All gamers are teenage men or teenage boys start to be broken. Everybody can kind of participate in different aspects between all the different genres of game and the different entry points and the different experiences I think around gaming. There’s something there for everybody
I’ve always been a gamer, but 2020 was the year I needed games to escape the stressful and depressing reality of pandemic life. And of all the games I played, the simple, party-style games with friends and family over Zoom gave me the most joy. Many were made by Jackbox Games.
Jackbox is best known for its “party packs” of games you can play remotely with groups. (I’m partial to Quiplash, in which you compete to come up with funny responses to prompts like “The worst thing to hear during a massage.”) The company’s pandemic-fueled boom — it has more than doubled its user base this year — may fade when we can all go outside and see our friends in person again. But it has been invaluable for my sanity this year.
Hellmann’s Canada created an island in the popular game Animal Crossing where, for a limited time, players could convert virtual food waste into real food for people in need. Island visitors were given a 15-minute slot to drop off their spoiled virtual turnips. In return, the condiment brand pledged donations to Second Harvest, Canada’s large food rescue charity.
Gaming continues to explode, both in time and money spent. Enabling consumers to use virtual currency, goods and actions to achieve real-world impact is a surefire way to attract attention.
💡 How can you enable gamers to have their virtual actions resonate in the real world?
If you received a virtual reality gaming headset this holiday season, congratulations! Whether you’ve got the newly released Oculus Quest 2, one of the last few units of the now discontinued Oculus Rift S, or another headset like the PlayStation VR, there are a ton of video games for you to explore with your new head mount display. Here are ten games I personally enjoy and think are worth your time and money.
We’ve rounded up our favorite and most-used games, apps, and entertainment. Check out our app picks for iPhones, Android phones, Windows PCs, and M1-equipped Macs; our favorite mobile games from Apple Arcade and Google Play Pass; and our top choices for gaming PCs, the PS5, Xbox One and Series X / S, Nintendo Switch, and VR. We’ve also listed our favorite streaming shows on Disney Plus, Hulu, ESPN Plus, and Netflix; some great sci-fi books; and exciting new podcasts. (Note: pricing was accurate at the time of publishing but may change.)
Affirmed by both gaming’s storming of mainstream pop culture and the appetite for contactless connections, XR – extended reality tech (virtual, augmented and mixed – VR, AR, MR) will become an essential power play.
AR in particular, the most accessible of the lot and downplayed for too long, will be instant commercial gold, and the gateway to ballsier blended experiences. Take creative technologist Holition’s concept for Coty. Mirror-like store screens conduct instant face scanning, overlaying make-up looks onto fans’ faces in AR – styles transferrable to a smartphones via ‘hand-off’ tech, to review or buy from later. For packaging see Lush’s AI app-based visual recognition tool – Lush Lens – that surfaces relevant info as AR interface via one simple scan. In-app purchasing currently in development.
For fit tech it’s a no-brainer: technologists Wannaby has worked with both Farfetch and Gucci in the last year to enable instant virtual try-ones for sneakers (its software detects users’ feet, generating a 3D overlay simulating how they’ll look on foot) while in early 2020 Burberry collaborated with Google Search on a tool that shows an AR version of the product at scale against other objects in their vicinity.
Car brands from Škoda to Porsche have all worked around showroom shutdowns with contextualizing apps where would-be owners visualize vehicles in their driveways, while Verizon’s WebAR tech delivers AR ad formats to online publishers – letting fans view a car, scaled to fit their surroundings, by simply launching it from the on-page advert itself.
The number of females playing video games in Asia is growing at a faster rate than their male rivals, according to the latest research.
Women are levelling the playing field across all of Asia's key markets including China, India and Japan.
The female video gaming community grew by 19% last year, according to data commissioned by Google.
Asia is regarded as the global capital of video games, accounting for 48% of the world's total gaming revenue.
"Among the millions of gamers joining the ranks every year, females have been a huge catalyst for growth," said Rohini Bhushan, at Google Asia Pacific.
There are a number of factors that are contributing to this rise, with storylines becoming more inclusive and connectivity improving across the region.
Female gamers are on the rise in the 'world capital of gaming'
Reverse Holo Charizard - COLLECTIBLES/NOSTALGIA - Pokemon has been trending on the playground again and as an investible asset after Logan Paul dropped $216k on a sealed first edition 1999 base set and sold them all on a live stream @ $11k each. A few months back I mentioned the rapid growth of PSA grading. Nostalgia and remixing continues to be a powerful force across the spectrum, everything from movies to fashion. And it wouldn’t be surprising to see other influencers drive new nostalgia-led frenzies as well as introducing them to new generations.
This year the industry and social media spheres turned a corner to make gaming more accessible to all and specific developers and technologies were recognized. As diversity, equity and inclusion grow in importance, the historically un-inclusive trend in gaming is giving way to a broadening audience taking active steps to diversify and become more inclusive. Developers are giving more focus to adding features, technology and content to help games be played and enjoyed by a broader audience. The first annual Video Game Accessibility Awards were live-streamed to celebrate accessibility in video games but unable to secure official sponsors given complications from the pandemic. Further, The Game Awards introduced a new award category starting in 2020, Innovation in Accessibility.
