Everything you know about PC games development is wrong… or at least it soon will be. In 2019, the PC games industry is going to change significantly and forever.
Steam’s dominant position is starting to wane with challenges from multiple directions, including renewed competition from the likes of Origin and GOG, newcomers including Discord and Tencent’s WeGame as well as publishing giants like Activision, Bethesda and CD Projekt deciding to go it alone.
Thought to be dead, the streaming market has received a new lease on life with big players like Microsoft, EA and Google adding their considerable weight to this sector, with speculation from top publishers including Ubisoft that this is the industry’s future.
Fellow tech giants Microsoft promise the advent of Netflix for games with new rental models. New cloud tech innovations such as Improbable’s SpatialOS will make it easier than ever to make bigger, more immersive games, whilst other technology such as blockchain will offer new ways to engage and involve users.
Investment and consolidation will continue so we’ll see more companies acquired like Jagex or floated like Team 17.
Meanwhile, the volume of games flooding the market will put ever more pressure on discovery, old-school premium games will be challenged by free-to-play and service-based projects that demand more player time, marketing is more of a challenge than ever and channels will continue to evolve, while the Asian markets’ rise to dominance continues unabated.
PC Connects London
On January 21st and 22nd, 2019, PC Connects London will shine a light on all of these trends and more. It will explain the realities of the current markets, and offer developers, publishers and the whole industry essential strategies to survive and thrive. Plus the continuation of IPOs, acquisitions and new splintered startups.
We’ll bring together representatives of key players from across the ecosystem – the marketplaces, both triple-A and indie publishers, the indie developers, the tool makers and the analysts. We’ll have representatives from the biggest and best companies from all around the world.
500 delegates will hear from 50 speakers from the world of PC gaming as they deliver five conference tracks covering everything from getting your game to market to 2019: The PC Revolution.
Five conference tracks
Kicking things off is the returning State of Play, which will be taking the pulse of the market as it is right now, with our lineup of speakers and overall smart people sharing data to give an indication of what the current zeitgeist is.
Digital Discovery also makes a comeback, giving attendees insight into how to get games noticed in a saturated marketplace where consumers have more choice than ever.
Codeshop: Design and Development replaces last year’s PC Games University, providing technical talks that will take the audience behind the scenes on the biggest games to give them an edge over the competition.
Finishing off the first day is The Long Game which charts the shift from fire-and-forget retail releases and gives insight and advice into running a service-based project – both from a development standpoint and a community/marketing one.
And now the main event – The PC Revolution. This will be looking at the shifts happening in the market right now and looking at what impact they will have on the PC games space. We’ll be covering new tech, changes in the retail space, shifting business models and how to capitalise on emerging markets such as China.
Indies, mobile and blockchain too
As well as the vibrant indie showcase expo space, PC Connects London is also the setting for the first PC Indie Pitch of 2019, kicking off another hot year of competition around the world.
Your ticket will also give you full access to Pocket Gamer Connects with all the benefits of insight from the mobile development ecosystem, as well as our first iteration of Blockchain Gamer Connects on UK soil, shining a light on another disruptive technology.
