History of GameDev Industry

Introduction

The process of creating a video game is called video game development. Commercial PC and console games are generally developed in phases: first, in pre-production, pitches, prototypes, and game design documents are written; if the idea is approved and the developer receives funding, then full-scale development begins. A team of 20–100 people with varied tasks, including designers, artists, programmers, and testers, is normally involved in the development of a whole game. Traditional game development is usually funded by a publisher and takes several years to complete. The independent game industry has benefited from the rise of accessible game production technologies such as Unity and Unreal Engine, as well as new online distribution channels such as Steam and Uplay and the mobile game market for Android and iOS devices.

Phases of game development

Video game development is typically divided into 3 stages: pre-production, production, and post-production.

Pre - production

A concept artist sets the tone for the project early on by developing artwork and sketches. These early visuals help form the language of the game, giving everyone working on the project a visual guide to the overall look and feel. Pre-production essentially specifies what the game is about, why it should be developed, and how long it will take to make it.

Pre-production will answer questions such as:

1. What is the game about?
2. Who is the intended audience?
3. Do you think there's a market for it? What is the nature of the competition?
4. On what platform will it be released?
5. How will it be made profitable? Is it going to be a platform game or a free-to-play game with in-game purchases?
6. How long will it take for it to mature?
7. What kind of personnel and resources would it necessitate?
8. What is the budget estimate?

This stage can span anywhere from a week to a year, depending on the project kind, resources, and financial resources available, and can account for up to 20% of overall production time. The team is currently fairly small. There could be a producer, programmer(s), and concept artist. A video game producer is in charge of the project's economic aspects, primarily the finances. They are in charge of the budget and marketing tactics for the product.

Production

Production is the pipeline's longest stage, and it's all hands on deck. Production takes anything from one to four years and is where the game begins to take shape. The story has been fine-tuned, assets (characters, creatures, props, and locations) have been made, the rules of play have been established, levels and worlds have been constructed, code has been written.

Milestones in the production

Several milestones must be met throughout the game development process.

Prototype: This is the game's first test (which happens in pre-production and is described in detail above). Some games may never progress beyond this point. First playable: provides you a much better picture of how the game will look and play. While it's far from complete, placeholders have been replaced with higher-quality materials, and artwork has been added.

Vertical slice: is a completely playable sample of your game that may be used to pitch it to studios or investors. A vertical slice, which can last anything from a few minutes to half an hour, gives you a first-hand look at your game.

Pre-alpha: During the pre-alpha stage, the majority of the content is being developed. Some major decisions will need to be made at this point in the game's development. To improve gameplay, content may be deleted or new components may need to be introduced.

Alpha: The game is "feature complete," which means that all of the major features have been implemented and the game is completely playable from beginning to end. Some aspects, such as art assets, may need to be added, but controls and functionality should be fully functional. The QA testers will ensure that everything runs smoothly and will report any mistakes to the team.

Beta: at this stage, all of the material and assets have been integrated, so the team should concentrate on optimization rather than adding new services or features. Gold master: The game is finished and ready to be delivered to a publisher and made available to the general audience.

Post - production

The game development process continues after production is completed and the game has shipped, with certain team members being relegated to maintenance (fixing bugs, generating patches) or creating additional or downloadable content (DLC). Others may move on to the next project or the sequel.

A post-mortem or debriefing may be undertaken to examine what went well and what could be improved for the future. All of the design documentation, materials, and code have been finalized, gathered, and preserved for future use.

Early decades of video games (1950s - 1980s)

