What Are The Biggest Games Industry Trends?

I’ve been programming games since I was 13, and since the 1980s I’ve navigated every trend imaginable in the games industry. Nowadays, at Kwalee, my passions are still my focus - making games, playing games, working with talented developers and entertaining people.

However, it’s hard to ignore the major games industry trends shaping mobile, PC and console games and businesses. In this article, I’ll share my opinions on AI, the ups and downs of the industry at the moment, and where I think we’re going.

Games Industry Trends No.1 - The Acceleration of AI

In the development of games, AI is the biggest thing for the foreseeable future. AI is accelerating at a rapid pace, and amazing new tools become available each year.

Humans have been using tools for 2.6 million years, since when we first chipped sharp stone flakes. We’ve discovered many tools over the years including:

Tools have been an integral part of human progress and development since ancient times. They allow us to perform tasks more efficiently and effectively, and have the ability to multiply our strength and abilities. Without tools, many tasks would be much more difficult or even impossible to complete. For example, a person without access to a hammer and nails would have a much harder time building a shelter, while a farmer without a plough would have a more difficult time cultivating their fields.

In short, people who have access to and know how to use tools have a significant advantage over those who do not. They are able to complete tasks more quickly and with less effort, which can greatly increase their productivity and overall success. Overall, the use of tools has greatly impacted and shaped the course of human history, and will continue to do so in the future.

AI is the ultimate tool so far. There’s a million use cases in games, from code, to graphics and localisation.

The AI tools that have been invented in the last few years are truly amazing and the people that learn how to use them will have a big advantage over the people that do not. We have already used AI in Draw it, our biggest game with over 100m installs but I’m sure we can use AI in many ways to make games even better as one tool in the arsenal of capable, talented people.

Games Industry Trends No.2 - The Cycles of the Industry

It’s hard not to acknowledge that the games industry has gone through a massive challenge over the past few years. However, I’ve seen these cycles first hand time and time again. Video games are one of the most popular and successful forms of entertainment and I don’t think you can put the genie back in the bottle.

In 1983 I was at school in England, my parents were in Canada and I started to create mail order games with my brother for our company Galactic Software. When my dad came back to England, he told me to go to college, because it might be a fad like a humble hula hoop.
I said no. I believed that it wasn’t just a phase - people will always like playing games - and now you can play them electronically.

Since then, we’ve seen the rise and fall of Atari, which was massive between 1978 and 1982 but which then crashed. The industry was big, and people thought it had disappeared. But then it came back with the VIC-20, Commodore 64 and Commodore Amiga. Playstation grew in the early 90s at the same time it was a tough time for the home computer, before the console market took off. The development of graphics cards through companies like Nvidia have helped the PC come back with a massive market. You can see how these cycles come back time and time again as technologies, new platforms and player preferences change. To think it’s the end is unnecessary.

The internet took off in the mid 1990’s, and in the early 2000’s companies started going public with no revenue or profits at a rate of thousands of millions of valuation. The dot com bubble burst, but companies that came through, like Amazon, Paypal and Ebay - became the billion dollar companies of today. You have to build a fighting fit animal that survives to ride the next wave.

The public markets aren’t forgiving, so as the games industry has struggled, a lot of public companies have seen their valuations drop tenfold. That’s why, right now, I see it as an advantage that we’re privately run, we have a longer term vision, and we’re less interested in short wave cycles. We’ve got funding to support the future of Kwalee as a secure long-term company. It’s not like my early days as co-founder of Codemasters when things were touch and go.

One thing that always stays true though, is that you’re only as good as your last game, so there’s no room for complacency. I’d encourage people to get into the industry - if you like playing games, or like making games, the games business will always be here.

Games Industry Trends No.3 - Games In The Future

Games are always evolving - the challenge is to take ‘state of the art’ one step further. Anybody that’s in the industry has their favourite games, you know what are the big games at the moment and what players want. So you can either think about incremental change - how could you make that better? Or you could tackle a much harder problem, what’s completely different and new. Those unknown unknowns are tomorrow’s new revolutionary hits and it requires you to be brave.

I think of it like the artistic renaissance in Italy. One artist would do something, then others would build off it. Most painters fully illuminated the faces in their portraits. Caravaggio showed you could show part of the face in shadow and use people’s imaginations to fill in the rest. He popularised “chiaroscuro”, this contrast of light and shade, innovating to create a new effect.

That’s what we also do in games - play them as much as we can, and get inspired by them. I believe every leader in the games industry should play games.

Looking ahead in the games industry and for Kwalee, the future appears incredibly promising. Our vision is ‘making the most fun games for the world’s players’ because I believe that delivering for the player is fundamental to what we do, even as games industry trends come and go. Lots of companies exist solely to make money shifting boxes and that’s how they see their product, even if it’s as purely joyful as a game. But because both me and our COO Jason started out as programmers, that’s the DNA of our company.

At Kwalee, we’re not just a games company, but also a technology company, and we’re investing in research, development and new technologies to help us make incredible games.

We’ve gone all-in on Artificial Intelligence - seeing it as a tool to augment the skills of our teams rather than anything that can replace the human mind. As a company, we're committed to staying at the forefront of these advancements, and we constantly seek to learn and adapt, embracing new technologies and exploring innovative ways to make fun games.