Vinayak Shrivastav is CEO and cofounder of VideoVerse.
Stadiums filled to the max with legions of loyal fans. Global audiences in the millions. A multibillion-dollar economy. Full-ride university scholarships for top-performing athletes. Talent agents, managers and spotters on never-ending hunts. Celebrity endorsements in the billions.
We’re talking about the global phenomenon that is esports—and the AI-powered video game industry connects everything.
Today, esports, which commands only a relatively niche audience, is using advanced machine learning (ML) to help game development evolve into enhanced player experiences. Developers use AI across multiple touchpoints through the production process—from generating content to naturally responsive, fully animated nonplayer characters (NPCs)—to drive a new form of sports engagement.
The benefits are plenty. ML algorithms relying on analyzing millions of data points can now automate repetitive, time-consuming tasks as well as drive up efficiency and output. AI systems can currently handle balance issues, eliminating mundane activities such as playtesting builds to find bugs. Algorithms can also generate vast amounts of content like environmental assets and character animations that previously required significant resources.
As AI goes deeper into video game production, expect the industry to leap into a new world of creativity and utility.
Marketers Are Paying Attention
Gaming studios can leverage AI to connect with globally diverse audiences. According to Statista, global video game revenue is forecast to increase by $136.8 billion continuously between 2023 and 2027. The early discourse is on how key gaming fan bases desire personalized and engaging experiences.
As such, gaming marketers are tapping into the profound power of AI to optimize marketing campaigns, create customized content for digitally rooted esports audiences and drive relationships in the gaming community. Setting up the strategy early brings unparalleled opportunities for companies seeking to offer experiences that users and viewers want.
AI Drives Awareness
The industry is undoubtedly excited about the opportunity to develop and launch new AI-first game categories and dramatically expand existing genres. While AI is most commonly used for sales, customer service and community moderation, its marketing applications are invaluable for understanding gamer demographics, trends and behaviors for sports of any scale.
For example, by leveraging influencer marketing and partnerships, game companies can effectively promote new titles and experiences to eager social audiences primed for engagement. Data shows that PC gamers spent approximately $820 million in 2022 on gaming content on Epic Games. Given the large fan base, Epic routinely leverages influencer tournaments in Fortnite, attracting millions of viewers while driving higher engagement across Epic’s online social space and creating a real-life metaverse-like environment.
Gaming Creators Driving Growth
Developers aren’t the only drivers of adoption. Gamers and creators are embracing AI to enhance gameplay and reach wider audiences. Creators seek to build engaged communities across platforms like Instagram, Twitch and YouTube to scale their personality, time and efforts across branded channels with novel content. For example, Jacksepticeye created a series of videos featuring an AI assistant named Cloakzy to engage with viewers and answer common questions. This AI novelty helped increase views and subscribers.
Production quality and partnerships are the key drivers of follower growth. Leading gaming organizations such as OpTic Gaming, FaZe Clan and G2 ESports, along with top streamers like Ninja and Charles Miske, have full-scale production teams to edit videos and curate highlights, keeping fans coming back for more. AI-created avatars, text and dialogues will bring personalization elements that make each playthrough unique for fans and consumers in any avatar social network.
Game developers are creating randomized game levels, characters and items, allowing players to enjoy a more varied and immersive gaming experience, sometimes including branded partnerships. Consistent content generation and distribution drive the creative effort for storytelling and keep the fans engaged for more extended periods of playtime.
AI Can Help Scale And Monetize
It’s become commonplace to understand that AI models are a powerful new primitive for building software and scaling content. To better integrate AI architecture, marketers must take stock of current workflows and identify content areas that can be further augmented or automated. AI will always rely on clean, hygienic and organized datasets. As such, these will optimize content tagging, metadata, asset management and social distribution pipelines.
When selecting AI tools specifically for the esports community, marketers should also favor transparent offerings that provide seamless integration into the current tech stack. Think of it as disruptive tech that makes content creation easier, allowing you to control the content. Custom features will allow for greater engagement from fans, as they will be able to mix up single sequences, graphics, music and transitions for curated forms of content.
Because all of this is new and changing fast, marketers should also prepare for hybrid approaches during initial adoption, where an AI platform executes repetitive tasks. At the same time, strategists tweak high-level decisions and strategies.
Lastly, monitor KPIs and ROI to gauge AI effectiveness. Marketers should be open to tweaking until the AI learns from first-hand data. Fans will always want to focus on the most memorable moments of an event. Patience and participation during this critical process can lead to better-automated content, increasing gaming content productivity, engagement and community connection.
While fans are hungry for loftier forms of personalized content and diverse experiences from their favorite creators and streamers, the net impact of AI on esports and gaming is driving the demand for booming fan experiences. Leveraging AI presents long-term opportunities, from automated content creation to data-driven community management. As AI advances, we can expect changes in the development of endlessly entertaining interactive games and the gaming content itself.
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