2021 prediction: Forward-thinking brands will see this white space and engage with this cause to align with their core values, engage with a more diverse audience, and enhance their corporate reputation.
While the launch of the new Xbox and PlayStation consoles have dominated the last quarter of 2020, cloud gaming services from the likes of Amazon, Google and others are iterating and innovating. In 2020, digital game sales exceeded physical game sales for the first time in the industry’s history, with gamers opting for direct downloads of games or subscription services. As a result, brand access to audiences has expanded greatly because of consumers’ ability to see a game in-console and download and play instead of finding retailers or ordering online.
2021 prediction: The cloud will open up more channels for brands to deliver innovative messaging directly to target audiences.
Well, let’s face it, not everyone plays the same type of game. While most people like playing video games for fun, other people gamble on casino games for entertainment and benefits. Before the introduction of online gambling trends, people often play card and dice games while wagering a specific amount of money. Online gambling has boosted the gaming industry to another level by attracting the attention of popular gamblers in Norway. With the need of visiting a casino, gamblers can easily play their favorite game sitting in the comfort of their home.
Nowadays, tons of games are made available among the gaming industry trends for gamblers to play online. Due to this, Norwegian odds bonus casinos continue to trend above others because of their interesting sports and casino games. Even as the Covid-19 pandemic keeps everyone indoors, records show that gambles are adjusting to the new innovation of online gambling. It’s inevitable that online gambling will continue to grow further with a promising future among the top amazing trends in the gaming industry for 2021.
Whenever you are with family, friends or coworkers, board games are fun. They are intuitive too. Especially post confinement, playing these kind of games has become a huge trend, worldwide. To give you an idea of how much of an impact this trend has, 5M board games have been sold within July 2020 (cf. Amazon) with 200+ of them sold out! That’s crazy. If only, board gaming was just for kids…
Esports sponsorships are predicted at $584 million for 2020, accounting for 61 percent of the total global gaming revenue. The GGI was valued at $150 billion in 2019 with the expectation of rating $180 billion in 2021. Goldman Sacks is estimating that by 2022, the global audience for esports will reach 276 million.
Partnership: Mastercard, State Farm, Mercedes-Benz, Spotify, Cisco, Bose, Louis Vuitton
When COVID-19 canceled in-person events, esports quickly and organically shifted to online-only. Esports were born online—and now, with advanced technologies in place, experiences became even more dynamic and saw record engagement numbers from the likes of the Call of Duty League, Overwatch League and League of Legends circuits
2021 prediction: These leagues will continue expanding their technological innovations and engaging new audiences hungry to watch pro-level competition. The creation of these leagues proves there is space for brands to reach out directly to their audience to build teams and create historically large and engaging events that shift or create a culture.
Live streaming in gaming and entertainment, with chat features and e-commerce extensions, was one of the most effective ways to carry out a brand campaign in 2020. The per hour viewership of Twitch jumped over 30 percent year over year and is expected to report a total ad revenue of $213.8M, showing that the engagement in live streaming content is trending upwards.
2021 prediction: Brands on Twitch should keep their eye on one major feature—the “Just Chatting” channel, which is experiencing exponential growth and gives brands a more focused platform to deliver messages.
With live sports on hold, traditional leagues turned to gaming to entertain and keep fans engaged. It was normal to see pro gamers and pro NBA players shoot hoops in NBA2K on ESPN before the return of official NBA competition. EA Sports and Madden have had a massive year, as the NFL turned to the sports gaming icon to host the Pro Bowl this year and other events. And both the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series and Formula 1 Virtual Grand Prix series kept drivers and fans engaged with fast and furious racing.
2021 prediction: With the collaboration between athletes and gaming further blurring the lines between the two worlds, there will be even more opportunities for brands to create partnerships at the cross-section of traditional sports and gaming.
If it’s not happening now, nobody would have believed that video game streaming will be beneficial to both individuals and the gaming industry. When twitch was introduced in 2011 as a streaming service, it took fame as a place where interesting shows can be streamed like youtube. However, twitch nowadays allows the streaming of video games from professionals, which serves as entertainment for games. Video game streaming ranks first among the video game trends 2021 as twitch receives over 2 billion live-stream viewers per hour.
According to our Norwegian lead expert Jørgen Aasgen, gaming has changed a lot of things today while serving as entertainment and more. The rapid evolution of technological advancement has led to the implementation of virtual reality in video games, which has improved developments in the gaming industry as they produce engaging games that everyone is eager to play or spectate.
As the evolution of technology continues to affect gaming industries in producing engaging games with amazing features and characteristics. These new games require more powerful hardware to run perfectly, which will bring about the development of new gaming consoles. For example, the new Playstation 5 supports games with trending features and characteristics like native 4k for improved graphics quality. The improvement of hardware for better gaming performance doesn’t amount to all consoles and PC, but also to mobile devices.
Mobile gaming trends 2021 is quite popular nowadays, as improvement continues in the development of mobile device hardware. In the past mobile devices barely supported 2d games because of its low hardware component. However, the improvement of mobile device components has made mobile gaming a trending topic. Unlike consoles, games can be played on mobile devices in any location.
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Gaming Exploded in 2020-and the Trend Will Continue in 2021 - Ketchum Site