Il 2024 is moving swiftly toward the
future and perhaps it is not yet time for official assessments in the video game industry,
but between festivals dedicated to emerging new Italian developers (the interesting
event organized by IIDEA
called First Playable in July in
Florence) and the rumors regarding consoles of the “even newer” generation that
will invade our homes in the coming years, the world of gaming has never
been so prolific. And productive.
Analyzing the data processed and
stored by the Italian Academy of
Video Games, a rather complicated scenario is painted regarding the evolution and the direction taken,
not only by the giants of the industry, however data of interest emerge. I was talking to you about directions a little while ago, and in the past I had mentioned
the fact that after the Covid event the world had been shaken in every
sector, not least that of video games: the post-pandemic period from 2020
to today has opened the eyes of publishers and, above all, developers.
Artists and world-builders, they are the main architects of the success of the biggest franchises; as a result, strengthening
the presence of their brands and their titles with the advent of sequels, prequels and spin-offs has until
today been the essential mantra in every boardroom of software houses all over the world. Moreover, forecasts for 2025 and 2026, except
for those products designed to cement the existing fanbase in huge communities
inspired by the sense of sharing real-time content among users, show
a large slice of the pie occupied by the online services offered by the giants
PlayStation and Xbox, an inexhaustible (prospectively speaking) source of
steady revenue for the coffers of Sony and Microsoft.
This is truly a world apart, developed over the last few years and which reached its peak during the pandemic: live service has proliferated before our very eyes and although this year there has been a slight decline, it does not seem destined to fade away as some industry insiders are beginning to say: think of subscription services like PlayStation Plus or its rival counterpart Game Pass at Microsoft: constantly evolving and updating, with ever-new content that replaces the old, but in fact fluid and changing, never truly owned by players, but that is another matter, as they say.
Terms like engagement and all-round longevity
are gaining ground more and more in the long-term planning of
production companies and, in a whirlwind world full of stimuli and tools with
which to disseminate practically anything and at any time of day, the
need to attract users with broad-ranging titles and content
(and which indeed hook gamers, holding them by stimulating their interest continuously) is the
first indispensable step toward achieving a certain level of revenue.
I report an extremely
interesting fact that divides, and will continue to divide, public opinion and industry insiders in the months and years to come: it has emerged that at least 62% of developers use generative AI to speed up the
writing of dialogue lines and standard characterization of NPCs
(non-player characters) and the creation of architectures related to certain
game levels, regardless of the reference genre.
In conclusion, I can
safely say that beyond data, charts, and diagrams, the real
challenge to be won for the future of video games as a media tool, a source
of income (one cannot live on air alone) and, why not, a work of art, will be that
of bringing together under one flag creativity, innovative ideas, and people with
a Vision.
