COVID-19 has hit most businesses hard, but one industry that continues to experience exponential growth, despite the pandemic, is gaming. According to the Global Games Market Report from Newzoo, the games market saw 19.6% growth in 2020, and is expected to generate over $217 billion in 2023. In the early days of global lockdowns, it made perfect sense that many turned to video games to pass the time and keep themselves entertained. Even as parts of the world slowly begin to return to some sort of normality, gaming trends look set to continue their surge well into the next decade.

But it isn't just gamers who are reaping the benefits of GameTech success. With the rise of remote and hybrid work models being accelerated by the pandemic, more businesses are turning to the industry for ways to effectively manage and inspire remote teams. As the world shifts to a post-COVID economy, GameTech seems poised to tackle workforce challenges far outside the parameters of consoles and video games.

Staying Connected Matters

Businesses were forced to quickly adapt in 2020 to a new way of working. As many looked for meaningful ways to hold face-to-face meetings, when you couldn't actually be in the same room, companies like Zoom were thrust onto centre stage, helping collaborators, families and friends stay connected during the pandemic. In November 2020 Zoom released their third quarter financial results, reporting a total venue of $777.2 million, up 367% year-over-year.

During the early days of lockdown, video conferencing seemed like a godsend. But it was only a matter of time before Zoom-fatigue set in, and corporate teams became disillusioned with working from home. GameTech soon became a strategy companies were looking to in order to help maintain solid work cultures, as well as solve work-based challenges, such as training and learning within remote teams. Technologies like the cloud, virtual reality and augmented reality, quickly gained a new and hungry following.

Radical Approaches Reap Big Rewards

In April as the Coronavirus took hold around the world and made it clear live events wouldn't be possible for quite some time, Epic Games announced that the American rapper Travis Scott would hold a concert inside the virtual world of Fortnite. It was a massive success, garnering over 12 million concurrent viewers. According to Forbes the virtual performance, which only lasted nine minutes, earned Scott around $20 million (including merchandise sales). What would have once been dismissed as a fad, now seemed like a legitimate, and very lucrative, avenue for the live events industry to pursue.    

But it isn't only entertainment sectors that are harnessing game technology. Even before the pandemic, businesses were using software platforms and virtual reality environments to solve challenges in the most high-pressure situations. Surgeons at the Musculoskeletal Institute at UConn Health use VR Oculus Quest headsets to practise and hone critical skills outside the actual operating room. Giving doctors realistic training in a safe and low-risk environment allows them to perform the same case multiple times and learn from feedback. Once in the operating room they have the confidence in their skills, already refined through hours of practise.

The Virtulab, part of the CG Tech group, is another company making strides in the business world by repurposing gaming technology. Headed by The Virtulab's Chief Innovation Officer Wayne Strydom, the team has turned their focus to developing a suite of digital solutions that they believe will transform traditional project management processes. With Virtuworx, Strydom and his team developed an avatar-based hybrid of virtual reality and mixed reality environments, that turn remote work into a meaningful and productive experience by offering a fully customisable solution for virtual training, offices, events, trade shows and conferences.

Drone technology is another avenue The Virtulab's Managing Director David Cummins has had a keen interest in. Utilising remote aircraft piloted systems, the team has sought to revolutionise operational processes in high risk industries. Originally conceived as an in-house efficiency solution, The Virtulab began by making virtual reality training environments for oil and gas field engineers. A sector where time and money are extremely precious, VR and drone technology allowed remote teams to fast track their learning cycle by meeting up and visualising operations before actually meeting in the physical field. This gave teams the luxury of time and space to work out challenges to problems in a virtual world. They could learn, without the catastrophic consequences of the real world, all while being educated remotely by industry leading experts. By the time engineers are dropped off in the high seas they have already been there and experienced the entire operation multiple times, giving them the confidence needed to promptly and safely tackle the dangerous tasks ahead.    

Jason English is CG Tech's Chief Ecosystem Officer and co-founder of The Virtulab. He believes digital solutions and gaming technology will be key to the future of work by providing richer learning environments as well as a way to instil company culture within remote teams. In his first book, "The Oros Effect," Jason English delves into how leaders can incorporate culture into large and fast-growing companies. Leaders who are able to successfully transfer their "Oros" - their knowledge, values, beliefs and ideas - to those around them, are able to build teams that understand their purpose in the organisation, with the result of higher confidence and improved productivity.

The pandemic period has given the South African entrepreneur the ideal opportunity to test his theories, and the success of The Virtulab team with their breakthrough product Virtuworx has demonstrated Jason English is definitely on to something.

"As the world entered lockdown in March we recognised the importance of sharing the technology we were already using within the CG Tech portfolio and quickly changed gears to roll out Virtuworx to other struggling businesses as a way for them to connect remotely," says English. Adding, "By November we were unintentionally hosting the first virtual avatar based TEDx event, TEDxLytteltonWomen. At that point, things moved quickly and our team grew significantly during this period, resulting in a range of investments into eSports and other businesses as a way to supplement our skill sets."

COVID-19 vaccines are currently being rolled out globally, but remote work looks primed to outlive the pandemic in at least some kind of capacity. GameTech will be a driving force for companies even considering a hybrid work model. The examples of gaming technology used by businesses over the past 12 months will stand as paradigms for the best ways to incorporate digital solutions moving forward.