Back in the late eighties and early nineties, gaming in New Zealand was well behind almost the entire Anglophone world. The realities of being such a small and distant market made this an inevitability when it came to the acquisition of gaming hardware and software. NZ simply didn’t generate enough profit to be considered at the top of the shipping list.
Combine this with the fact that games in Europe and Australasia had to go through an encoding process known as PAL conversion, as explained on bandcds.co.uk, and our position was as understandable as it was frustrating.
Since the turn of the new millennium, this former pattern has rapidly diminished. Today, we receive most hardware and software releases at the same time as the rest of the world. So what has enabled this growth, and where do we see the biggest illustrations of New Zealand’s development in the gaming sphere?
Development
As a development environment, NZ is now home to some fantastically successful businesses. Grinding Gear Games, responsible for Path of Exile, has achieved immense success on both the national and international scale. Their website grindinggear.com lists them as having been founded in 2006, marking runaway success on a level few can match, as they managed to sell the startup to Tencent for $100 million in 2018.
NZ’s success in game development isn’t just confined to traditional PC and console entries either, as Ninja Kiwi has shown similar popularity in mobile gaming. Most notably with their Bloons series of tower defense style games, this developer has earned a place as one of the best in the business in the highly competitive mobile gaming landscape. In fact, their latest titles, Bloons TD 5 and Bloons TD Battles, both have user ratings higher than 4.5/5 on Google Play, at the time of writing.
Infrastructure
In terms of how NZ as a market is targeted by the greater world, perhaps the best examples are those already touched upon, concerning newly adopted worldwide release dates. While this has largely come about through our growing population, it has also been helped by the increased engagement which Kiwis have had with gaming as a whole.
A big part of this comes from the digital realm. Take, for example, online websites such as online casino comparison site nzcasinogames.com. As a review and information platform, it collects details about game bonuses and gives them rankings, all while ensuring listed services are available from New Zealand. These require special protection and interest to operate within NZ’s digital borders, which reflects just how much the wider gaming industry’s interest has grown in our corner of the world.
Similarly, digital systems of delivery have effectively eliminated former issues of software bottlenecks. You don’t have to worry about missing a copy of a game if it is purchased online, which lowers the chances of a missed opportunity to near zero.
With digital technology bringing the world closer together every day, it is little surprise that NZ has seen the growth and success it currently enjoys. As a nation which consistently over-performs given our relatively low population, it makes sense that we would be targeted by the greater industry.
A close 3-1 win leaves us undefeated for the first half of the season.
GGWP @AthleticoES
Bring on next week!#WeAreWarriors pic.twitter.com/6MIcLDNAHg— Warriors Esports (@WarriorsESC) July 8, 2019
The next step, which many in the gaming community are watching closely, is the development of professional eSports teams like the Warriors eSports team detailed at dotesports.com. We might not have the environment to match the likes of the USA or Japan just yet but, if the past is any indication, this performance should be something worth watching.
