2022 will be controversial, but cool – 6 gaming trends in the editor-in-chief’s forecast

On January 11, 2022By Garmin Philip

MeinMMO editor-in-chief Leya Jankowski is certain that we will still be discussing some gaming trends controversially in 2022. After 2 years of extreme drought, however, from their point of view, a strong year is finally coming.

I have hardly expected a gaming year with as much anticipation as 2022. Sometimes I almost get a little dizzy when I think about what is in store for us.

Two hearts are beating in my chest: I’m really looking forward to the fact that there will be a lot of action. But I’m also a bit afraid of the work that comes with it.

It is therefore all the more important to be armed and prepared for all eventualities. These are my predictions:

1. NFTs stay and grow

As early as 2021, NFT, along with Metaverse, was a big buzzword that was spreading in gaming. The first big players are testing the fairway and opening up plans:

If you think about it, blockchain and NFTs are only a logical consequence, especially in online gaming.

Virtual objects were already being traded in the early days of MMORPGs. If you didn’t have the time or the talent to acquire the most blatant items yourself and still wanted to brag in the guild, you could take a look at dedicated sites or eBay and hit it off.

But one did not acquire real possession through it. This is exactly what blockchain technology changes.

There is a simple reason why NFTs are so sexy for game makers right now: NFTs have the potential to generate such considerable sums of money that any classic gold dragon would immediately switch to pixels to defend the digital data on the blood.

We see more and more reports of games that are already generating millions before they are even there.

So we’ll see some more announcements and introductions to NFTs in games this year. Despite the current headwind from the gaming community. It gets controversial.

The author: Leya started working as a freelance writer at MeinMMO at the end of 2016. The job should be a nice sideline to your marketing studies in the Netherlands. The whole thing then escalated a bit. In March 2021, she became the editor-in-chief of MeinMMO. What has always fascinated Leya about marketing has been the movement of trends. How are they created and how can you even set them yourself? She takes this fascination with her into her current job and is constantly concerned with the questions why specific areas in gaming are booming – or why they are not.

2. Breakthroughs in poor working conditions for game studios

There is now almost no large gaming studio that is free from nasty scandals:

Sexism, crunch, bullying, bossing and binge drinking at work – we have read more reports about this in recent years than we would like.

Here is an excerpt:

Blizzard Activision stands out in particular. It all started with a lawsuit in July 2021 by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing. Shocking details came to light that went through the heart.

You can get a deeper insight into Blizzard’s sexism scandal in the video talk with GameStar:

You could say that Activision Blizzard’s lawsuit was a breakthrough. There was a lot of media interest. The employees organized protest marches, and work was partly still due to the scandal.

It is clear that the grievances in the industry can no longer continue. I assume that we will read even more Inside reports in 2022. The studios will reposition themselves in exactly the same way.

If Bobby Kotick doesn’t leave now, Activision Blizzard will lose more talent

3. More “Switch copies” even though the steam deck flops

The Steamdeck is Valve’s answer to the hugely popular Nintendo Switch. Even if the first tests confirm that the handheld console is of high quality, only one question burns into my mind:

Who needs it

The Nintendo Switch is now 5 years old and you can tell from the console. It is reaching its limits more and more. The Steamdeck is supposed to absorb exactly that and bring the performance of a PC, only as a handheld.

Sounds cool in theory. But how big is the target group here really? Steam is to be prescribed by the PC gaming community and they are most likely to be addressed by the Steamdeck. But do they want to play their God of War or Elden Ring on the 4K monitor?

I am convinced that a niche is being addressed here that will probably not be enough for the Steamdeck to become a lucrative business for Valve.

Cloud gaming is also constantly evolving. You can already play on the go with your smartphone or tablet via streaming with Game Pass or Stadia. This is then the cheaper alternative.

In addition, 2022 will still be dominated by the pandemic. This reduces the need for a powerful console on the go.

Nevertheless, we will still see some “copies” of the Switch, of which there are already some. No wonder. The Switch is now almost 100 million units sold – others want to nibble on the cake.

4. We are getting more AAA mobile games

The whole platform war has been beastly on my ovaries for years. I look forward to the days when it won’t make any difference where we play – and those days are closer than we probably realize.

The mega-success Genshin-Impact showed us how to do it. Genshin Impact was even able to score points on the PC and the consoles with the typical mobile Gatcha mechanics. I played it myself on the PC when it was released and could not visually tell that I was actually playing a mobile game.

Especially with MMORPGs from Asia, we can observe this trend of high-quality mobile games. Often they even appear for at least PC as well as iOS and Android.

We’ll see more of that in 2022.

The 9 best mobile MMORPGs 2022 for iOS and Android

In addition, mobile gamers now expect higher quality games. the Smartphone hardware has gotten stronger and stronger in recent years. The games look better and gaming no longer eats up as much battery charge.

I’ve been playing League of Legends: Wild Rift on my phone for a couple of weeks now and will soon be scratching 100 hours. In terms of complexity, graphics and controls, I don’t notice any difference to a console.

I say that in 2022 there will be another high-quality multiplatform game that comes close to the size of Genshin Impact – maybe even in the MMORGP area. And we’ll see more mobile games with the quality of Genshin Impact, Pokémon GO, Call of Duty: Mobile, outside of Diablo Immortal.

I know that not every “hardcore gamer” likes the trend. But if you look at the expected According to SensorTower, revenues in mobile games by 2025 will be 138 billion dollars it is not surprising.

5. The Xbox Game Pass faces serious competition

The Xbox Game Pass can now record over 18 million subscriptions. I use the offer myself and keep saying that it is really good. This enabled me to play my beloved retro pearls again or discover cool, new games like Psychonauts 2.

At the moment, the Xbox Games Pass offers the best value for money in gaming.

But of course others don’t sleep and want their own Netflix for gaming. I’m sure we’ll see at least one really serious competitor this year. Valve and Sony are promising candidates here.

With the Xbox Game Pass you saved over € 5,000 in 2021

6. There are tons of great games coming up!

In the past 2 years we have had to live with many shifts. Which is understandable due to the global pandemic.

For this we will get even more games in 2022! Just looking at the release list for February and March makes me dizzy.

These include top titles such as Lost Ark, Elden Ring, Total War: Warhammer III, Dying Light 2 or Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands. There are also big expansions like Witch Queen for Destiny 2.

I’m personally looking forward to a pearl called Have a Nice Death. A hand-drawn action rougelike in which you play the CEO of Death Incorporated.