and a crack-down on predatory practices that squeeze more dollars out of players.

Meanwhile, eSports and livestreaming showed bumper growth. Progressively updated games, and the “early access” trend continued to both delight and frustrate.

In the games themselves, we got a heavy dose of nostalgia with new twists on the classics.

Bumper revenues

The “battle royale” game Fortnite was the most outstanding and unexpected success of the year, hitting 78.3 million players in August 2018 and bumping developer Epic Games to a US$15 billion dollar valuation.

Cementing the economic scale of video-games, Rockstar Games’s Red Dead Redemption 2 had the second highest opening weekend for any media release ever, grossing US$725 million – and outstripping any of the latest Marvel movies .

Scrutiny of practices

Accompanying these dizzying numbers were reports of “crunch” – excessive and extensive periods of overtime – to get games released on time.

This has led to louder conversations about the labour that goes into making games, and a growing unionisation movement.

Attention also focused on the gambling-like transactions that now pervade “freemium” games. These games are free to play, but include many premium features that can be accessed with an unlimited number of small, in-game purchases (or “microtransactions”).

In June, the Australian Senate referred some of these practices to a senate inquiry, which concluded with a recommendation for a more comprehensive review. BS