A new report by Australia’s Interactive Games & Entertainment Association (IGEA) has found a decrease in yearly revenue in 2019 versus 2018. However, the IGEA maintains a promising outlook for growth in 2020, citing new hardware and highly anticipated games as a driving factor for growth, combined with more people remaining at home due to the coronavirus pandemic.
For the first time since 2012, the Australian games market report states that the market was softened by “10% across the board” due to factors likeFortnite’srecord-high revenue in 2018, which 2019 simply wasn’t able to match. According to the IGEA, the dip is consistent with the rest of the globe, with similar factors likely affecting the outcome of 2019’s worldwide numbers.
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Of course, it isn’t all doom and gloom. The report states that 2020 is primed to be a great year for the video game market, with new games and hardware setting the Australian games market up for a healthy future. Specifically, the report states that “the emergence of new platforms, games, and technologies will propel its expansion in 2020 and beyond.” It’s a positive outlook for the industry and a no brainer. However, thePS5 and Xbox Series X pricemay dampen the ability to move consoles, assuming that the cost is too high. Of course, there’s still a lot of interest in the machines, so it’s difficult to say.
One area that saw tangible growth in 2019 was subscription revenue, which climbed a staggering 28%, according to IGEA. The report didn’t specifically name any factors behind the growth, but with the rapid expansion of services likeXbox Game Pass, subscription models are becoming an increasingly common way to play games, perhaps explaining the revenue growth.
Even with the decrease in revenue, the Australian game industry has grown 12% since 2017, largely thanks to the explosive year that was 2018. That’s an impressive number, and a clear sign that the games industry is growing at a healthy pace. It helps that some of the biggest releases of the last few years are landing in 2020, wish should continue to push the market, in Australia and around the world, to new heights.
2020 is already halfway complete, with gamers now entering an even busier season of game releases. Plus, with things like thePS5 eventa few days away, gamers are bound to be hearing plenty more news in the days to come.
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