The global gaming industry is growing – and it’s poised to keep on booming.
Driven by a rising online population combined with new technology developments such as virtual reality providing world experiences, the sector’s rapid expansion is expected to reach $321 billion by 2026, according to PwC’s Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2022-26.
In the Middle East, with its tech-savvy and young demographic the outlook for the gaming industry in the region is particularly upbeat. The size of the Middle East and North Africa gaming industry is predicted to exceed more than $5 billion by 2025.
The growing market makes the region ripe for opportunities not only for game developers but also for hardware companies offering gaming devices.
“Together, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Egypt now have 65.32 million gamers, and this is expected to rise to 85.76 million by 2025. However, the penetration of gaming and creator devices in our region is still not at par with other similar regions globally – the gaming notebook mix in UAE and Saudi Arabia is still at 15 percent whereas it has reached almost 35 percent in more matured gaming markets,” explained Yowan Khandelwal, business manager, Notebooks and Concept D, Acer Middle East.
Another sector that’s tipped for massive growth in the region is the creator market. With consumers expecting more interactive and immersive experiences, brands are naturally looking for innovative tools that they can use creatively to reach their customers.
To cater to the growing needs of the gaming and creator markets, in 2021, Acer unveiled SpatialLabs – a suite of experiences empowered by optical solutions plus display and sensory technologies that bring the virtual world to a more physical dimension. It delivers stereoscopic 3D experiences in an intuitive way, allowing creators to examine their creations in real-time and 360 degrees.
“The objective of SpatialLabs is to provide an experience that delivers intuitive interaction and an immersive sensation through technologies including advanced optical/display, sensory solutions, and the latest real-time rendering technologies,” said Khandelwal.
“We are now able to achieve this experience through the combination of an eye-tracking solution, a stereoscopic 3D display, real-time rendering, and AI technologies in all our newly launched SpatialLabs products.”
Khandelwal highlighted that Acer’s entire range of products with SpatialLabs integration addresses the different needs of customers today. Earlier this year, the company announced the expansion of its SpatialLabs lineup of products to further enhance the experiences of gamers and creators alike.
Acer’s Helios 300 SpatialLabs provides a next-generational immersive gaming experience and can handle the intense workload requirement of a creator. “With Helios 300 SpatialLabs users will be able to able to play the games in a 3D stereoscopic view without the hassle of connecting any wires or glasses,” said Khandelwal.
Ideal for creators, ConceptD 7 integrates the best CPU & GPUs available from Acer’s partners and comes with a 3D stereoscopic display and a suite of SpatialLabs software. “This will bring the creations of our customers into an intractable 3D world preserving all the details. SpatialLab software also enables easy migration of any 2D content to an inspiring 3D domain,” he explained.
The company’s SpatialLabs portfolio also consists of two 15.6-inch displays namely the SpatialLabs View & SpatialLabs View PRO, which are aimed at highly-skilled creators. “We believe this will bring impactful 3D presentations to showrooms, museums, medical centres, educational arenas, and wherever the creators need to share their stories,” said Khandelwal.
He added, “The gaming and creator market is very important to us at Acer and the large portfolio of devices we offer customers in these segments are a testament to their importance to us. We are constantly listening to the requirements of our customers and focus on designing our products to address their needs.”
Looking ahead, Khandelwal noted that technologies focused on increasing the size of the gaming community or providing new visual experiences for gamers will see a higher adoption by consumers.
“We all have witnessed the huge advancement that the gaming industry has undergone in the past few years in terms of hardware and user experience. For example, the graphic resolution of QHD and frame rate of up to 360 Hz is already at such a high level, that increasing it will not drastically change the gaming experience and increased adaptation. Also, the widespread adaptation of ray tracing has made the gaming worlds even more similar to the real world than ever before,” he said.
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According to Khandelwal, cloud gaming is also gaining traction. However, while it’s improving slowly, it still has a way to go in terms of increasing the gaming community. “We believe our 3D SpatialLabs is an innovative step in the right direction to improve the visual experience and full immersion for our gamers,” he said.
Khandelwal added, “The opportunities in the Middle East continue to grow as both the gaming and creators markets have been steadily growing in our region for the last decade and we believe the trend will continue in the future as well.”
