REEF
It took more than 35 years for the global games business to grow to $35 billion in 2007, the year that the iPhone was introduced. Since then, the games market has added an extra $100 billion in revenues to arrive at this year’s total of $137.9 billion worldwide. The uptake of smartphones has been a key contributor to the accelerated growth of the games market, in terms of both engagement and revenues, but is only one of the many factors that have brought us to where we are today. The way games are run has changed completely in only 10 years, from both an organizational and a business perspective, regardless of platform. Add to that the ongoing global alignment of distribution channels, franchises, and business models and it becomes clear that this is more than several individual trends happening simultaneously. Ultimately, the consumer has determined the pace of change. No other form of entertainment or media gives as much power to the consumer as games. Today, not only do games ...