2021 Key Outlook and Trends for Esports and Gaming
31 March 2021
Watch Time 1:33
John Patrick Lee: 2021 outlook. What’s going to happen this year, what’s going to happen going forward? Mobile gaming is going to continue to be huge. I expect and everybody else expects mobile to continue to drive growth. EA’s announcement of buying Blue yesterday, is a perfect example of what I’m talking about.
So, this is something we haven’t talked about, but there’s a whole secondary market. There’s a secondary service market out there. People go on to Twitch and watch people play video games and stream. So, streaming websites are going to continue to grow. Discord. Basically, decentralized social media platforms are going to continue to grow with a focus on video games.
M&A activity. Last year, Microsoft bought ZeniMax. Last year, EA bought Codemasters. This year, EA’s buying Blue Mobile. There’s been rumors that Tencent is going to be doing a big bond issuance or raising money for the specific purpose of buying a mid-tier development studio, or even a large studio. This came out about two weeks ago, this rumor. And they were speculating that EA was even a target for Tencent and Take-Two. So, we’re talking about massive acquisitions coming. And again, the big boys at the top, they need to diversify their lineup, so they’re doing that by buying the mid-tier studios.
