What makes a gaming company ‘agile’?

A buzzword in business that has been reverberating for some time now is agility. In an ever-changing world, businesses need to be agile to stay afloat.

Our customers’ demands are always changing, and with them, so are the impacts we are making on the world around us. But what exactly is agility for a business in practice – and why are games companies so good at it?

Games companies – developers, studios and even casino resources such as Poker Compare – understand that gaming attitudes will always change with the seasons, if not more frequently. Poker Compare, for example, understands that there are many different online gaming choices out there and that new resources are constantly entering the fray.

Let’s use the gaming industry as a backdrop to consider the main facets of an agile company.

Stability and willingness

Two key components of corporate agility are innate stability and the willingness to pivot and adapt. The latter of these is perhaps easier to achieve. However, while it is easy to assume that all truly agile businesses work ad-hoc without any kind of grounding, this is not always the case.

To succeed at being agile – and being able to upscale to demand or even change scope at short notice – you need a firm financial backing. You also need to be able to fall back on a guaranteed margin if things do head south or if the game changes again. Many SMEs and entrepreneurs learned this the hard way during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, where pivoting was necessary for many businesses to survive.

Gaming businesses understand that this is an industry where tastes change dramatically. It is not just about tastes, either; technology evolves at a blistering rate, meaning developers always need to be on their toes. Moreover, gaming professionals enter into the niche with unpredictability being a driving factor – it’s in their blood!

Are gaming companies less fragile than others?

There is a misconception that because games companies are so willing to adapt and adjust, they must be more stable or have better foundations than others. This likely isn’t the case; it’s just a matter of how they have evolved over time.

Of course, funding and investment opportunities over the years, such as through approaches like crowdfunding, have meant that games developers have more opportunities than ever to receive financial backing. That is always going to create a firm bedrock.

However, many gaming businesses have bitten the dust over the years, which means they are not infallible. Businesses have a lot to consider in this day and age, and when it comes to the games industry, a sheer willingness to succeed against the odds is a great starting point.

What can businesses learn from gaming entrepreneurs and developers in general? Essentially, it’s all about self-belief. You are only going to be as agile as you believe you are, and if you focus on remaining as flexible as possible for your customers and your industry, the sky is the limit.