Microsoft’s Phil Spencer last week boldly claimed 2015 is an exceptional year for gamers.
Spencer, head of Microsoft’s Xbox division, was speaking at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (affectionately known as E3) in Los Angeles, where the game industry gathers annually to promote the latest crop of titles.
Xbox has its greatest ever games line up this year, according to Spencer. “No matter where or how you play, I truly believe 2015 will be our biggest year yet.”
Surely, then, it stands to reason that those further down the digital entertainment food chain must also be in a bullish mood?
Andrew Day, chief executive of Keywords Studios (LON:KWS), a service provider to the video game industry, describes the market as ‘very healthy’ though he also says this year’s offerings look solid but not special.
“The games pipeline looks pretty good. It does vary a little from client to client; for example, the pipeline from Microsoft looks very good while the pipeline from Sony is a little less full than it has been in the past.”
He said the volume of games Keywords is working on has been encouraging, especially from console games where he said it looks like the industry is getting back to a position of normality.
“The marketplace has been refreshed since the launch of the new consoles a year to 18 months ago. I think video games are in a very healthy spot at the moment” he said.
He said the new consoles, which were the first for eight years, had provided a much-needed boost to a market that was beginning to become tired.
And there are, of course, now many more ways for gamers to play.
In many ways the console wars of the past are largely over.
Although the debate had been about which was better, Xbox or PlayStation, more recently things are different, with experts increasingly focusing on how consoles will combat the rise of smartphone and tablet based games.
In Asia, the mobile games market accounts for more than 50% of the US$40bn games industry and that number is set to rise 9% year on year.
A leading market expert said: “Ten years ago in Asia, when I asked people at a meeting if they played video games very few hands went up, but now, every hand in the room goes up.”
He said it is by far the fastest growing marketplace for video games, accounting for almost half of the industry.
By comparison, console games sales account for just 5% in the area, although it is much better represented in Europe and America.
Andrew Day said: “Games are creeping in all over the place. Just look at education. You can’t buy an e-learning program without a game in it somewhere.”
He said people want to have access to content wherever they are, and the rise in popularity of mobile games shows this.
So what is a games developer to do?
“I think, in sheer numbers, if I were a developer I would be trying to target female gamers because it is new, it is fresh and it is an area which, with a bit of thought and planning, you could make very appealing games that have not been seen before,” Day said.
Despite the preconceptions that video gaming is a male dominated activity, around half are women.
The news comes as no surprise to EA vice president of International Development Service Jaime Gine, who said that, in the early years of EA, the Sims, a favourite among teenage girls, accounted for almost a quarter of the company’s revenues.
He said: “Girl power is massive and in some areas there are more female players than male players. Girl power has been the biggest growth driver in the video games over the last five years.”
His company announced it will introduce women’s football into the next instalment of its FIFA franchise as a way to attract more female gamers to its game.
It is one of a number of ways the games industry is moving forward, with new innovations and ideas being made all the time.
It is also a sector that’s becoming more accessible for investors in London.
Keywords is one of several recent additions in London, other include indie game studio Frontier Development (LON:FDEV) and e-sports firm Gfinity (LON:GFIN).
Gfinity hosts competitive cash-prize tournaments for professional gamers and also broadcasts these events online - drawing an analogy to real world soccer, its role would be that of both the Premier League and also Sky Sports at the same time.
Recent web-traffic stats reflect the burgeoning spectator interest in e-sports, as Gfinity’s 2015 championship totted up more than 30mln online views, even though the competition is only half-way through.
Frontier, meanwhile, last week revealed its game Elite:Dangerous is to be the first game offered as part of Microsoft’s new Xbox One Game Preview Program.
The new preview system gives gamers early access to content before its general release.
The Cambridge-based Frontier floated in 2013, with a £4mln raise at 127p per share (current price 213p).
All considered together, it is little wonder the sector’s executives such as Keyword’s Andrew Day are expecting an ’extremely bright’ future for the industry, though he’s not the only one.
Cannacord Genuity says: “The games market has gone through a transitional period over the past two years, but 2015 is expected to be the first solid, post transition year in the console game sector.”