By: Jesse Cryderman

Video games have evolved and grown faster than any other content segment on the planet, and yet service providers still give more airtime to discussions about competing with RCS-e apps (which, so-far, have had abysmal uptake) and dubious CEM strategies rather than clearing a path to gaming gold. Gartner valued the global video game market at $93 billion in October, 2013, a figure it predicted will rise to $111 billion by 2015. Of this pie, mobile gaming is the fastest growing segment; Gartner anticipates it will nearly double from 2013 levels to reach $22 billion in 2015.

Video games sales alone generate $24 billion per year, which is a significantly larger chunk of revenue than the movie industry and the music industry combined. Just look at the sales statistics around opening week for Hollywood films versus opening weekend of a major video game release. While a movie is deemed a blockbuster if it can pull more than $200 million during opening week, new video games routinely deliver results that triple that figure.

And yet, the focus for many service providers is still on monetizing over-the-top (OTT) mobile video, which is indeed important, but is unlikely to generate the kind of revenue that gaming will. Gaming is pervasive, cross-cultural content with a capital C that taps into every tech trend: interactive, social, and mobile. Side by side, there is hardly any comparison when you look at the numbers.

For example, WhatsApp charges users $1 per year; XBOX Live charges $60 for the year. Skype charges U.S. users $36 for 12 months of calling; World of Warcraft averages $162 in subscriber service revenue each year, and that doesn’t include actual title revenue or value-add services and upsells.

While CSPs scurry about trying to squeeze a few more pennies out of messaging and SIM-card activations, the gaming ecosystem is practically printing money. Gobs of it.

Following are the ways in which gaming has changed and is evolving, and a game plan (pardon the pun) for CSPs who wish to play ball.

Gaming evolved

The evolution of the gaming audience bears mention. Video games are now played nearly as often by women (47%) as they are played by men (53%). In fact, women 18 or older represent a larger portion of the game playing population (31%) than boys 17 or younger (19%). Games are popular with older generations as well; 29% of gamers in the U.S. are age 50 or older.

Gaming is being referred to as the sport of the future. Video game tournaments are now popular spectator sports with enough pulling power to sell out arenas like the Staples Center in LA in an hour. eSports as they are known, have their own organization, Major League Gaming, and their own version of ESPN called Twitch. Last year, more people watched Twitch than MTV, TNT or AMC. Professional eSports teams, like Team Dignitas, live in million-dollar mansions as the practice for these high-stakes tournaments, where top players can rake in $60,000 annually.

Many companies on the periphery have taken notice and are adding gaming to their market strategy. Telecom network equipment manufacturer ZTE, for example, is building a new gaming console for the Chinese market called the Fun Box. But it’s Amazon that is making the biggest waves.

The house that Bezos built is developing a sub-$300 gaming console that will run on the Android operating system and go head-to-head with Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony. Amazon scooped up Double Helix in February, an independent game studio. More recently, Amazon reportedly embarked on a hiring spree in Seattle, attempting to woo developers to Amazon Game Studios. The company has even been rumored to be in talks to buy Xbox from Microsoft.

That’s highly unlikely, from my vantage point.