The First Video Games

The most resounding impact William “Willy” Higinbotham had on the world had nothing to do with video games. Higinbotham worked on the team that developed the first atomic bomb at Los Alamos Laboratory. As a relative footnote to his role in such pivotal global events, Higinbotham is also known for having arguably developed the first electronic video game. While serving as a senior physicist at Brookhaven National Laboratory, Higinbotham was aware that even though the innovations his facility was producing could be world-changing, they were not necessarily impressive on display to visitors. To entertain attendees at an annual public visitors’ day in 1958, he spent a few hours developing a rudimentary tennis simulation using analog computer technology designed to track missile trajectories and a pair of 5-inch oscilloscope screens. The result, Tennis for Two, was a popular feature for visitors but appeared only once more on the next annual visitors’ day. Higinbotham couldn’t even be bothered to pursue a patent for his patched together diversion, which was based on technology that was already on its way to obsolescence; digital computers had already begun to appear, and much larger cathode ray tube displays were in use in household televisions. Only more than a decade later, when the eerily similar Pong burst onto the commercial scene, did the significance of Higinbotham’s Tennis for Two as a milestone in video game history become apparent. As with the most remembered milestones in the history of communication technology, the actual story of the first video game is not so clear-cut as Higinbotham and Tennis for Two. There were other prototypes that could be called electronic games that were developed before Higinbotham’s 1958 demonstration. OXO, a simulation of the popular pencil and paper game called “Noughts and Crosses” or “Tic Tac Toe,” was developed in 1952 as part of Alexander “Sandy” Douglas’ doctoral work at the University of Cambridge. While the program ran on a digital computer (the Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator, or EDSAC) and used a cathode ray tube display, OXO often eludes credit as the first video game because it lacked a moving graphic display. A similar effort was a draughts (checkers) simulation made in 1951 by Christopher Strachey at England’s National Physical Laboratory in London, which was a pioneering artificial intelligence program. British engineering firm Ferranti exhibited a computer developed to play the game Nim using a series of lights as an interface at the Festival of Britain in 1951, and famed British mathematician Alan Turing worked with Dietrich Prinz on a rudimentary chess simulation that had no visual interface and was programmed by Prinz in 1951. Another argument for the earliest origin of the video game can be based on a patent for a “Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device” filed in 1947 and issued in 1948. That device, developed by Thomas T. Goldsmith, Jr. and Estle Ray Mann at Dumont Laboratories in Upper Montclair, New Jersey, allowed users to control a dot on a screen to aim at paper overlay targets, with successful targeting tracked mechanically rather than by computer processing. While sharing some visual display traits with Higinbotham’s Tennis for Two game, Goldsmith and Mann’s device was completely mechanical and used no computer program or memory. There is therefore a good case for Tennis for Two as the first video game prototype because earlier putative “first” video games lacked either a graphical motion display (e.g., Nim, OXO) or computing technology (e.g., the Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device). Bragging rights regarding which invention might truly be called the first video game notwithstanding, it is notable that all these early precursors and prototypes simulated a game or sport, and of these, the graphical motion display is frequently cited as a necessary criterion for an early prototype to be called a “video game.” Thus, even retrospective glances at video game history place a heavy emphasis on action and simulation as defining characteristics of video games.

First commercial games

Tennis for Two and its various predecessors was never widely played or released commercially; they were either produced only as working prototypes or exhibited to the public at isolated events. The first video game to find a large audience and be available beyond a single exhibition was Spacewar! Initially developed by three students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stephen R. “Slug” Russell, J. Martin Graetz, and Wayne Witanen (with help from others at later stages), in 1962, Spacewar! allowed two players to control dueling spaceships and attempt to shoot each other with torpedoes while orbiting a black hole. Spacewar!, played using a cathode ray tube display and custom-built controllers on the Digital Equipment Corporation’s PDP-1 computer, also featured a score display, a player-friendly feature not available on the oscilloscope display used by Tennis for Two. This and other competition-oriented features ensured Spacewar! was a hit. Within a year of its 1962 demonstration at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s annual Science Open House in May 1962, copies and variations of the Spacewar! the program began to emerge at research laboratories across the United States, and the game was being played not only on PDP-1 computers but on other computers that used a cathode ray tube display as well. A much more polished video game than Tennis for Two, Spacewar! might also be considered the first video game, especially Spacewar! used digital computing hardware rather than analog technology. More relevant to the video game industry boom to come, Spacewar! was certainly the first video game to be commercialized. While the actual Spacewar! game as originally programmed could not be commercialized because it was played on expensive research computers that were usually inaccessible to the public, the first coin-operated arcade games were both adaptations of Spacewar!: Galaxy Game, a one-of-a-kind arcade unit that debuted on the Stanford University campus in Palo Alto, California in 1971 and was the first coin-operated video game, and Computer Space, a mass-produced coin-operated arcade game released later the same year throughout the United States. Therefore, whatever early device is credited as the first video game, there’s no debating that Spacewar! accomplished two milestones important to the scalability of the video game as a mass medium: it was the first video game to be played on more than one machine, and the first video game to be adapted for commercialization. While the technologies employed to create the first video game prototypes and their predecessors varied, some conceptual themes are apparent across all these early games. Each had a basis in simulating competition, either competitive action simulations or simulations of competitive strategy games. While some of the early precursors imitated competitive board games and parlor games (OXO, chess, draughts/checkers, Nim), the prototypes most often referred to as actual video games and the first video game to evidence the medium’s commercial potential featured competitive action simulations of sport or combat (Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device, Tennis for Two, Spacewar!). Therefore, even in the earliest roots of video games, an emphasis is established on conceptual inspiration from simulation of competitive games and other competitive activities, sometimes based only on strategic competitions like board games or parlor games but more often based on action simulations of sport or combat.

