A Dream Stage session under the guidance of W-Lounge founder and CEO Mali Baum, this panel gave the audience a fascinating insight into gaming’s impact on wider society.
Hosting the discussion entitled “The Next Decade of Play: The Digital-Physical-AI Synthesis” was Maximilian Seeburg, Founder and Managing Partner at 1Up Capital, and it was clear that this subject goes beyond videogames. “Innovations in gaming are the forerunner of what happens in society,” stated Manouchehr Shamsrizi, M.P.P. FRSA, adding “Cryptocurrency was born out of in-game purchasing, virtual meetings grew in multiplayer online games like World Of Warcraft. Remember that the next generation of voters and business leaders grew up with gaming embedded.”
Esports pioneer and Founding General Partner of BITKRAFT, Jens Hilgers, pointed out that the biggest open-world games, which enable user-generated content and community-modding, are not the highest-grossing properties and therefore the business model is imbalanced: “Roblox, Fortnite and Minecraft – 70% of all entertainment time globally is spent in these games. Let that sink in. Yet they are not very profitable,” he said.
There are more issues for the industry: despite mobile gaming’s success (over 2 billion users) its development has been hampered by app regulation stifling start-ups, while immersive gaming using VR and AR are still not a convenient companion or alternative to mobile.
And the future? “AI is going to increase productivity for creative talent as developers may have four times the capacity,” suggested Ragnar Kruse, Founding Partner & Managing Director AI.FUND & AI.HAMBURG. Mr Shamsrizi agreed: “Developers don’t like coding! If AI can generate code, even generate environments and narrative, devs will have more time and brain space to come up with better ideas.” He added a note of caution: “What we build as a gaming industry could become an unregulated factory for disinformation, with global political consequences.”
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