The video game industry has always been one of the most lucrative for industry professionals, especially since it officially became mainstream,
crossing the initial barriers made up of public skepticism,
a shortage of dissemination channels without a clear and well-defined marketing strategy
and, last but not least, the conception of the Video Game as a sort of
pastime for nerds locked away in the depths of their
basements.
Fin dai tempi di Pong and the revolution that resulted from it,
videogames have generated increasing and ever more impactful revenues,
expanding the offering for users and elevating professions that until just a few years
earlier seemed to be the exclusive domain of companies that dealt with video games
only indirectly: computer scientists, creatives, narrative designers are today highly qualifying and
sought-after professions, to be clear.
Tutto questo served to underline the
economic strength of the sector in the globe, but in Italy how are things going?
Se pensiamo che in the post-pandemic
the Italian video game market has generated a turnover of around 2.5
billion, a figure that refers specifically to 2022, two years after
the spread of Covid around the world with all its social,
political, and economic consequences, we get an idea of how the market not only did not
suffer heavily like other sectors, but on the contrary has
acquired a trend destined to grow in volume.
But the really surprising figure
is the one that concerns us gamers and collectors very closely: whether
you are old school or not, you should know that physical, that is, the tangible video game product
you can hold in your hands, is clearly growing, unlike
digital which, after an initial boom
in the early 2000s and during (for obvious reasons) the pandemic period, is seeing a decline, small but steady.
Certainly, the market for digital software, apps, and mobile attracts a huge share of users, but more than 15% of video game players use physical products and prefer the store experience instead of digital purchasing carried out with a click, an operation that is certainly faster but “colder” and lacking an entire series of sharing and exchanges that part of the population, growing, seeks assiduously.
This, clearly, is happening again
thanks to the easing of restrictions, now almost
nonexistent, which had forced the video game user to find new ways to
be able to enjoy the video game medium, thanks to more immediate means such as
the mobile phone, for example.
What drives the
average Italian video game player to desire the cartridge and game disc to
manually insert into the console, rather than the on-screen notification
of the purchase of the long-awaited game?
What is the driving force that still leads him to prefer the Physical over the Digital?
The answer lies within
us, as with all the most illuminating revelations.
The beauty of a cover,
the tactile pleasure one feels in running one’s fingertips over the disc, the
ability to place the box of our game on the shelf, seated upon
a throne of memories that will always remain before our eyes,
in themselves constitute satisfying and irreplaceable experiences, an emotional booster capable of
giving us back, whenever we feel the need, a new adventure that is
at the same time the same.
Ed it is precisely this multisensory repetition that
defines its uniqueness, but not only that! It is also a purely commercial matter, yes because the physical video game can be resold or exchanged for other titles, something that is impossible with digital.
Without counting the fact that, in a world
that is racing swiftly toward a totally digital, interconnected and perhaps
also a little sterile future, no one will be able to take print out of our hands.
Our. Forever.