Commercial Success in Arcades and the Home

Just as the first video game prototypes were conceptually rooted in simulating the themes of competitive enterprises from board games to sports to war, the biggest early commercial successes in video game history drew from the same sources of inspiration. While Spacewar! adaptation Computer Space was not commercially successful as the first mass-produced commercial arcade game, the release of Pong by Atari, Inc. the following year in 1972 met commercial success immediately beginning with its well-received introduction at a local watering hole called Andy Capp’s Tavern. Pong held to the same tennis theme as Tennis for Two, continuing the tradition of video games’ reliance on simulations of competitive activities. The year 1972 also saw the release of the first commercial home video game console, the Magnavox Odyssey, which featured sports and shooting games among its game titles. The Odyssey console used light signals combined with overlays placed on the users’ television screens to simulate graphics and featured predominantly sports and action games, though some games featured other simulations such as roulette. Other successful arcade and home consoles would follow, once again with action sport and combat simulations predominant in their themes. In fact, the popular Atari Video Computer system (VCS, later renamed the Atari 2600 as later console versions were developed) was released with a game titled Combat that featured 27 combat games such as tank and biplane duels. Oddly enough, the first video game industry crash in 1977 was precipitated in part by a glut of Pong copycats on the arcade market. Action games also defined the video game industry’s recovery from its 1977 crash, most notably the iconic Pac-Man coin-operated arcade game released by Namco in 1980. Pac-Man’s simple action hunt-and-chase play made the game a commercial success and a cultural phenomenon. In fact, Pac-Man was so popular that after the arcade game sparked a resurgence from the 1977 industry crash, the let-down from a much-anticipated but poorly produced console version of Pac-Man contributed to a second video game industry crash in 1983.

1980-s

The era of computer games began in 1980 in exactly the same way as it ended in the late 1970s, large companies made huge money on arcade games (special machines that often stood in computer clubs and shopping centers.) Exactly in 1980, the legendary Pac-Man game came out and just blew up the world of arcade games. People who decided that you can earn good money on games began to rivet games like boots. Every second company tried to get rich on low-grade games, which later turned into a collapse for arcade games. In 1982, only 10% of all games in the world brought at least some profit to their enterprise. At that time, the market was dominated by a North American company, I think everyone knows, Atari. With a lot of credibility in the market, this company can be said to have controlled it, but everything changed in 1983 when the Video game crash occurred, which not only changed the video game market, but also completely changed the entire video game world. Next, the whole process of collapse will be described step by step.

Video game crash 1983

We used to suppose that the gaming enterprise is an excellent marketplace wherein billions of bucks are “boiled”. The identical Grand Theft Auto V for the primary day of income delivered the creators extra than 800 million greenbacks - that is the maximum worthwhile product with inside the complete enjoyment enterprise in general. And at the cabinets of gaming stores, we constantly see dozens of titles, from high-price range AAA video games to area of interest indies. However, this became now no longer continually the case. In the records of video games, one second while the very lifestyles of the enterprise became known as into query became simply remembered - it became the crash of the enterprise that befell in 1983. It affected the complete US console marketplace: the entire sales of businesses reduced via way of means of nearly ninety seven percent - from 3 billion greenbacks to a hundred million. We speak approximately this occasion as a part of the “Month of the 80s”. Journalists used to partner the disintegrate of the enterprise with the disintegrate of Atari, which at that point ruled the market. And, despite the fact that the enterprise did now no longer initiate the disaster directly, it additionally touched it - in large part because of unsuccessful enterprise decisions. In the ones years, domestic computer systems started to compete with consoles, and as a result, the enterprise attempted with the aid of using any way to guard the market. Including very expensive, however extraordinarily awful video games made in a hurry. In 1982, Atari offered out the licensing rights to evolve the super-famous Pac-Man for his or her Atari 2600. The domestic console had much less processing electricity than arcade machines, so the port needed to be reduce back. As a result, the sport appeared a good deal worse in this platform than on slot machines. Atari`s failures, in addition to an overabundance of low-pleasant video games from third-celebration companies, have caused a trendy growth in client mistrust of video games and consoles. As a result, in 1983 their income collapsed - as did the marketplace itself. For all positions and for all manufacturers. 97% - was the fall in revenues of console manufacturers - from 3 billion to 100 million dollars. That was crazy.

