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Summary
In just fifty years, video gaming has transformed from a childhood hobby into a global $200 billion industry that is set to eclipse film and TV in both revenue and cultural impact. This meteoric rise has led The Economist to predict that “[w]hoever dominates gaming is going to wield clout in every form of communication.” Gaming franchises have expanded beyond just being popular products to become influential media brands that have cultural impact beyond the console. Legacy media firms and tech companies are responding by building gaming divisions or acquiring independent gaming studios in order to capture a piece of this new attention economy. With gaming set to change how people consume media and engage with products and brands, what will this mean for the broader business landscape—and for UX researchers in particular? How should we think about understanding game players, their preferences, and habits? Join Dane DeSutter and experts from leading gaming companies for an interactive discussion on how mixed-methods research and big data are shaping popular gaming products and company strategies and how we all might start to think about the gamer experience in our own industries. Panelists: Natalie Gedeon, Deborah Hendersen, Cheryl Platz; Moderated by: Dane DeSutter
Key Insights
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Gaming industry revenue is poised to surpass $200 billion by 2025, overtaking paid TV by 2026.
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Half of gaming’s growth is driven by smartphone games, showing mobile’s dominant role.
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Gaming UX differs from traditional UX by intentionally including challenge and desirable friction.
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Measuring emotional responses at scale is critical and underappreciated outside gaming UX research.
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Mixed methods—combining telemetry data with qualitative insights—are essential for meaningful game UX analysis.
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The definition of gamers is expanding beyond self-identification, requiring behavior-based research recruitment.
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Gaming’s growing global reach demands culturally relevant, localized content and accounting for regional regulations.
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Accessibility in gaming is advancing, with tools enabling blind or deaf players to fully participate, such as audio cues replacing visuals.
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Transmedia storytelling through games adapted into TV and films (e.g., Arcane, The Last of Us) has legitimized the medium culturally.
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Gaming UX research informs broader UX practices by emphasizing emotional impact and cognitive engagement as differentiators.
Notable Quotes
"Games are not a point in time you run away from — you don’t just drop the cartridge and walk away."
"Game designers optimize good friction; UX tries to minimize bad friction."
"If you remove death in a game like Dark Souls, the game breaks — death is part of the challenge and fun."
"Telemetry is like sex in high school — everyone claims to do it, but most are doing it poorly."
"You cannot measure feelings meaningfully in a single interview; feelings are emergent and must be measured at scale."
"Do you play games? Cool, you’re in. Stop asking questions. It’s about behavior, not identity."
"Valorant builds hyperlocal agents with teams from the agent’s actual city to boost authenticity and representation."
"Many Xbox games are fully playable by blind players — sound cues replace visuals so they can navigate without sight."
"The Pokémon anime was essentially a game manual, walking players through the journey with emotional stakes."
"Gaming is about generating positivity in ways software like Azure can’t."
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