Among the news of upcoming festivals and industry events, the fact that a major games festival is to be held at the New York headquarters of the United Nations (UN) is particularly intriguing. What does this arrangement tell us about the future of the gaming industry and in what ways could it help?

The Full Story

2023 brings the 20th anniversary of the Games for Change Festival, which is hosted annually by a non-profit organisation of the same name. They aim to show the latest games and technology in the industry, with key areas of development such as artificial intelligence expected to be among the big news this year.

As part of the 2023 event, they’ll be holding a summit on games and sustainable development goals, and this is the element that will be taking place at the UN headquarters. It will be the first time that the gaming industry has met in the UN’s building and that means that it could be viewed as a landmark moment.

The Growing Importance of Gaming

The decision to hold the Games for Change Festival at the UN’s HQ is a sign that the global importance of the industry is now being more widely recognised. In particular, it’s reassuring to see the role that gaming could play in helping us to build a more sustainable future will be addressed here.

This also acts as evidence that gaming is now considered a huge part of the global economy, something which the numbers back up. With revenues expected to reach over $320 billion by 2026 and the number of gamers in the world constantly growing, it’s clear that this is something to be taken into account when looking at the modern world and how money is generated across the planet.

We can also see how the industry has divided into different segments in recent years. For example, mobile gaming, PC gaming and console gaming are all becoming increasingly diverse. The introduction of the metaverse and virtual reality gaming is likely to lead to the industry splintering even more. The blockchain offers another way of playing that is acting to diversify things even further.

Meanwhile casino gaming has reached such levels that operators can choose to use betting software that compiles the games on ready-to-use, multi-purpose betting platforms. These platforms have hundreds or thousands of different titles from a variety of software providers, which allows casinos to offer a huge range of games with a minimum of fuss, helping the sector to continue its impressive levels of growth.

How Will the Festival Help?

The first expected benefit from this event is the fact that it will help to raise the profile of the gaming industry, while flagging up the need for ideas on sustainable growth. It’s yet to be seen whether any real solution will come out of the Games for Change Festival, but it seems safe to suggest that this is a step in the right direction.

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