The Rise of User-Generated Content in Gaming: Opportunities and Challenges

The gaming industry has never been more reliant on its players, not just for their time and feedback, but also for their creative input. Today's most popular games, including Minecraft, Roblox, and Fortnite, have become incredibly profitable platforms by leveraging community creations, bespoke toolsets, and internal distribution systems to encourage players to build new content within their ecosystems. However, the relationship between user-generated content (UGC) and a game's success is often misunderstood. In most cases, a game's success leads to the creation of a UGC ecosystem, rather than the other way around. Jordan Weisman, CEO of Endless Adventures Incorporated, notes that Fortnite's UGC environment was built on the back of an incredibly popular game, and Minecraft had a similar trajectory, becoming popular due to its survival mechanics before expanding into UGC. Incorporating UGC into a game can be a significant challenge, even for successful games. Taehyun Kim, game director on PUBG: Battlegrounds, acknowledges that catching up with the likes of Epic's Fortnite will be difficult, especially since PUBG is not a pioneer in the UGC space. To address this, PUBG Studios is allowing players to access its UGC tools at an early stage, despite the system being in its basic form. Creating a successful UGC game from scratch is even more challenging. The genre is littered with failed projects, and one of the biggest hurdles is designing tools that players can use to build their experiences. Weisman points out that creating tools for consumer use is much more expensive than designing similar tools for internal use, and balancing accessibility with power is a significant challenge. To demonstrate the effectiveness of their tools, some developers, like Manticore Games, are building games using their own toolsets. Manticore's Core game creation platform has attracted 3.5 million users, but the studio discovered that convincing players to engage with UGC is a significant challenge. To address this, Manticore built Out of Time, a rogue-like MMO that showcases the potential of its tools. Weisman is taking a different approach with Adventure Forge, focusing on making game creation simple and distribution easier. The platform will have its own publishing ecosystem, allowing games to be published with a single button press, and Weisman hopes to find and publish gems developed within the platform. Not all developers are looking to create the next Minecraft, however. Tuxedo Labs, the creators of Teardown, are cautious about their game's UGC potential, preferring to focus on the game itself rather than monetization and app stores. The studio wants to keep pushing the boundaries of creativity and is wary of dedicating itself to servicing a single game. Ultimately, creating a successful UGC ecosystem requires a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities involved. While some developers are pushing the boundaries of what is possible, others are taking a more cautious approach, focusing on the game itself rather than the UGC potential. As the gaming industry continues to evolve, it will be interesting to see how UGC shapes the future of game development.