Beyond the Swipe: The Clash of Short-Form Content and Gaming Industry

The ascendancy of the short-form content trend raises pertinent questions about its potential to reshape the gaming industry.

In the 1950s, the American psychologist 「B. F. Skinner」 conducted an experiment revealing that a consistent quantity of reward for lever-pressing by rats led to decreased interest in their activity over time. In contrast, when rewards were dispensed randomly, the rats exhibited obsessive behavior, even abandoning their usual activities in pursuit of the unpredictable reward. This study led researchers to conclude that continuous positive reinforcement was the least effective reward pattern, whereas variable-ratio reinforcement proved to be the most potent. The only problem was that humans, too, were susceptible to this phenomenon.

According to 「Statista」, in July 2023, 「YouTube Shorts」 garnered a user base exceeding 2 billion Monthly Active Users (MAUs) on its platform. When accounting for users on 「TikTok」 and 「Instagram Reels」, the collective audience for short-form content will significantly expand. Despite 「Facebook」 offering similar services prior to the emergence of these platforms, the enhanced User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) of newer products, coupled with the introduction of 30-second content, instilled the notion that shorter media required less investment from users, facilitating a diminished sense of reluctance in disengaging from one content and transitioning to the next. The repercussions of this trend only became evident as over-consumption began to adversely impact our ability to maintain focus.

Drawing insights from this observation, several avenues emerge through which this behavior could be embraced by the masses and integrated into the gaming industry

「TikTok」 made a substantial investment of nearly 200 billion USD upon entering the gaming market in 2015. In subsequent financial endeavors, the company acquired 「Moonton」 and 「C4 Games」 with the intention of integrating gaming content into their platform. Nevertheless, due to unforeseen delays and cancellations in the development process, TikTok opted to exit the market following a brief global beta test conducted in 2022.

I elucidated several factors contributing to their setback, examining it from the standpoint of both consumers and suppliers.

[Consumer]

• Short-form content, inherently a passive form of entertainment, effectively captivates the audience by necessitating repetitive actions (such as liking, commenting, sharing, and swiping). Consequently, the introduction of games, an interactive form of entertainment, disrupts this established pattern, leading to an immediate aversion from users.

[Supplier]

• Platforms like 「TikTok」 strategically evolve their features with the objective of transforming audiences into content creators. The rationale behind this approach lies in the necessity to prolong user engagement on their platform, a critical requirement for the effectiveness of their recommendation algorithms. Sustaining these algorithms relies on maintaining a substantial volume of content to cater to individual user preferences. However, the inherent nature of games as a product poses a formidable challenge to this dynamic. The production of games involves significant costs, time investments, and navigating diverse global regulations, making it nearly impractical to generate content at the rapid pace characteristic of visual content on these platforms.

Should the integration of games into "short-form" platforms prove ineffective, it prompts an exploration into the potential ramifications on the gaming industry.

Will it be the beginning of the rise of Hyper-Casual games and the decline of Role-Playing Games (RPGs)?

Characterized by intricate level systems and character growth, RPGs traditionally require comparable investments from players to excel over counterparts, resulting in extended playtime. This protracted engagement aligns with a format akin to longer-form media, which stands in contrast to the ongoing trend favoring shorter attention spans. In the event that the hypothesis regarding the gradual infiltration of short-form content dynamics into the gaming industry holds true, there emerges a prospect of heightened interest in Hyper-Casual games.

Contrary to the aforementioned hypothesis, recent research conducted by IronSource in 2022 presents a divergent perspective. While it is acknowledged that hyper-casual games underwent a rapid surge in popularity from 2017 to 2020, the pivotal element for the theory's validation would entail a corresponding decrease in demand for other gaming genres.

This outcome may imply two potential scenarios: firstly, the influx of a new wave of consumers entering the gaming market, and secondly, the possibility that individuals already engaged in various forms of gaming have expanded their participation to include "snack-able" games.

Will the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) Mini-game, characterized by shorter play times and featuring diverse stages and maps, experience prominent popularity?

While acknowledging that other factors contribute to fluctuation in player engagement, in the case of MOBA games exemplified by 「Fall Guys」, each game is randomly assigned, eliminating player choice in the selection process, and participants are unable to disengage or exit the game until its conclusion. Moreover, unlike the diverse and surprising content found on short-form platforms, playable stages in these games are limited and often repeated.

('Fall Guys' witnessed a rush in player engagement, peaking at around 60,000 players after transitioning to a free-to-play model in July 2022. However, this peak was followed by a rapid decline, with current peak player numbers standing at 2,000.)

In summary,

the amalgamation of passive and interactive entertainment appears to be a challenging prospect, at least in the foreseeable future.

While current data may not fully endorse this idea, given the ongoing expansion of the gaming industry, persistent patterns influenced by short-form content consumption may lead to a shift in behavior. One of the strongest potential manifestations of this shift could be the emergence of a scenario where spectators of games outnumber the active participants. Then, the gaming industry may face a pivotal decision between investing in the development of games, despite the escalating costs, to cater to the existing segment of its core audience, and channeling efforts into crafting a singular, exemplary game capable of generating revenue through the burgeoning platform of eSports.