By all accounts, the Australian economy is doing far better than others in the world: the property market has appeared to be on the up and up, as of late, with auctions hitting a new record high on October’s Super Saturday; the national currency maintains its strong standing; inflation is relatively low. On the downside, the banks are still not implementing the Reserve Bank of Australia’s cuts at a speedy enough pace – interest rates are still high. Unemployment is rising and the consumer confidence sentiment is still dwindling. There are however, economic sectors with a lot of promise. As expected, they are the ones peopled by daring entrepreneurs, who stand on the bounds of creative strategies and innovative approaches to doing business, all against the rapidly changing backdrop of the current period. One example of such an industry comes from the mobile app and game development market, as outlined in the Australian Entertainment and Media Outlook report, recently issued by Pricewaterhouse Coopers.

According to the report, the Australian gaming development industry is expected to rake in $2.3 billion by 2016. Now, if this sound exciting and promising, bear in mind that large revenues are most easily accrued on large, developing markets, which is exactly the case of the gaming industry. The market is expected to grow by over 7 per cent each year, from now until 2016. What is more, by 2016, the total worth of said market will have reached a whopping $80.3 billion total worth.

However, the game development market is not the only one that the Pricewaterhouse Coopers analysts are expecting to see developing to even higher heights. As a matter of fact, over the coming years, the mobile game and application market is actually expected to grow by an even larger margin. This, of course, will pose a threat to the PC and console game devs, which will have to choose the lesser of two evils: fight for their piece of market share tooth and nail, which includes somewhat desperate measures such as special pricing offers. To boot, the strong Australian dollar makes sales on the U.S. market, albeit desirable (for they represent penetration on a complex, demanding and massive market), much less valuable financially than before.

According to PwC expert Megan Brownlow, who was involved in putting together the cited forecast, the most efficient ways of successfully navigating current tides are to look beyond the Australian market. Brownlow says the future of the gaming industry belongs to those entrepreneurs that are creating their very own products from scratch, while also traveling and networking around the globe in order to establish business contacts and gauge the situation in overseas markets. And what better time to do this, then the present day, when the most cost-efficient businesses are global, mobile and largely outsourced, and when innovative location solutions in the form of serviced offices are available to entrepreneurs. At Regus.com.au is offering business owners the opportunity to rent out office space for short and very short terms, in order to avoid paying unnecessary long-term rental rates, yet still maintain the professionalism of an office-appropriate location.

The tools currently at the fingertips of gaming developers should serve as examples and inspiration for the more conservative industries, which are currently struggling in the post-recession effort of reconstruction. Game devs are looking beyond their own industry and building up partnerships with established commercial brands. They are deploying the research tools that the web places at their disposal, in order to accurately gauge the profile of their audience, forecast upcoming trends, and get an accurate, updated feel as to what gaming fanatics want next. They have caught on to the reality that surviving in today’s business world entails knowing a little bit of everything, from sales and marketing, to training and customer response—and they’re applying that dictum to their businesses.