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Gaming technology innovation: How the gaming industry can collaborate to deliver the ultimate player experience
By Abhinay Bhagavatula
With world economies reopening, we are seeing a gradual return to normalcy across all aspects of life. This is particularly evident in the gaming industry, with venues reopening around the world and experiencing increasing demand from an audience with a pent-up desire to enjoy the thrill of gaming once more. As such, delivering the ultimate player experience is critical to the industry’s successful rebound, and technology has a central role to play.
With global supply chain challenges continuing to impact the whole sector, game manufacturers are having to think and operate differently to keep production lines running and effectively meet the growing consumer demand, despite operating on significantly reduced revenues.
The gaming industry has proven time and time again to be resilient and versatile, swiftly and effectively adapting to new challenges and circumstances. This is something we are certain will be true over the coming months, and we are seeing a paradigm shift in gaming technology and innovation. History is always a valuable teacher. As the industry continues to adapt to learnings from the recent months, we believe the following considerations will be central to ensuring the successful recovery of the industry, and paving the way for future gaming excellence.
Standardisation of products across markets to enable cost-effective game development.
The quest to deliver the ultimate player experience has often seen a high level of custom product development across the gaming industry, with game manufacturers developing a range of in-house platforms for different geographies and markets. Developing and managing the lifecycle of these products can however be particularly costly and can prevent investment in future gaming technology and innovation. When the sector was thriving, this way of operating was possible, but with gaming venues at reduced capacity and revenues significantly down, this is a perfect opportunity for the industry to put this practice under the microscope. It raises a key question – do manufacturers really need to develop custom solutions in-house to deliver the best player experience, or are there effective alternatives? Opting for a standardised but highly configurable gaming platform across markets will enable game manufacturers to ensure constant technology excellence and to deliver the ultimate player experience while streamlining and removing additional cost and complexity from their game development process.
Enabling speed to market across geographies.
The last two years have opened doors for new opportunities across global gaming avenues, including increased demand for Electronic Table Games and cashless payment technologies, alongside the integration of live dealer on land-based solutions. To get ahead, gaming manufacturers and providers need to ensure that they are able to quickly and effectively adapt to the needs of the market and launch new products which enable them to maximise these opportunities. With a need for speed and agility, rather than develop and maintain custom solutions, standardised hardware and software platforms will be critical for speed and ease to launch in new markets, and effectively meet player demand. Manufacturers who leverage the experience and expertise of specialist technology solution providers will have a competitive edge as they can outsource and free up time and resources to focus on key points of differentiation that enhance the player experience.
Multi-source strategies to mitigate the global supply impact.
Booming consumer demand for products incorporating complex electronic components and challenges with freight initiated a global supply-chain crisis some nine months ago, which has resulted in acute shortages of critical gaming components. With months of closure, little to no revenue and uncertainty around levels of consumer demand, preparing for a new normal post lockdown was always going to be a challenge. Whilst there is now a clear view of increasing consumer demand, these sudden shortages have caught the industry off-guard, creating a myriad of operational challenges and impacting production lines and speed to market across the industry. For manufacturers developing custom solutions, it will become increasingly hard to manage these custom products amid continued component challenges. To effectively prepare for the future, many manufacturing companies are now looking at multi-source, dual-source, and co-design strategies, which will enable them to ensure a constant supply of products and reduce the cost, time, and complexity of product development. The increasingly popular approach to outsource and use standard solutions not only mitigates the current challenges but allows game manufacturers to spend more time on content and areas that enhance the player experience.
Standardising gaming technology to deliver the ultimate player experience
Listening and responding to the needs of the market, Quixant have used the past 18 months to design and develop a range of expertly designed solutions to meet the needs and regulations of the gaming world and provide customers with maximum performance based on their budget, market, and product needs.
All of Quixant’s gaming hardware platforms include the market-leading Quixant Software Hub, a host of effective software solutions that are designed to optimise game development and delivery and enable our customers to develop their latest games without limits.
The product ranges are:
IQ – Gaming intelligence. Big on performance. Big on value.
IQON – Gaming brilliance. Elite performance. Endless Possibilities.
QMAX – Gaming dominance. Ultimate Power. Ultimate Performance.
Our team of Gaming technology experts have 15+ years of gaming experience and collaborate with customers throughout the game development process to seamlessly integrate all elements of their games and ensure maximum performance and ultimate results.
Whatever your approach to future-proof your business, looking ahead, it’s clear that technology innovation will be pivotal to continuously delivering the best gaming experiences. Find out how with Quixant you can standardise your technology stack with highly customisable solutions that enable you to more cost-effectively deliver the ultimate player experience.