Digital a new look for rAge Expo this year
SA’s biggest annual video games event kicked off this weekend on a virtual platform for the first time, amid a perfect storm for the industry globally.
The rAge Expo, which usually attracts more than 30,000 enthusiasts to the Dome, north of Johannesburg, has for its 18-year existence been a barometer for the rising popularity of gaming in SA. This year, the first rAge Digital feeds into a worldwide shift to online gaming.
It is also being staged on the eve of the launch of the two most eagerly awaited new gaming consoles of the past three years. Microsoft will release the fourth generation of the Xbox console on Tuesday, led by the Series X, which is believed to be four times more powerful than the previous flagship, the Xbox One X.
Sony will follow on Thursday with the PlayStation 5 (PS5) in its major territories. It will arrive in other markets, including SA, a week later.
Likely to be the market leader for the next two or three years, the PS5 has built up anticipation among gamers and investors alike. The Sony share price this week reached its highest level since the market crash of 2001, buoyed both by massive demand for its predecessor, the PS4, during the Covid-19 pandemic, and expectations for a stellar holiday season.
Gamers have followed every announcement of PS5 details as closely as investors have. At the CES 2020 consumer electronics expo in Las Vegas in January, Sony’s unveiling of the PS5 logo attracted more attention than most manufacturers’ actual product releases.
And this is reckoning without the explosion of PC-based gaming. Nvidia, a leader in manufacturing graphics chips for gaming computers, has boosted its market capitalisation from less than $140bn (R2.2bn) before the pandemic to $330bn this week.
“Globally, the PC gaming hardware market, which consists of personal computers, new components and peripherals — keyboards, mice, headsets, mousepads, microphones, chairs, and webcams — used for gaming, is exploding,” said Matthew Hall, product director at South African distributor Rectron.
“There is no doubt that gaming PCs have developed from a niche segment to a strongselling mainstream product. With the Covid19 pandemic reshaping howwe all work and socialise, gaming has provided a way to stay connected to friends, family and co-workers. In fact, the pandemic has led to a surge in PC gamers and ultimately the growth in the PC gaming market.”
Hall pointed to research by DFC Intelligence, which shows the global market for games on PCs will grow to $37bn by 2022, with many people buying and upgrading PCs with the sole intention of playing games.
“Many of today’s PC gamers are adults who started playing in the 1990s. That’s when classic games like Doom, Wolfenstein 3-D, Diablo and others debuted. Today, there are more games available than any one person could play.
“The rise of free-to-play games, such as League of Legends, Fortnite, Call of Duty: Warzone and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive , have all contributed to the 2-billion PC gamers worldwide. While the average time spent playing games remains highest among children, gaming can no longer be considered child’s play.”
Hall pointed out that e-sports, which includes all these titles, but played on a competitive level, has been a major driver.
“E-sports … is expected to reach 557-million people by 2021,” he said.
Michael Janes, founder of the rAge Expo, concurred that the gaming industry has boomed during the pandemic.
“More time at home and more time online make a good environment for gaming,” he said. “In fact most online entertainment has seen interesting and positive changes. Survival this year is all about taking rAge online.”
However, a virtual expo poses a massive obstacle for an event that has thrived on giving the public hands-on access to new hardware. James was frank about the challenge. “The bottom line with online events is nobody really knows what they’re doing. We’re fortunate because our industry is online and plugged in. rAge Digital isn’t anything you might be expecting from a rAge event.
“We’ve decided to focus on streaming content as well as unique experiences and environments, like our Minecraft World Build challenge.”
The impending release of the new Xbox and PlayStation consoles will have little impact on the event — because pre-orders are already sold out.
“Creating demand right now isn’t ideal for the local distributors and retailers,” said James. However, he said the impact of the releases will be massive and long-lasting.
“Towards the end of the [old] console life cycles the industry slows down in anticipation of the new, the exciting and the fresh. Once the new hardware drops, more games are released, so it’s a good boost that lasts for years.”
And the older generation of consoles see renewed life as people sell their old equipment and games for the newer machines. “This boosts the second-hand end of the market, which eventually feeds into the top end.”