Casual gaming has come a long way since its birth 20 years ago
In the late 1990’s, Jason Kapalka was working at Total Entertainment Network, an online gaming company that allowed PC gamers to compete head-to-head with other gamers across their dial-up internet connections.
Here he met John Vechey and Brian Fiete. Two game developers with a thirst for advancing game technology beyond what their bosses were hoping to achieve.
After a “meeting of the minds”, the three left their jobs and went on to develop and launch an entire new industry, casual gaming.
Their first real hit was called Bejeweled.
The game was launched on the Microsoft portal and quickly became popular. It soon had tens-of-thousands of gamers playing simultaneously.
From this point on, the entire video game industry changed. In just 20 years, we’ve gone from the lone gamer sitting at his PC, to millions of gamers engaging in group play and interactions on mobile phones.
Today, casual gaming dominates. With 2.7 billion gamers worldwide (210 million in the US alone) the industry that began with three guys wanting to play games in a more social environment is now worth billions.
And the next great leap for the industry is now here. It’s called in-game social commerce. It’s a technology that allows gamers to conduct eCommerce within games – the selling and purchasing of real-world products. Think Amazon meets Fortnite.
Soon, gamers will be able to not only purchase the real items their avatars wear, but they could set up their own eCommerce stores inside of popular games, earning commissions on every sale they make.
This new industry could produce trillions of dollars in revenue, vaulting gaming into one of the most profitable industries globally. Of course, a technological breakthrough was needed for this to happen too.
Well, it’s here, it’s patented and it’s just about ready to take the market by storm.
Casual gaming may have just turned 20 years old, but the “next big thing” is just being born today.
Read more about the birth of casual gaming HERE
SOURCE: https://www.pcmag.com/news/20-years-ago-bejeweled-kicked-off-the-age-of-casual-gaming