ABOUT US
Market overview
The global games market continues to show strong long-term growth, with close to 3.5 billion players at the end of 2023. In total, the market amounted to USD 184 billion in 2023, divided between PC, console and mobile games.
In 2023, the global games market continued to grow as demand for interactive entertainment experiences increased. The market for PC games increased by 5.3 percent and the market for console games grew by 1.7 percent. For the second year in a row, the mobile games market was shrinking, but still accounts for 49 percent of the market’s total revenue.
Growth
The analysis company Newzoo estimates that the market will continue to grow with a CAGR of just over 4 percent between 2023 and 2026, and the market value is then expected to amount to USD 205.4 billion.
Starbreeze products are sold via digital platforms such as Steam, Playstation Store, Xbox Game Store and Epic Games Store, and via physical retailers. Geographically, North America and Europe are the largest markets for our games and together account for just over 70 percent of Starbreeze’s revenue.
Trends
The games industry and market are expansive and rapidly changing. The driving market trends are evolving and are continuously influenced by technological advances, changing consumer games habits and structural changes in the industry's structure.
A selection of the market trends affecting our business are presented here;
Generative AI
Generative AI is used today in the games industry in everything from pre-production processes, to generating textures and content, creating dynamic and varied games environments, as well as character design and animation. According to surveys, generative AI is expected to increase the overall quality of games and shorten production times, but not to the same extent reduce costs or alleviate the industry’s talent shortage.
For Starbreeze
Today, we use generative AI primarily in the pre-production work for our various projects. The ability to quickly visualize and communicate a visual direction or design track shortens the time between pre-production and production. Starbreeze is investigating the possibility of using generative AI in the future for the processual generation of both commercial and user-generated content.
Industry consolidation
For many years, the games industry has been characterized by a consolidation trend, where larger and larger Groups concentrate the number of studios, publishers and distributors under one owner. One example of this trend is the Swedish entertainment Group Embracer and Microsoft’s acquisition of Bethesda Softworks and the games Group ActivisionBlizzard, and thereby global brands such as Fallout, Call of Duty, Warcraft and Candy Crush.
For Starbreeze
A concentration of brands and larger studios with a few players can contribute to reducing the games space from smaller, stand-alone studios. Being both a game developer and publisher gives Starbreeze the opportunity to help studios reach a wider audience and community with their games through our third-party publishing, including through Starbreeze Nebula.
Co-op & UGC
Games that encourage players to play together – by solving problems, building or creating – are becoming increasingly popular. Minecraft and Roblox let players build their own worlds or even create their own games from scratch, and in 2023 Fornite creator Epic Games released a special version of their game engine Unreal Engine to let players create tracks and design entire games based on the Fortnite brand.
For Starbreeze
We believe in games as a social experience that unites people. Starbreeze niche lies within cooperative multiplayer games, with a strong connection to the community. Historically, user-generated content (UGC) has been a significant part of driving the success of our titles, and we will continue to be involved in developing and pushing the boundaries of user-generated content.
Value chain
Game development consists of a number of stages and activities that contribute to value creation in the final product. It includes activities of IP owners, developers, publishers and resellers.