Software as a Service or SaaS has a huge number of applications, but one of the sectors where it has been truly revolutionary is in the gaming industry. The entertainment industry as a whole is generally quick on the uptake when it comes to new technology and in the gaming area this has been no exception. Whether it’s the proliferation of free to play games, downloadable content, or customising your games, SaaS has made way for a whole new world of gaming.
Initial Investments
When it comes to online gaming sites, these really are the pioneers of SaaS. They offer either free online games, usually running ad banners or upgrade functions to make revenue, or they operate on a pay to play basis. The reason that these sorts of websites took off so quickly is because thanks to SaaS the initial outlay can be much smaller. For example, the invention of SaaS has meant that casino sites can be set up with a much smaller initial cash injection. At casinos.co.za they list the best casino sites in South Africa, as rated by users and verified by the company itself. Of the best sites in the country, the majority of them use SaaS in some form. A great deal of casino providers rely on other companies to develop slot games for them. The interest in slots games is enormous and the pressure to stay current means that for one company to develop all of its own games would be prohibitively expensive. Instead, some of the major games developers like PlayTech and Microgaming create hundreds of slots games and provide them as a service to their casino site partners.
The Second Hand Games Market
Saas really got a foothold on the gaming sector thanks to the booming second hand games market. It used to be that if you were buying the disc of a game then you could play it through until the end and then send it on to a friend, or sell it on the secondhand market. During the early noughties, games developers tried to combat this by giving each game a unique code printed on the game packet, meaning that only one computer would be able to have that game installed on it. Unfortunately, lots of consumers wanted to play it on multiple computers and grew tired of this model. Games developers removed the model and started looking for alternatives. Here at SaaSmetrics we’re well versed in what causes people to choose an Saas model and it’s often to please customers. It was no different in the gaming industry.
The SaaS model meant that games could be purchased and played on any computer that the user signed into, using cloud technology. This also enabled consumers to buy downloadable content to customise the game that they were playing. Nowadays downloadable content makes up a huge portion of the revenue that gaming companies take in, which brings us on to the next way that SaaS has transformed the gaming industry.
Free to Play Games
Free to play games have been a huge development over recent years and though we’ll probably never see the end of platform games costing upwards of $80, a lot of the titles that we would once have paid a huge chunk of change for, are now totally free. Whilst this may seem like bad business, the games companies have simply found another way of making revenue, micro transactions and payable downloadable content. The games are now free to download and play, but if you want to customise the game, skip through the boring bits, or get yourself some extra in-game pennies to spend, then that is the part that the consumer now pays for. All of this is downloaded instantly, as per the SaaS model, and though the small amounts seem insignificant, they provide a much steadier and more reliable income flow for the games company.
You see this sort of free to play but pay to customise model not just in PC games, but also in games on more modern consoles such as the PlayStation 4 & 5, as well as the Xbox One. On mobile phones, a game such as Pokémon Go is a great example of a game that can be enjoyed totally free of charge, but gets a whole lot easier if you’re willing to part with some cash. You can buy lures to attract wild Pokémon that you might not normally see even if you walked around your city for hours on end. On platform games you can also find this sort of model, in fact many of the most-favored Esports games follow this exact model, allowing you to customise your player, your weapons and your gaming style, as long as you pay small amounts here and there for the privilege.