Today I learned that Unity does an annual gaming report of gaming industry trends and insights from game studios. It was a great weekend read and I recommend giving it look even if you don’t work at a gaming company/studio. I’ll be going into the main things that stood out to me as I was reading it. You can find the full report on Unity’s website here.

5 Trends Shaping the Industry

1. Indies are shipping games quickly and developers are working fewer hours.

2. Studios are starting more mobile-only games compared to 2021.

3. Large studios are increasing the number of multiplatform games.

4. More people are playing mobile games than in 2021.

5. Studios are extending game lifespans year over year.

1. Indies are shipping games quickly and developers are working fewer hours.

“The days of waiting for (and working on) a game for half a decade are becoming a thing of the past for smaller studios. Chart 1.1 shows that 62% of indies and 58% of midsize studios are now making games in less than a year, from start date to ship date.”

I found this pretty mind blowing and I’d imagine the time it takes to ship will only get faster with all the recent developments in AI tools, alongside studios utilizing premade assets and DevOps tools.

2. Studios are starting more mobile-only games compared to 2021.

Personally, I’m not a fan of mobile games but it makes sense why studios are focusing on mobile - it’s quicker to make (vs desktop/console) and it’s much more accessible. The TAM is so much higher with over 6.4 billion smart phone users worldwide.

Just an assumption - I feel like monetization model for mobile games is much more lucrative with in-app ads (IAA) and in-app purchases (IAP). Micro transactions feel more natural on mobile vs console/PC.

3. Large studios are increasing the number of multiplatform games.

It’s only natural for large studios to extract the most value out of all the work and effort that was put into each major AAA release. Not surprising that this only applies to large studios as 90% of smaller studios (indie to lower midmarket studios are choosing to only launch on 1 platform.

My POV as a gamer:

Pros:

• You don’t have to buy a new console or PC just to play that one game you really wanted. Growing up, I had a PS2 and having multiple consoles was not an option. I wasn’t able to play Halo.

• Cross-platform play is great. Being able to play Apex or Warzone on my PC with my friends on console is exactly what we need.

Cons:

• As a PC gamer, I feel like we have been getting the short end of the stick during initial releases/launches for games that are multiplatform. The desktop version has the most bugs/issues at launch with Hogwarts Legacy as a recent example.

• Studios making the decision to be more console-focused first. There are certain game mechanics that is possible on PC that’s not possible on console. Using Diablo 4 Open Beta as my example here - we’re only able to have a certain number of skills on our skill bar because it’s limited by the number of buttons on console controllers.

4. More people are playing mobile games than in 2021.

This isn’t too surprising as the size of young digital natives continue to grow - have you noticed how many kids have smart phones nowadays?

The most interesting part of this trend of the Unity gaming report were the takeaways around monetization for mobile games.

Overall, it looks like there isn’t a strong preference between in-app ads (IAA) and in-app purchases (IAP) - which was surprising since I thought mobile gamers would rather have micro transactions than being bombarded with ads.

We also get an interesting view of the revenue shift between IAA and IAP across different genres, which is tied to the demographic of users within these different genres.

The retention takeaways were great in this section of the report as well, especially “In-game ads can help improve retention.”

Sounds like a win-win here to me. Having IAA to monetize AND improve retention.

5. Studios are extending game lifespans year over year.

“Lifespan of games increased 33% over the course of 2022”. It’s not too surprising that frequent updates improve retention giving players new things to do.

This section was probably my favorite with key takeaways around post-launch challenges that studios face around user acquisition and retention.

We also get a look at all the player engagement techniques and retention tactics that studios are using to sustain their player base.

I’m not too surprised to see Battle passes increasing in popularity - I have experienced first hand how effective they are in Valorant. There will be battle passes in Diablo 4 as well - where most gamers like myself are okay with as long as it’s cosmetic focused vs play-to-win (p2w).. like Lost Ark.

Wrapping it up with 5 trends that Unity believes will be important for studios in 2023 and beyond.

Unity’s 5 Trends for Gaming Studios in 2023 & Beyond

1. Economic pressures will keep fostering ingenuity.

2. Smaller studios will launch more AAA-quality mobile games.

3. AI will become more involved in the game development process.

4. Hybrid-casual games will see a rise in popularity.

5. Player engagement will reach new heights through user-generated content.

Unity did an amazing job putting this report together and I found it really fun to read as a gamer. I definitely recommend giving the 2023 Gaming Report a read, even if you don’t work at a gaming company/studio.

Unity’s 2023 Gaming Report can be found here.
Charts used are all from Unity’s Gaming Report.
Cover image was created on DALLE2