People Aren’t Reading or Watching Movies. They’re Gaming.
People Aren’t Reading or Watching Movies. They’re Gaming.
People Aren’t Reading or Watching Movies. They’re Gaming.
By Ruchir Sharma
August 15, 2020
Summary
Since April, every week has ended with U.S. box office receipts down at least 97 percent and gaming revenue up by more than 50 percent, compared with the same week the year before.
Gaming is doing more than displacing other forms of entertainment.
The game is seen as the harbinger of a day when consumers move seamlessly between physical and virtual commercial spaces.
Aware of the threat posed by gaming companies, internet giants like Apple, Amazon and Google are racing for controlling stakes in what is sometimes called the "Metaverse" - a term borrowed from Neal Stephenson's 1992 sci-fi novel "Snow Crash," which anticipated the arrival of a parallel online world.
Companies like Microsoft have already bought out online gaming pioneers like Mojang Studios, the creator of Minecraft, and have the resources to swallow many more.
Critics accuse the internet giants of taking an unfair cut of the nearly $120 billion global market for mobile apps, three-quarters of which is spent on gaming apps.
Many gaming companies have reached the stage where Google and Facebook were a decade ago - attracting millions of users but not yet making as much money on each user as they might.
These companies also have powerful backers: The Chinese tech giant Tencent holds a stake in the companies behind seven of the 10 top-grossing games since 2008, including Epic.The prospect of a virtual world built on gaming platforms may unsettle those who see digital games as a mind-deadening waste of time at best and full-immersion training in antisocial behavior at worst.
There is even evidence to suggest that playing these games can have beneficial effects, including improvement in spatial skills, motivation and learning concepts.
Reference
Sharma, R. (2020, August 15). People Aren't Reading or Watching Movies. They're Gaming. Retrieved August 16, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/15/opinion/fortnite-epic-apple-gaming.html