A rising tide raises all ships, that’s how the saying goes. And though some may not believe it, that’s how it goes for certain media industries too despite all the competition going on in them. This happens in the video game world especially, for a new game can cause a ripple effect that leads many to wonder how they can emulate its success. In 2017, that “ripple” was no doubt PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. A title that dominated Steam despite only being in Early Access, and upon being on Xbox One sold 4 million units rather quickly.
Its success paved the way for Fortnite, which is enjoying success of its own. But also, it’s affecting how the big-name publishers make their own titles. Take for example, EA, who are making a new Battlefield title for later this year, and CEO Peter Wilson acknowledged in a statement that PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds affects how the game will be made:
“I think what you discover in this industry is there’s a lot of great vectors that drive player engagement. And one of those is just innovation in the core gameplay mechanic. And what the team, with PUBG, have done is really deliver a new level of innovation that change the way people were playing first-person shooter games.”
Interestingly enough though, that’s not the only focus EA has in regards to what to do and grow within their games. They’re also focusing on another aspect that they feel could bring a lot of success to them: esports.
“We always believe, at its very core, esports is going to drive tremendous engagement in our community and allow us to reach broader communities of viewers who maybe have never played our games before. And in doing so, we would see growth in the core digital businesses of the games that we’ll feature in esports.”
With the new Battlefield coming this year, we may not have to wait long to hear how things will be affected.
