The gaming culture 2014 recap. Know why it's important for developers to know the culture behind the games they make.

“Viva la revolucion”, translated as “Long live the Revolution”, a phrase that might have been commonly used during the early 1900s to portray the aftermath of the 1910 Mexican Revolution--an event that transformed Mexico after a series of uprisings against a longtime dictator and gave the Mexican people a sense of identity and purpose.

Now, the same phrase is used everywhere, from social reforms, educational reforms, cultural reforms, and many more.

And with the year of 2014 about to part, the phrase, “Long live the Revolution”, can now be embedded to the gaming culture for the year had lots of groundbreaking moves and innovations across different levels: from business of games to game development and game consumerism--a move which took video gaming from a person’s basement, to the hands of everyday people.

Starting early 2014, the gaming world had witnessed the one of gaming’s biggest acquisitions when Facebook decides to buy Oculus VR, a virtual reality startup brought to life by the gaming culture after raising $2.4 million on Kickstarter.
 

It seems quite strange to most people, but big companies investing in gaming companies isn’t new. Softbank Capital, investor of Sprint, and Yahoo, bought 51% of SUPERCELL in 2013, a mobile gaming company who is known for developing hits such as Clash of Clans and Hay Day. In addition, China’s largest internet company, Tencent, bought a majority stake in Riot Games, developer and publisher of one of the world’s most popular videogames: League of Legends.

And later this year, internet e-commerce giant, Amazon, buys online video game streaming service, Twitch for about $1 billion--a move that shows the game industry is an industry that the business world cannot ignore.

Game developers also had a big win in 2014. The indie game, Flappy Bird, caused an uproar in the game industry after its developer, Dong Nguyen took the indie game off the app store early in 2014.  Fans around the world loved the game so much that it became a cultural hit, generating the developer $50,000 a day in revenue.
 

The fact that more and more games can now be played across different game systems, it is undoubtedly true that video games are now part of everyone’s daily entertainment. In a study by the Electronic Software Association, 58% of americans play video games. That is about 158 million people playing video games in the United States alone. Also, in a study by Newzoo, by 2016, the global videogame market is set to reach $86.1 billion--a number quite surprising for a 30 year old industry.

And speaking of video gaming reaching the mainstream market, celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Lindsay Lohan both made games during 2014, which garnered mass appeal for becoming one of the very first celebrities to develop video games.
 

Finally, who could forget about Riot Games’ trailblazing approach to E-sports. On October 2014, fans around the world swarmed South Korea’s Sangam World Cup Stadium to take part of the League of Legends world championships. The three-day event was also simulcasted online for which millions fans watched regardless of what time zone they are on.

Now, if the events mentioned above do not sum up to a digital revolution in gaming, then everyone can definitely bet that these events are a major spur that will eventually take videogaming in the mainstream culture.

Here at Rekt Apparel we provide clothing for gamers around the world. Our goods are out there to provide for this revolution to put video games into the mainstream culture. We seek to provide gamers with a sense of identity that they can show to the public so they can be proud to represent themselves as gamers. As what Thrasher did for the skating culture and as what Tapout did for the mixed martial arts culture, we hope to provide the same for the gaming culture. So here we go 2015! Let’s do this fellow gamers!