Revival

The disaster affected best North America, in which the consoles are maximum widespread. In Europe, everybody turned into used to the usage of computers, and in Japan there has been a closed industry - they had been now no longer even laid low with the collapse. So assist got here from there. Following the fulfillment of the Famicon at home, Nintendo determined to go into the almost empty North American market. However, for America, the set-pinnacle field turned into appreciably redesigned: it turned into known as an "enjoyment system" in order now no longer to say games (shops had been nevertheless afraid to promote them), and cartridge ports placed on pinnacle resembled second-era consoles. pinnacle drawers. , had been driven forward. Thus, the Nintendo Entertainment System turned into born. The NES performed an nearly decisive function in restoring the marketplace and bringing lower back the overall hobby with inside the gaming industry. In 3 years - from 1985, while the console went on sale, to 1988 - the marketplace grew from 100 million to 2 billion dollars. It became 70% managed with the aid of using Nintendo.

Small sonsole stat

Sega SG-1000 (~2 million sold) | (1983) At the time, Sega was a subsidiary of Gulf & Western – one of the top five arcade manufacturers. The Sega SG-1000 was the first of its kind to be made specifically for households. NES Family Computer (~62 million sold) | (1983) “The NES featured a number of groundbreaking games, such as the platform game Super Mario Bros. and the action-adventure games The Legend of Zelda and Metroid. As one of the bestselling consoles of its time, the NES helped revitalize the US video game industry following the video game crash of 1983.” A huge part of the NES’s success was its innovative business model. NES licensed third party publishers to create & distribute the NES’s games. Sega Master (~13 million sold) | (1985) The original Master System models use both cartridges and a credit card-sized format known as Sega Cards.

Development tools

It's undeniable that, for the 1980s, games like Mario, Pac-Man, and Tetris were genius innovations. However, it does not fit in my head how such games were written at that time with limited resources. Most games at that time were written in Assembly language, but compilation, debugging and other subtleties, how were they carried out? Nowadays, there are many environments such as visual studio, jet brains and other very convenient resources, but they simply did not exist before. In the 70s and 80s, expert sport builders used pass assemblers to broaden PC video games after which dispatched the output bits and bytes to gaming hardware thru an RS232 cable. In the early days of arcade machines, sprites and individual units had been designed the usage of graph paper and painstakingly transformed to bytes via way of means of hand, then inserted as bytes without delay into meeting language. When domestic computer systems together with the Atari 800 and C64 regarded with inside the past due 70s and early 80s, hobbyists ought to broaden video games with no need an high priced PC, as they had been reasonably-priced and self-contained machines with an appealing equipment. We nonetheless needed to create individual units and sprites via way of means of hand on graph paper due to the fact there had been no editors. Even after they began out to appear , that they'd the downside that they needed to be loaded into reminiscence like every other program. You`d have assembler, maps, individual/sprite editors, sound software program taking on precious RAM, so that you could not without problems write a sport that used complete 48K/64K. Edit to add: you'll have assemblers that may be loaded into each halves of Spectrum or C64 reminiscence so that you can write code to get entry to the opposite half! As a result, writing code was much more laborious and time-consuming process, and the games still turned out to be hits.

Most popular game hits of 1980s

1. Super Mario Bros 3 (1988, Nintendo)

Super Mario Bros 3 is arguably the best natural platformer ever made, a brilliantly built undertaking introducing power-up costumes (inclusive of the famed tanooki suit), feisty enemies and myriad gameplay innovations. With its non-linear, frequently pretty experimental layout it set the tone for Nintendo`s present day era, making ready us for various and modern Mario titles consisting of Super Mario 64, Sunshine, Galaxy and Paper Mario. In 2020, a pristine unopened replica bought at public sale for $156,000. It turned into a steal.

