In the popular imagination, video gaming is a pursuit carried out by young men dressed in dark clothes sat in basements for hours on end. But, while there is a group like that mostly playing "shooter games" or sports-related games, this is in fact a minority. The reality is that more than three billion people from all walks of life and all ages are regular players of what might loosely be termed video games. For instance, they may not realise it, but all those middle-aged people who wake up to play Worldle, a digital daily word game now owned by the New York Times, are gamers.
According to Bastian Bergmann, co-founder of Solsten, a company that helps businesses create personalized content using AI and psychological data, this is a huge opportunity for any business that is seeking to engage with customers. Claiming that it is "the only form of entertainment that cuts across all demographic segments," he says "gaming has to be a core component of corporate strategy."
In a new book, Press Play, he sets out the context for this. At a time when consumers are increasingly interested in experiences and are blurring the distinction between their digital and real lives, companies that rely on traditional forms of communicating, such as advertising on billboards or on radio or television, are failing to connect with the public. Even digital ads, which power the likes of Google and Meta, are limited in their approach. While they make plenty of money for the platforms because they are paid according to the numbers of "clicks," they are not as effective as they could be, believes Bergmann. In a recent interview, he explained that advertisers should be using the digital technology and the data known about individuals to offer something really personalized. "An ad should be like a tap on the shoulder," he said.
The appeal of gaming is that it is interactive and the players are often engaging in other activities at the same time as playing. Typically, they are creating content, socialising, watching live streams and shopping, all at the same time as playing a game. "That means brands can engage consumers deeply across a variety of activities and with different content formats all within the same environment," he writes in the book. Moreover, since video games can now be played on a variety of devices in addition to standard computers, it is important that brands also understand where the games are being played.
According to the latest survey by Bain & Co, a management consultancy, the video game market grew by 5% last year, to about $219 billion, and the firm expects annual growth of about 4% until 2028. Accordingly, it is an attractive medium for advertisers. But Bergmann warns that those who see it as just another advertising channel are "missing the point." he said: "It's interactive. You can build relationships." Forward-thinking consumer brands can, for instance, trial a new product in a game and then -- based on the feedback they receive -- decide whether to put it into production.
Nor is gaming's potential restricted to consumer brands. After all, the flight simulators used to train airline pilots are in reality video games. Bergmann recalls a conversation with a pair of partners in a law firm who attended one of his presentations. They could see the role that gaming could play in training lawyers. Already, in fact, many companies use the concept to train staff to deal with cyber attacks, and, says Bergmann, finance companies are using gaming to give them better assessments of would-be customers and hence make better loan decisions.
As he points out, gaming is "way more than an advertising channel. It's a business model."