Gaming Trends 2022: Why It’s Going to Be a Good Year for Video Gamers?!

It would be easy to rant about the coming gaming year. After half-finished games, sexual assaults, and countless postponements over the past year, one might assume that the no-longer-so-young industry has caught a few slates that won’t fully heal in 12 months.

But at the beginning of the New Year, let’s shake off the negative thoughts and face the gaming studios with happy hope. In theory, there are a few things to look forward to as a gamer. The gaming industry is changing the world. New, innovative games that push boundaries and open doors. Research by State of Online Gaming 2020 showed that 38% of all games would like to become professional. Today, watching gaming games is more popular than watching sports matches. Especially the 18 – 25-year-olds like to watch and play games. Also, online casino for Arab players become very popular and the Arabic market constitutes a large share of this industry. But what else can we expect from gaming this year? We tell you everything about the gaming trends for 2022.

Games Will Be Finished in the Future

At the end of 2020, there was already a lot of criticism about the unfinished Cyberpunk 2077, which provoked sniffs this year, mainly due to the lack of delivery of a next-gen version. However, many publishers have apparently learned their lessons from the shit storm and would rather postpone their games than release them on the market incomplete. Probably also due to the further obligation to continue to support the old consoles, one can therefore look forward to a full calendar in 2022 – with games that one was already looking forward to in 2021.

Good examples would be Horizon: Forbidden West, Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong, Rainbow Six Extraction or Dying Light 2, all of which are already scheduled for 2022. Companies like Electronic Arts (Battlefield 2042), Konami (eFootball 2022) or Rockstar (Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy) will still be able to practice completing games in the coming year.

NFTs Are Not Coming (Yet)

After the French game publisher, Ubisoft got a bloody nose from the community a few weeks ago with its plans for non-fungible tokens (NFTs), EA and Square Enix, who have also already expressed interest in blockchain technology, will probably do the same, reconsider their plans. There are still no convincing arguments that players need this new trend, which is currently intended more as a new source of money for large publishers.

In contrast to microtransactions and loot boxes, which are still heavily used by many players, this time the outcry was let out before the first hype, forcing Ubisoft and Co. to think about how to get the players into the want to get boat. However, if you look at how successful digital sales are in video games, then the industry will probably not say goodbye to the NFT idea prematurely.

Streaming & Subscription

Although there is a clear trend towards streaming, this will probably not be a sensible alternative for many players for a long time to come. Nevertheless, this independence from a platform is attractive, especially in times of chip shortages, and Microsoft has consistently followed this path in recent years and is thus successfully expanding in this segment. Now it’s up to Sony, at least in the console area, to offer an alternative. Offering God of War for the PC four years after its release is not the last word here. Rumours about a Playstation “Game Pass” are growing – the purchases of individual studios in recent months have strengthened this suspicion.

In any case, a counterweight to Microsoft would be desirable here before the US group has bought up half the developer market. It is a well-known fact that competition stimulates business. Google will obviously no longer play a major role here – it remains to be seen how Amazon’s path will continue. With Lost Ark, which will be released in February 2022, and further cooperation with other publishers, this player seems to be staying on the market.

Oh yes, Netflix has also started their gaming service and so it will be interesting to see whether the app will eventually be filled with larger or at least better-known titles. So far, the offer is still very manageable.

Good Prospects

Regardless of the games that have been postponed and countless remakes of old titles, there are also numerous new titles waiting for players in 2022, with which little should actually go wrong. Elden Ring is actually released in February, titles like God of War: Ragnarök or Starfield have been more or less confirmed by the manufacturers for this year. There are certainly still big question marks behind the sequel to Zelda: Breath of the Wild or a possible reboot of the Splinter Cell series.

If you don’t just play the big titles, but also like to fish in the indie pond, you shouldn’t go away empty-handed either. Whether it’s the simulation Two Point Campus, the action game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredders Revenge or the sequel to the Kerbal Space Program – the supply of potentially exciting games will hardly stop in 2022.

VR & Courage

The gaming industry has become increasingly unpredictable. Perennial favourites like Fortnite or Apex Legends come as a surprise, indie games like Kena or It Takes Two are in no way inferior to large productions and in some cases even surpass them. In general, one will have to look at how well or badly mega-productions like Assassin’s Creed or Battlefield will do in this new market. In any case, the competition is growing – good for the player.

In addition to the most commercially successful game of 2021, the Chinese free-2-play title Genjin Impact, the pie for the established big players could be getting smaller and smaller. A good time not to panic, but to win back the players with innovative concepts.

Four of the first five games for the Nintendo Switch have appeared in the UK Amazon gaming sales charts. A console that apparently gets by without Call of Duty or a polished FIFA. Well, Nintendo has always played in a league of its own, but maybe you could get some inspiration here on how to reach players well in 2022.

Playstation VR continues to be a trend – this year Sony surpassed the 10 million hardware mark and games are coming out all the time. The Japanese game manufacturer has already presented the controller for a possible sequel – now you could follow suit with the rest of the hardware, especially because with the announcement of Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse, the hype about the topic will definitely grow.

About the Author

Daniel Klink is the digital marketing manager at Casino Hex. Daniel has been working in the industry for years, providing advice and exclusive news to players around the world.

Photo by Sam Pak on Unsplash