2. Pac-Man (1980, Namco)

Famously designed through Toru Iwatani as an antidote to the typical shooters of the era, Pac-Man changed spaceships and extraterrestrial beings with a lovable sentient mouth and 4 lovely ghosts. Everything approximately the sport is iconic, from its pill-littered maze, to its “waka waka” sound effects, to its top notch kawaii person design. It become an arcade celebrity that spawned a vending gold rush, a slew of sequels and, as I even have argued with inside the past, the idea of survival horror. Whichever manner you have a take a observe it, Pac-Man, like Space Invaders, will usually be a established image of video games and the pride they bring.

3. Tetris (1984,various)

How did a puzzle recreation programmed on an vintage Electronica 60 pc at Moscow`s Dorodnitsyn computing center cross directly to seduce the whole world? How did seven in another way configured terminus losing right into a restricted area make addicts of an envisioned one thousand million players? The upward push of Tetris is the maximum captivating tale the video games enterprise owns, and on the center of it's miles coder Alexey Pajitnov, whose youth love of form puzzles solid a killer app that quite a whole lot made the Game Boy and taken its object-sorting magic to each platform since. This isn`t a recreation approximately heroes, it`s a recreation approximately that maximum human of endeavors: tidying up and locating an area for things. Perhaps this is why we like it a lot and why, while we near our eyes, we will nonetheless see an infinity of shapes falling lightly into place.

1990s – The Golden Era of Gamedev

For many people 1990s can be considered the Golden Era of Game development. During this decade most iconic brands and franchises of gaming were created. This list includes PlayStation, Gameboy, Need for Speed, Gran Turismo, Grand Theft Auto, Half-Life, Fallout, Civilization, FIFA, The Elder Scrolls. This list could go on for many pages. Gaming was truly popularized in the 1990s.

During this decade happened a transition from sprite-based graphics to full-fledged 3D graphics and because of that many of genres rose, including FPS, real-time strategy, survival horror, and MMO. Handheld gaming became more popular throughout the decade, thanks to the release of the Game Boy. Arcade games began to decline as home consoles became more common.

Technological innovations

A “3D Revolution” happened in the 90s, when video games made transition from 2D and pseudo-3D graphics to real-time 3D graphics, a trend popularized by arcade video games in the early 90s.

On PC, DOOM is considered as the origin of modern first-person shooter video games. Some people give this credit to Wolfenstein 3D, since it was released about a year and a half earlier than DOOM, but was nowhere near as popular. Wolfenstein 3D was one of the first video games to feature ray casting with texture mapping, where textures were wrapped around 3D objects.

Nearly every gaming system released in the 90s began to move to the new CD-ROM technology, with the Nintendo 64 being the last major game console to use ROM cartridges. Also appealing to creators was the fact that CDs could be produced at significantly lower cost and with more flexibility (it was easier to change production type), and they were able to pass the reduced costs onto consumers. In particular, the fifth generation of consoles marked a turning point for optical-based storage media. As games grew more complex in content, sound, and graphics, the CD proved itself to be more than capable of providing enough space for the extra data. The cartridges were pushed beyond the limits of its storage capacity. Because of that many game developers shifted their support away from the Nintendo 64 to the PlayStation.

Due to CD-ROMs lacking the built-in memory of ROM Cartridges, PlayStation introduced the use of memory cards to store saved game data. This became the standard for video game consoles until it was replaced by using the hard drives and built-in flash memory during the seventh generation in the late first decade of the 21st century.

The Super NES gamepad introduced a more rounded dog-bone like design and added two additional face buttons, "X" and "Y", arranging the four in a diamond formation. Another addition were the shoulder buttons, which have been copied by most controllers since.

Sony’s PlayStation controller was the first gamepad for a home console to use two handle-bars at the bottom of the controller. Previously this feature had been relegated to niche specialist controllers. This has been standard in most game controllers since, until the Wii Remote was introduced.

While D-pads and digital sticks rely on single electrical connections for movement, analog sticks use continuous electrical activity running through potentiometers to measure the exact position of the stick within its full range of motion. In 1996 Nintendo introduced the first analog thumbstick on the Nintendo 64 gamepad. It was followed by the 3D Control Pad, the Sony Dual Analog gamepad which introduced the use of two analog sticks, and the Sony DualShock. After that all major video game console controllers have included two analog thumbsticks, except for the Wii's "Wii-mote".

