Introduction

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Gaming Industry has been growing massively for some time now, with the end of this hike still not in sight. The behemoth that is the gaming industry is still a sleeping giant in terms of its actual potential to affect the entire economic and commercial status of a nation. But is there any credibility to the notorious industry, that is dictated by the greed of major corporations which don’t care about the community, let alone the developers working day in, day out to create a consumer centric space? Apparently there is. With reports predicting a $3.9 Billion industry by the end of 2025 in the Indian economy, the growth trajectory will be hard to ignore. The very fact that gaming hasn't yet achieved acceptance in the Indian context as a viable career option, the examples of the US and other European nations have to be considered to alter this viewpoint.

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Microtransactions Model?

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MICROTRANSACTIONS model entails a free to access game with in-game cosmetics that can be bought using an in-game currency, which is bought using actual currency. Following me? Now this allows the corporations to keep the price of these cosmetics appealing using their own currency, but in turn increase the price to get their currency.

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Traditionally game developers used to charge a one time fee to access the entire game, meaning that the game was exhaustive in its gameplay. But with the rise of multiplayer games and constant updates to these games becoming a thing, the pay to play model became redundant. Player base started to shrink along with the current players leaving due to the consistent charges that are needed to be paid to access the DLCs or downloadable content that were sold as extensions to the main game's campaign. But then came the savior of the developers and fanned the flames of the greed which the big corporations had - Microtransactions.

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Fortnite has paved this way for the microtransactions model, raking up a whopping $1 Billion revenue in the first year itself. Other corporations took notice and raced to get their share of this golden goose.

 

Activision took its highly popular franchise ‘Call of Duty’ and created a free to play battle royale on the lines of Fortnite, sometimes too similar to Fortnite... Not only that, but they also released a sequel to their highly acclaimed game ‘Overwatch’, which was paid, with the branding ‘Overwatch 2’ which was free to play and had tons of cosmetics that could be bought through microtransactions.

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Monetisation

We have talked about what the companies get, but what about the consumers? (Apart from the constant rage from triggering lobbies and toxic players) With the advent of the online culture, there have emerged new avenues to monetise your passion for battling against pixels. Opportunities like streaming, content creation, etc. on platforms like YouTube and Twitch have seen a lot of careers kickstart.

Tournaments like Call of Duty League (CDL), Fortnite World Cup and FIFA's Global Series have an attractive prize pool, allowing the best to grind and better their chances for the money. Leagues like CDL have started to have a franchise based team involving a transfer market of players to keep their rosters fresh. This pretty much makes it an active trading economy to earn big bucks.

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These platforms work on the principle of cut based ad revenue, initially asking for some minimum requirements to be fulfilled before ads are run on the videos and streams of these creators, taking their commission in the process. This is a very beginner friendly model considering there is almost no monetary investment required to start earning.

 

Another way to monetise and boost the popularity of a game is to initiate an official professional Esports scene for the game. Now suppose, somebody gets the crazy idea to incorporate both of these activities to earn a living. they have found the cheat code of the gaming economy. Playing so well that you go pro, making a name for yourself and then going back to create content for the people who just started to idolize you for the style of game that you gave them in the pro matches only increases the scope of money that can be earned. These two do not have an additive effect on each other, rather a multiplicative effect.

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Conclusion

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The current gaming scene has evolved over time and will continue to evolve in the near future. This evolution has brought changes in the economies which governs the overall industry. This economy might seem to be one of the simpler ones but that is only because it is still in its infant stage. But again, it is a sleeping giant which after getting a stronghold might become one of the leading entertainment industries in the global economy. Extraordinary scenarios like the lockdown and rapid innovation in the hardware segment of this industry have helped it grow further, unlike the traditional manufacturing and service sectors. Having the benefit of remote working for the entire industry, has enabled flexibility in the way the work is done and progress is achieved. GPU giants NVIDIA and AMD have locked horns to sweep the market by launching new models almost twice a year. This has made the industry discover rising prices and innumerable choices for the consumers to make.