If you are passionate about games, you already have a critical quality that can take you far in the gaming industry. Your gaming enthusiasm could help you follow your hobby through several paths leading to business opportunities.
Gaming is a serious business. In 2021, US players spent over $60 billion on games, an 8% increase from the year before. By 2025, the mobile gaming industry is expected to reach $138 billion, while the PC gaming sector is expected to reach $46.7 billion by 2025.
There are many ways to make it in this business. In this article, you will find ideas that can help you monetize your gaming interests and abilities.
Gaming Business Categories
Not everyone in the business is a programmer. And not everyone needs experience in using computers. The gaming industry requires many different roles to take a game from idea to market. For this reason, dividing the game industry into categories can be helpful.
- Capital and licensing
- Product development and talent
- Production and tools
- Distribution or publishing
- Hardware
-
Capital and Licensing
This is the investment stage of game creation. Investing in new games could be lucrative for someone who understands the market and has some capital available. If you understand what makes games popular and current trends, you can become a wise investor.
Another channel for making money through the gaming business is licensing. Intellectual property is valuable, and businesses can earn significant returns by licensing rights to their IP. Someone with sound business sense and legal expertise knowledge can make a lot of money this way.
It’s also worth remembering that many gaming companies make significant revenue through free-to-play games. Understanding advertising strategy and monetizing mobile apps with in-app purchases are useful skills for this industry.
-
Product Development and Talent
This is where the artists and designers come in. They help to bring a game to life and work as a team to create the visual style for a game. They may also work with marketers to help design the look and promotional materials.
While the idea, marketing strategies, distribution, and resources for the game are being decided, a concept artist often helps set the tone for the project by creating visuals. This is essential as it gives every team member a feel for the project and its direction.
This is the time to seek writers, animators, 3d modelers, and FX artists. Audio specialists and composers will help bring the sound effects of games to life. Translators can help a game appeal to people from different countries who don’t speak English. And game testers (living the dream?) will be essential for identifying bugs and improving gameplay before the first version is released.
-
Production and Tools
Developing a game requires the collaboration of many specialists, including artists and programmers. It’s such a big entertainment platform that it’s worth considering that your business could be the provision of programming expertise. Whether you collaborate with other programmers or go it alone, you could build a firm with a reputation for delivering solid programming solutions for a reasonable price.
Also, remember that nobody is born knowing C++ or any programming and scripting languages. New languages and ways of using them are being developed all the time. If you’re willing to take your hobby and make it a business, getting a background in coding can be useful in gaming and many other careers, should you wish to change your career path in the future.
-
Distribution or Publishing
The gaming industry needs businesses that take finished games and get them to the market. A business specializing in online distribution and creating satisfying user experiences could be beneficial for game creators out there.
Games are also sold retail, so a game retailing business might be a good option for an entrepreneur that knows a niche or understands how to attract people to play.
Marketing experts can help gaming companies make critical decisions about the games, their prices, and how they are promoted to reach more of the right people. Marketing will almost certainly take place online, but also via other channels, including television and catalogs for gaming businesses.
-
Hardware (or Virtual Machine or Software Platforms)
Gamers love their hardware. If you are particularly skilled at creating PC setups for games, this might be an area where you can make money by boosting the performance of people’s devices, or selling gaming machines with impressive performance specs.
If your skills extend to software, you may be someone who can create ideal environments for computer games. Games require underlying network architecture that might not be the most glamorous part of building a game but is nonetheless essential to gameplay and distribution. Roles include the development of virtual machines (such as Flash or Java) and software platforms based on browser technology or Facebook.
Do it All Yourself (Sort of)
Alternatively, it is possible to make a game from the comfort of your bedroom. Theoretically, making and selling your own game could be your business, making you a programmer, designer, producer, artist, tester, marketer, and distributor.
As your business develops — or if you already have some money put aside — you could use your gaming knowledge and team leadership skills to manage other people to make your vision come to life. Leadar will put you in touch with the industry professionals you need to realize your vision and can be a valuable tool when it comes to finding specialists.
Conclusion
Gamers know that the flashiest games are not necessarily the most popular. Puzzle games, for example, demonstrate strong popularity with gamers worldwide, providing excellent opportunities for profits.
With the plethora of online resources and excellent talent available, you can put together a team and create a successful gaming business based on your hobby. Or you can go it alone, making the most of available online teaching tools, and driven by your ideas and passions.
Whichever route you choose, an exciting adventure awaits you, which can be just as rewarding and interesting as the game you create.