The rapid growth of the Internet in the 1990s led to an expansion of Online games. Video game consoles began to receive online networking peripherals, such as the Satellaview (1995), SegaNet (1996). Online gaming, which had been the exclusive feature of PC games, became available on consoles starting with Dreamcast online functionality in 1999 with its built-in modem, internet browsing software, and ability to play online. Nearly all consoles since released then have had support to play online.

Genres innovations

Many technically innovative and genre-defining games were developed during the 90s, largely due to the impact of 3D graphics allowing three-dimensional environments as well as optical discs which allowed much greater storage capacity.

For many kids of the 90s street fighting games were their childhood. The release of Street Fighter II in 1991 is considered a revolutionary moment in fighting games. The first-person shooter typically features the player as the main character. Often the player does not see the face of the character they are playing, but will always see the weapon of choice located in the player’s hand. FPSs are usually very violent and feature gore and blood, which has sparked controversy from parents, since most of the gamers are young children.

With the introduction of the 5th generation of games, 3D graphics become the standard by end of decade. Although FPSs had been some of the first games to become 3D. In 1992 Wolfenstein 3d was released, which created interest in what FPS games could become. DOOM bursted onto the world scene and instantly popularized the FPS genre, and even the way games are played, as Doom is among the first games to feature multiplayer capabilities. With Goldeneye 007 (1997) was introduced an engine that made development of first-person shooters for home consoles a practical idea. It is not until Quake (1996) was released that game developers began to take multiplayer features into serious consideration when developing games. Quake II (1997), Unreal (1998) and Half-Life (1998) featured the next evolutionary step in the genre with continual progression of the game (no levels in the traditional sense) and an entirely first-person view, and become one of the most popular video games in history.

Racing games were also first popularized in the 90s. In 1997, Gran Turismo was released. It was considered the most realistic racing simulator in its time, combined with playability, enabling players of all levels to play. The Gran Turismo series has since become one of the most popular sim-racing franchises ever, with the series selling more than 50 million copies worldwide. Colin McRae Rally was introduced in 1998 to the world, and was a successful semi-simulation of the world of rally driving.

RPGs also became prominent in the 90s. It was in the early 1990s that the console role-playing video game genre separated itself from computer RPGs, with the Final Fantasy series playing a major role. The next major revolution came in the late 90s, which saw the rise of optical disks in fifth generation consoles. The opportunities for RPGs were enormous—longer, more involved quests, full-motion video, large open-worlds.

Game development in 2000s

2000 — 2005: Rise of MMO and Open World Games

Game developers have mastered 3D. Games are becoming more advanced in terms of technology and depth. This allows developers to create projects in the open world where players have complete control over their actions, rather than basic linear games in the type of "go from point A to point B." Rockstar Games, for example, is bringing GTA 3 to 3D and creating a new standard. The quick development of GTA Vice City follows the spectacular success of the third installment.

Other developers have joined up on the push to create three-dimensional open-world games. The Czechs released Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven in 2002, which will be expanded into a trilogy in the future. They released True Crime: Streets of LA in 2003, allowing gamers to play as cops.

Some people go the safe path and find a formula that works for their initiatives before putting them on stream. In 2002, the Swedes published Battlefield, a military shooter, and in 2003, the Call of Duty period began. Simultaneously, the Medal of Honor series is being released. Ubisoft is also introducing the Prince of Persia franchise. The Need For Speed franchise has also been streamed. The idea of releasing games in a series every 1-2 years is gaining traction.

A slew of interesting RPGs will be released over the same time period. In 2003, Bethesda released The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind, one of the best role-playing games ever made. Gothic was released by Piranha Bytes two years prior.

Players are gradually introduced to online play. Lineage 2, released in 2003, kickstarted the MMO craze. A year later, Blizzard unleashes the major competitor of the Korean MMO in the form of World of Warcraft. It is still regarded as one of the top MMORPGs of all time, with the eighth add-on arriving on November 24, 2020. Instead of the 16-32 person arenas found in online shooters, players are offered dozens of locales spanning hundreds of kilometers, thousands of quests, and the option to accumulate raids, allowing them to live a second life in the game.

It seems that everything is fine, but the trouble comes from the economic sector.

