eSports and video gaming at Vontobel: "The gaming industry is bigger than Hollywood."
Gaming has been conquering the world since the 1970s. But what was considered a leisure activity at the time can now also be practiced as a top-class sport. eSports athletes, game design studios and game distribution services are becoming more and more: This growth offers many opportunities to promote this industry.
The growth of eSports
The opening of the gaming era was made by the probably best known and oldest game "Pong": A game from the 70s, where you bounce a ball, or rather a pixel, with each a bar left and right in the screen from one side to the other, similar to the ping-pong game. Since then, the gaming industry has undergone constant change: from the PC, Gameboy, Nintendo Wii to Playstation and other compact consoles, from 2D to 3D worlds to today's virtual reality games and the recruitment of top gamers, so-called eSports athletes, the industry currently seems to know no bounds. eSports world championships and events often exceed even major sporting events. For example, a 16-year-old won $3 million in prize money at the Fortnite World Cup 2018/2019, while the Tour de France prize money was $580,000. The global gaming market volume totals USD 152.1 billion this year and is expected to grow further in the coming years.
Sports & Video Gaming at Vontobel: A market with strong growth potential
As part of this global eSports trend, we invited 5 Swiss experts in this field to a panel discussion on November 11, 2019: Philomena Schwab, co-founder Stray Fawn Studio, Oliver Lutz, PO esports.ch and Senior Content Marketing Manager UPC Switzerland, Joachim Reuter, Head of eSports/Marketing FC Basel, Cédric Schlosser, CEO MYI Entertainment, and René Merkli, Founder of Platform Senior eSports, were our panel guests and gave 85 interested event participants a sound insight into the world of games. In the panel discussion, moderated by Daniel Wenger, Senior Investment Advisor Vontobel Wealth Management, a consensus was quickly reached: Switzerland still does not provide sufficient support for the eSports and gaming industry, as it does not fully regard games as a visual art, though According to Philomena, "games can also be art". She is optimistic and believes that Switzerland will still get a taste for it and will increasingly promote the gaming industry, especially as the Swiss gaming landscape is growing. With the boom and the current simplicity of creating a game and making it available in the games market, the demands placed on games are also becoming higher and higher, causing more costs in the development and distribution of games. Therefore, according to our invited experts, it is important to make the games as competitive as possible for the players and as exciting as possible for the viewers. This is the only way to maintain the fun factor over a longer period of time.
The portfolio for gaming enthusiasts
The games market is currently in a healthy state: almost every segment is growing. Not only that, there is considerable scope for growth in the console and PC gaming industry as physical "discs" still account for almost half of console and PC gaming in Japan, the US and the EU. And for the gamers among you this certainly sounds familiar: In the same way that mobile gaming has expanded the market by making games available to billions of people around the world, cloud gaming has the potential to expand the market for premium games beyond the current console and PC audience. If you would like to learn more about the product, Daniel Wenger and Luca Berger look forward to hearing from you. In this spirit, we wish you all a happy gaming!
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