Market Outlook and Future Development Prospects of the Game Engine Industry: AIGC Capabilities May Become the Focus of Cloud Gaming Competition
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Game engines are the cornerstone of modern electronic game development, providing a powerful set of tools to help developers build, test, and release games. In recent years, with the continuous expansion of the game market and technological advancements, the game engine industry has shown some significant development trends.
With the improvement of computing power and advancements in graphics rendering technology, game engines are also being continuously upgraded and refined. New rendering technologies, physics engines, artificial intelligence algorithms, and more are constantly being introduced into game engines, making game graphics more realistic and the gaming experience more diverse. For example, mainstream game engines like Unreal Engine and Unity are continuously iterating to meet the market's demand for high-quality games.
Market Outlook and Future Development Prospects of the Game Engine Industry
A game engine refers to some pre-written editable computer game systems or core components of interactive real-time graphics applications. These systems provide game designers with various tools needed to create games, aiming to enable designers to easily and quickly develop game programs without starting from scratch.
A game engine is essentially a graphics engine. More accurately, a game engine is roughly equivalent to a graphics engine. Players often mention engines like "Unreal" or "Frostbite," and each engine handles graphics rendering differently, so games developed with a specific engine will have distinct visual performances.
A game engine includes the following systems: rendering engine (i.e., "renderer," including 2D and 3D graphics engines), physics engine, collision detection system, sound effects, scripting engine, computer animation, artificial intelligence, network engine, and scene management. With the widespread adoption of smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices, the cross-platform support capabilities of game engines have become increasingly important. Many game engines now offer native support for mobile devices, enabling developers to create cross-platform games more efficiently. Additionally, with the advancement of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies, game engines are beginning to support these emerging platforms, offering players entirely new gaming experiences.
A game engine is a software development tool that provides a framework for creating and developing video games. Typically, game engines include a suite of tools and services such as graphics rendering, physics simulation, sound processing, collision detection, AI, and network synchronization, helping developers produce games more efficiently.
The global game engine market is steadily growing, with an expected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.95% during the forecast period, reaching approximately ¥54.579 billion by 2028. Among the market leaders, Unity and Unreal Engine dominate, holding significant market shares.
As technology advances, game engines continue to optimize their graphics and visual effects. For instance, Unity has begun supporting ray tracing technology and plans to further research and apply this field in the future to achieve more realistic real-time rendering effects.
With the development of artificial intelligence, game engines are also enhancing their integration of machine learning algorithms, making NPC behaviors more natural and environmental responses more intelligent.
AIGC capabilities may become a focal point in cloud gaming competition Recently, Volcano Engine revealed the development details of its game cloud service platform, launching solutions specifically designed for the gaming industry. It is noteworthy that in the overall architecture, AIGC and large models have drawn significant attention: game developers can directly utilize the AI and large model capabilities provided by the Volcano Engine Ark platform for service invocation and content creation.
The emergence of large models marks another new phase in the development of artificial intelligence. The industry distinguishes between two directions of AI applications in gaming: 'traditional AI' and 'AIGC.'
Traditional AI serves as the foundation, primarily permeating the entire game development, operation, and promotion processes with 'atomic' capabilities. Through machine learning technologies, it is applied in specific gaming scenarios such as level generation, game community maintenance, and game store recommendations. This represents the AI utilization model in the gaming industry before the evolution to AIGC. Now, with the industry's technological advancement to AIGC, there is a heightened focus on high-quality, personalized generation of game assets and intelligent NPCs in specific scenarios, significantly reducing the reliance on manual labor and cutting costs.
In Volcano Engine's gaming solutions, the inclusion of large models alongside AIGC capabilities is unsurprising. The diverse models in the MaaS (Model as a Service) large model market and robust computational support may be the key factors keeping Volcano Engine competitive in the gaming sector.
Since OpenAI stunned the tech world with ChatGPT, China has truly embarked on a large model frenzy.
Market Outlook for the Game Engine Industry In the field of game engines, both open-source and commercial models coexist. Open-source game engines like Unity and Blender have attracted a large number of developers with their open-source advantages, forming a vast community ecosystem. On the other hand, commercial game engines such as Unreal Engine and CryEngine have drawn many large gaming companies by offering high-quality technical support and professional services. Both models have their pros and cons, creating a healthy competitive landscape.
With the advancement of cloud computing technology, cloud gaming and streaming games are gradually emerging. This new form of gaming runs games on cloud servers, transmitting game visuals and control commands to players over the internet. This technology lowers hardware barriers for players and enhances game accessibility. At the same time, cloud gaming presents new challenges and opportunities for game engines.
Looking ahead, the game engine industry will continue to evolve towards greater efficiency, intelligence, and cross-platform compatibility. As technology progresses and market demands shift, the industry will also see more innovative models and business opportunities emerge.
In this fiercely competitive market, the ability of companies and investors to make timely and effective decisions is crucial to success. The game engine industry report by China Research Network provides a detailed analysis of the current development status, competitive landscape, and market supply-demand dynamics of China's game engine industry. It examines opportunities and challenges from the perspectives of policy, economic, social, and technological environments. The report also identifies potential market demands and opportunities, offering accurate market intelligence and scientific decision-making support for strategic investors and corporate leadership. Additionally, it serves as a valuable reference for government agencies.