When I was born, the face of the
gaming industry was ATARI. Games like Pacman and Galaxy were instant
sensations. Growing up as a kid I remember buying my first gaming console. Mario,
Street Fighter and Mortal Combat were trending games among kids. The latter two
mostly involved two fighters beating each other to pulp until one of the two
was knocked out. A player could rip off the head along with the skeleton which
my mother thought was really disturbing and she was worried it might have a
negative effect. Understandable on her part, their generation grew up with
board games! Howsoever funny it may sound in context with today’s times, but
this issue was even taken up by US courts and a regulatory body (ESRB) was
formed which decided the age group for the audience of video games. But since
then the gaming industry has come a long way. As the resistance to gaming
started fading away, the number of game developers also started growing and
gradually gaming industry became a major part of the entertainment industry.
Dependent completely on technology,
developers were banking upon ideas and innovation which is clearly visible in
the beautiful SEGA games that were developed with the limited resources developers
had, and hence I prefer to call myself a SEGA kid. Gradually, marketers spotted
opportunities in this industry and funds started flowing in and hence a lot of
talented game developers and freelancers. Gradually consoles started getting
better and the transition of console gaming to PC gaming happened
simultaneously. Sony’s PlayStation (PS) and Nintendo took the gaming experience
to newer levels. Today, a 5 year old handles a cell phone which can offer a
gaming experience far richer and complex than one could have ever imagined in
the 1990s. From a business point of view, the industry is full of opportunities
to earn a lot of capital. Some programmers even live off pity cash while
working on creative and innovative games that they hope will fetch them a
handsome amount. Gaming today has become an effective form of story-telling and
education, and business organisations realize this with even digital service
providers like Tata Sky using Educational games to lure customers. Furthermore,
with new technology elements helping to bring to life more virtual reality
forms, the gaming experience has started to become more intense and addictive
with a promise of roping in even more customers, and the ease of access of
programming tools for programmers and feature rich devices for consumers, acts
as a catalyst in this scenario.
ARAAF AFZAL
Marketing and Finance (Batch of 2016)
SITM