The lucrative Asian gaming industry is evolving

THERE are 3 billion gamers across the world - and Asia-Pacific gamers make up more than half that number. That's why the gaming industry is one of the hottest investment markets today.

But are we looking at a bubble that will soon burst? According to a recent Essence Global study, global gaming market revenue in 2025 may actually exceed its current earnings by over 70 per cent.

Today, gaming is the world's biggest entertainment industry, with revenues even larger than those of music and movies combined. Its wide audience is constantly pushing businesses within the gaming ecosystem to keep up.

In Asia alone, the explosive US$70 billion gaming market is teeming with opportunities for mobile, social, cloud, and eSports gaming in the region. Expect to see more users on platforms like Discord, streamers and influencers on Twitch and YouTube, contenders in big-ticket eSports events and gaming companies opening shop in South-east Asia.

Gamers are also clamouring for networks to keep pace with the industry's breakneck growth. And they're not only seeking dependable networks, but they're also willing to pay more for better connectivity. Thus, the industry is fast becoming a critical business growth opportunity for service providers.

In recent years, online games have become more versatile, adaptable, mobile, and affordable. There are now games for everyone from grandmothers to little children, and developments are constantly pushing the limits of gaming experiences.

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China, Japan, South Korea, and India are the leading gaming markets in Asia. However, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore are quickly following suit. About 82 per cent of South-east Asia's urban online population are gamers. The largest chunk of big-spending players are mobile gamers, due to mobile games' broad appeal across genders and age groups; PC and console gamers make up most of the rest.

As eSports continue to rise globally, South-east Asia is turning into a key hotspot for this gaming sector. In fact, the aforementioned South-east Asian countries account for 99 per cent of the region's eSports revenue. More than half of the region's online population watch game-related video content with eSports leading the trend - almost 30 million in 2019 - and the viewers continue to grow every year.

Let's set the stage on how the industry is advancing in Asia. Gaming is the socialisation platform of choice as the pandemic forced people to adapt to staying home and find alternative ways to connect. Gamers clock in an average of 16 hours a week at play, 8 hours watching or joining game streams, and 6 hours checking game forums and communities.

Top 3 must-haves

Women are now an emerging gaming audience, with a preference for playing multi-player online games. Interestingly, more female gamers play eSports, and all- female leagues are making waves on the world stage.

Speaking of eSports, South Korea has had professional eSports players since 2000. China had the highest eSports revenue in 2019. And the 2019 SEA Games hosted the first International Olympic Committee-sanctioned event for eSports in the same year.

Our survey of gamers in Singapore, Japan, and Korea teased out their must-haves for gaming: engaging gameplay, reliability and consistency of network quality, and low latency are the top 3. More than half of the gamers who named these must-haves are willing to shift to other service providers that promise reliable and consistently uninterrupted connection.

In the same survey, gamers also highlight comfort as an important factor for satisfying gaming sessions. From the chairs and tables they use to the room's temperature, they're looking for one thing: relaxation. When Asians want to play games, they want an escape where they can forget about stress, even temporarily.

The gaming industry is also evolving within the cloud ecosystem. Cloud gaming requires not only high bandwidth connectivity, but also low latency and jitter. 5G, edge cloud, and cloud gaming are all coming together.

The window of opportunity could not be better for service providers with infrastructure capable of supporting these technologies. In addition to revenue growth opportunities, increasing numbers of gamers will generate plenty of data on end-user behaviour. And with advanced data analytics tools, service providers can develop personalised offerings and improve user experience, extracting more value from customer interactions.

Every millisecond counts in gaming, and a single connectivity disruption can mean "virtual" life or death. Why pay a premium on 144Hz refresh rate monitors or high-end graphics cards just to be dissatisfied with your Internet plan's performance?

From social connections to supporting high-level gaming innovations, gamers demand networks that can accommodate their growing connectivity needs.

Positive experience

The pressure is on for network providers to further push the gaming industry in Asia-Pacific and to satisfy gamers' ideas of a positive gaming experience that's becoming more and more online, digitally social, cloud-reliant, and mobile. What does it take for networks to sustain this growth and evolution?

Networks need agility to scale on demand. Technologies such as 5G with high speeds, low latency, and large capacities mean optimised systems that deliver no lag even during high traffic surges. Artificial intelligence and analytics play a key role in this agility by predicting which network resources need to be reallocated. This is the future of connectivity - and gaming's lifeline - that will fortify the massive and hyperactive Asian scene.

Indeed, the gaming industry has been quite a boon for Asian economies. Revenues are up, and emerging trends are creating plenty of fresh opportunities. But to sustain gaming's impressive growth and allow the region to benefit from this lucrative industry, meeting gamers' needs and expectations must take centre stage.

• The writer is senior adviser of international market development at Ciena.