Why tech companies want to start gaming

In 2016, a man walked into a police station in Michigan (USA).

He had his phone in hand. He was trying to catch a Pokemon.

Back then, the game Pokemon Go was brand new.

For those who don’t know, it involves physically going to different locations to catch creatures called Pokemons on phones.

To the man’s surprise, he was arrested.

The police recognized him. He had an arrest warrant on him.

This man had been so engrossed in the game, he forgot that he would be arrested if police realized who he was.

There were many peculiar cases like this.

A man in Wyoming found a dead body when he was out looking for Pokemons.

A man in his 60s in Taiwan had modified his bicycle to hold 64 smartphones so as to be able to catch more Pokemons.

This game is addictive.

But when it comes to addictive games, Pokemon Go is not alone.

It is just one of many.

Depending on who you ask, you will get names like the FIFA series, Counter Strike, Roblox, Grand Theft Auto, Dota 2 – and even smartphone games like Candy Crush Saga, PUBG, and so on.

It’s an endless list.

One estimate says there are over 8 lakh games in the world.

Gaming Ecosystem

Computer and smartphone games have been around only for a short period of time – a few decades at most.

In that period, gaming has given birth to new ecosystems.

Hardware companies offer hardware especially suited for gamers.

For example, Alienware and Razer are brands that make computers specially for gaming. There are several others.

Microsoft makes the Xbox; Sony makes the Playstation. Both are extremely popular gaming consoles.

Nvidia and AMD are famous for making chips used in gaming computers.

Thanks to the internet, multi-player games have become mainstream.

Gamers play with their friends remotely, or even with strangers. Many friendships are formed in these games without having ever met in real life.

Twitch is a platform dedicated to live-streaming games. YouTube and Facebook have also tried to do the same.

There are even national and international level tournaments where gamers battle each other.

Gaming as an Industry

Gaming might be something many people might brush off as a casual non-serious activity.

It turns out, it is a huge industry now.

We are not talking about companies that make computers or chips for gamers.

We are talking about companies that make the games themselves: game developers.

These companies do everything from deciding the objective, theme, storyline, general look and feel, physics, sound and music, etc – to actually writing the code for the game.

It is a huge endeavor and it takes many months or years for one game to be ready.

And yet, outside of the world of gaming, most people have not heard much about these companies.

Biggest Companies in the Space

Activision Blizzard is one of the biggest in the business. It is responsible for games like Call of Duty, Candy Crush, Diablo, World of Warcraft, etc.

Its market cap is greater than $70 billion.

Electronic Arts (EA) is another huge company.

The ‘EA’ logo is seen when some of the most popular games load. Games like the FIFA series, the Sims, Need for Speed, APEX Legends, Battlefield, Star Wars, etc.

EA’s market cap is close to $40 billion.

Take-Two Interactive is worth about $28 billion. It is most famous for the game series Grand Theft Auto.

Ubisoft Entertainment, Square Enix, and CD Projekt are other billion-dollar companies involved in developing games.

In case you’re wondering about Pokemon Go, it was developed by Niantic Labs – another billion-dollar company.

These are some dedicated companies involved in making games. There are a few bigger names that are in different businesses – but also make games.

Microsoft is one of the biggest companies in the world. It has made games like Minecraft and Forza.

Chinese company Tencent is worth over $500 billion. It has developed games like PUBG and League of Legends.

Sony and Nintendo have also done the same.

Many big tech companies have tried to benefit from the gaming boom without getting into game development.

Apple, Google, Amazon, Netflix, etc. have tried to capitalize on the gaming surge by introducing gaming services.

Way Ahead

Gaming has been on an upsurge for many years. It got an extra boost in the 2020-2022 pandemic when people had more free time.

According to some estimates, there are about 3.2 billion gamers in the world. To give some context, the world’s population is about 7.5 billion.

India is estimated to have 450 million gamers. India’s population is roughly 1.4 billion people.

The gaming industry’s total revenue was almost $190 billion in 2023.

In India, we have a few small game developers based out of Mumbai, Pune, and Bengaluru mostly.

Will this space grow in India?

We don’t have the answer. But the industry is growing globally – maybe that gives some clues.

And by the way, this is no kid's play.

The average age of gamers across the world is 35 years.

Gaming is a serious business.

The images above were generated using AI tools.