In the previous five years, the gaming industry worldwide has experienced explosive growth. Growth has been seen in all segments, but the main drivers during this period have been mobile games on the two main platforms iOS and Android.

It is worth noting that the U.S. and China are the largest contributors to the gaming industry, but the market structure of these favorites is very different. In the U.S., the largest segment is console games, while China has MMOs.

The reason why the Chinese game market is so specific is interesting. Until 2013, there was a moratorium on the sale of game consoles in China. This ban became a catalyst for the rapid development of MMO games. As a result, China has become the main producer of a huge number of often very similar to each other, but at the same time sufficiently high-quality MMO gaming projects. China’s gaming market in 2014 was estimated at almost $18 billion, and the number of gamers at 173 million.

MinecraftThe most significant events in 2014 can be undone:

Microsoft’s purchase of the game Minecraft for $2.5 billion.It was originally an independent project by a lone programmer. But as it developed, it gained an army of fans. Being built on open source technology, it has seen explosive growth in content and has surpassed all other entertainment for children of the digital generation. As of fall 2014, the number of registered players exceeded 10 million, with absolutely no advertising involved.

Facebook’s purchase of Oculus VR technology for $2 billion. It is clear that the technology can be used in many areas and for different tasks, but for the gaming industry – this technology was a fundamental breakthrough to form a new VR direction.