2008 financial crisis

By 2010, PCs were becoming more powerful and less expensive, and games were becoming more visually appealing. On the screens, players observed well-developed heroes and NPCs with a large number of polygons, rather than angular character models in locales with frankly poor and game design. Epic Games, who actively licensed their new gaming engine Unreal Engine 3, made a significant contribution to the popularization of good technologies. It was extremely well-optimized; even at the highest settings, a standard PC was necessary. Here are a few examples of games that made use of UE3 technologies:

Borderlands, Gears of War, Army of Two, Alpha Protocol, Singularity, Bioshock, Enslaved, Tom Clansy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas, Lost Odyssey, Unreal Tournament 2007, Medal of Honor: Airborne, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Bulletstorm, Mass Effect, Mirror’s Edge.

By 2010, the industry had piqued the interest of investors. It's now worth a lot of money. Every year between 2005 and 2009, game production profits climbed by 10%. The funds for development have long surpassed the $10 million threshold.

The 2008 financial crisis hampered the gaming industry's rapid expansion. Shareholders went bankrupt, gaming studios were unable to secure major finance, and several studios were forced to close. THQ, for example, liquidated five of its fifteen studios in less than a month and a half, and decreased financing by 30 to 50 percent in the rest. EA reorganized nine studios, liquidated Pandemic Studio, and lay off over a thousand people. In general, the gaming industry's capitalization has dropped by half.

It was also the end of the era of movie-based games, because the purchase of licenses became too expensive. But the gaming industry has done well.

2010–2015: Development of the indie sector

While expenditures are increasing, funding is decreasing, a new indie game sector is quietly forming. Why ask for tens of millions of dollars from investors, risking the project failing and going bankrupt, when you can form a local studio of several individuals and make games "on your own"? Yes, with basic graphics, but with fresh concepts. Such games were often built solely on the basis of passion, with no money at all, due to crowdfunding portals, the number of which had risen to 450 by 2012.

The indies have shown that it is the staging, not the polished graphics, that makes a game fascinating. First and foremost, there is the concept. Braid, World of Goo, FeZ, Hotline Miami, The Binding of Isaac, Super Meat Boy, and Minecraft are the best examples of this genre. It is impossible to comment on the latter's success.

2020: the rise of game-services and the era of remasters

It will be difficult for games to deliver something new by 2020. Since Unreal Engine 3 and Frostbite 2 (the game engines for Battlefield 1 and Battlefield 5), there have been no notable advances in graphics. While developers continue to release comparable games, mobile gaming continues to grow at a rapid pace. By 2019, it will account for half of the whole gaming industry's income.

The formula is tried and true: keep the game's mechanics and graphics simple, add in-game purchases, and encourage players to go to the store since it's easier and faster. Electronic Arts and Ubisoft have adapted the techniques, with practically every project now including in-game sales.

But it has not done without new trends, at least in the online segment.

Battle royale

The so-called battle royale mode, which mixes features of the classic deathmatch and the so-called last man standing, where only one player can win the battle, was a breath of fresh air at the time. The Playerunknown's Battlegrounds project was a forerunner in this direction. This game received a lot of attention in 2017.

Leading developers such as Call of Duty, Fortnite, Apex Legends, Battlefield 5, and Warface were quick to realize the popularity of Battle Royale and quickly adapted it into their games.

Shooters weren't limited. Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout is an arcade platform game with the same battle royale principles. And it sold over 2 million copies in its first two weeks of launch.

The era of remakes and remasters

Another key 2020s trend is the revival of ancient games. Because developers are hesitant to take risks by launching new franchises, re-releasing well-known and cult series has become a clever strategy.

Here is a partial list of notable games that have been given a second life: Mafia: Definitive Edition, Tony Hawk: Pro Skater 1+2, Battletoads, Destroy All Humans!, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Resident Evil 3 Remake, Warcraft 3 Reforged, Command & Conquer Remaster Collection, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Remastered, Сrysis Remastered, Wasteland Remastered, Neighbors Frome Hell: Remastered.

Sometimes the tests paid out, while other times the developers were content with tightened textures and that was all. With Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, this happened. However, there are exceptions, such as the publication of Mafia: Definitive Edition, a remake of the first installment in which everything was actually redone.

What's next?

The gaming future in 2020 and beyond is murky, and if creators continue to existing notions, gamers will get one day popcorn games for a large donation. It's already happened in the AAA film industry, and it's about to happen in the game industry. Instead of new ideas, profit and remuneration are prioritized. Is this going to be the case for the next five years? We'll have to wait and see.