Every new car release means another competitor for manufacturers — and the industry seems to be pumping out new vehicles every day. Companies are chasing every avenue to attract customers in this competitive market. And the latest? Well, that’d be gaming.
Besides, of course, a vehicle’s visual appeal and the joy of being behind the driver’s seat, designers are focusing their attention on our overall in-car experience. This is especially the case with EVs and their time-zapping charging. Sitting in the car gets boring, and carmakers want to entertain us.
One company entering this space is N-Dream, the Swiss startup behind the AirConsole game platform. N-Dream was inspired to create an in-car gaming experience after CEO Anthony Cliquot saw “people playing games on their phone despite a big screen in front of them” while charging their EVs.
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Recently, the company announced a partnership with BMW to bring AirConsole and thousands of games to the company’s car’s dashboard screens. The games are downloaded instantly over the air — and you can use your smartphone as a controller.
BMW is not the only company investing in in-car entertainment. Tesla led the pack with its initial launch of gamingoptions and sing-along karaoke in 2019. You can play using the steering wheel, touching the screen, or using your own controller. Tesla even started selling microphones earlier this year in China to help you properly belt out those power ballads.
Tech like this is still in its infancy. We can be certain that creatives and designers will find more ways to incorporate experiences and games into cars. There’s a chance that in-car entertainment will have a similar effect on the gaming industry as mobile did, creating a new genre of titles — and making a shed load of cash along the way.
A new home for gaming
Car in-screen dashboards and audio systems provide a palette for game developers to experiment with. As with Holoride’s VR haptic gaming, game companies also have the opportunity to create games designed explicitly for in-car entertainment.
Imagine titles designed for nighttime gaming or while traveling a winding road. Maybe there’ll be a focus on microgames timed to compliment an average charging time. Or multiplayer works designed specifically to thrive in a car environment. There’s also scope to develop vehicle-to-vehicle gaming where car owners play against each other or compete in leaderboard-style competitions (I can imagine this being popular with Tesla owners).
Fundamentally, carmakers are heavily betting on iterative in-vehicle experience alongside more passive forms of entertainment like watching television and movies. This will transform EV charging and general travelling from a chore to something they can embed with entertainment subscriptions and other product offerings. It’s a new revenue stream for both game makers and car manufacturers — both of which will be desperate to get us to spend even more time in our vehicles.
Game developers, platform providers, and advertisers who can capitalize on this upcoming boom will find an entirely new revenue stream to fill their pockets. And we, the people, will finally see the car transformed into a real “third place,” a home away from home, and somewhere we’ll actually be desperate to spend time in.