Collabsco’s Valerie Vacante highlights 262 companies, products and emerging technologies, an increase of 150% from 2018.

Collabsco’s Connected Play Landscape June 2019 Download

Collabsco, today unveiled their annual Connected Play Landscape, this year highlighting 262 companies, products and the emerging technologies, showing an increase of 150% from 2018.

For 2019, Collabsco designed the Connected Play Landscape to include Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Robots, Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Wearables, Near Field Communication (NFC), Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and Voice Assistants, Data Over Sound as well as additional areas centered around how various technologies are implemented: EdTech, Makers, Social, Location Based Entertainment (LBE) and “Let’s Play,” a video documenting the play-through experience, usually of a video game.

**Valerie Vacante**
Founder, Managing Partner, Collabsco

“Our goal is to educate, collaborate and inspire the industry and future leaders by uncovering emerging technologies, real-world consumer insights, business growth opportunities and collaborative partnerships to create experiences that ignite imagination, create a sense of wonderment and shape the future of play said Valerie Vacante, Founder & Managing Partner, Collabsco “The connected play landscape was designed to provide a single, consolidated view of the companies and collaborators breaking barriers through the emerging technologies and the power of play.

Areas of Growth 2019

Currently the highest area of growth has been Augmented Reality (18.3%), followed by IoT (10.3%) with Robotics, Makers, EdTech and Location Based Entertainment (9.5%) Wearables (6.9%), NFC/RFID and Voice follow (6.2%) with Social (3.1%), Artificial Intelligence and “Let’s Play” (2.7%) and Data Over Sound (0.8%) rounding out the landscape.

*Connected Play Landscape Percentage Reported – latest update July 3, 2019*

Percentage Chart Collabsco’s Connected Play Landscape Download

By the Numbers

Connected Play is big business: Smart Toy revenue is estimated to grow by almost 200% to $18 Billion by 2023 (Juniper Research)
Robotics are rising: Consumer robotics will reach almost $23 billion per annum by 2022, up from an estimated $6.4 billion in 2018 (Juniper Research).
AR is arcading the world: The “AR Gaming Market” is expected to reach over $280 billion by 2023 (HTF).
Voice assistants are getting vocal: There will be 8 billion digital voice assistants in use by 2023, up from an estimated 2.5 billion at the end of 2018 – that’s 1000% growth (Juniper Research)
NFC is even nearer: The NFC market is estimated to grow 17.9 percent over the next decade, reaching nearly $50 billion by 2025 (Research and Markets)
Power up play: Juniper forecasts that unique viewers of eSports (competitive playing of video games) and Let’s Play content (tutorials and talk-throughs of game content) will reach 858 million by 2022, up from 630 million in 2018.
Get out and get immersive: By 2023, LBE (Location Based Entertainment) will also make up about 11% of the VR industry and this is one of the reasons behind its recent success: while VR was launched to huge fanfare nearly two years ago, headsets are still expensive and content scarce, so the in-home VR market has remained relatively small (Licensing Source).

Industry Perspective

“At Hasbro, we’re committed to reinventing invention. As we look into the future, we’re interested in new ideas from new voices; Collabsco’s Connected Play Landscape provides us with an expansive view of the industry and potential collaborators to evolve our portfolio and bring the world’s best play experiences to life.”

***Rich Mazel***
***Senior Director Global Product Acquisition, Hasbro Inc***

“*A really comprehensive view of the entire space. As this very exciting world of product and experiences evolves it’s easy to miss a new entrant or a new offering.*

*The Connected Play Landscape encompasses early stage efforts, well established incumbents and everything in between.*

*Love how it’s organized and grouped, and this will certainly be a go to as we look at new product plans, opportunities for partnerships and evaluate the competitive landscape.”*

***Davin Sufer***
***Chief Technology Officer, WowWee***

“This sector is growing rapidly, as demonstrated by the remarkable increase in scope and scale of the Connected Play Landscape over the past 12 months. As we build our education platform, it is vital that we stay in tune with developments within the space – making Valerie’s work a key touchstone and valuble resource.”

**Silas Adekunle,**
**Founder, CEO,** **Reach Robotics**

“We are designing experiences for the future of gaming, we are now in a place where technology is catching up to our imagination, Collabsco’s Connected Play Landscape provides us with perspective on the technologies and collaborators to accelerate our vision.”

**Zai Ortiz**
**President, Co-Founder** and **Chief Creative Officer**
**X2 Games**

“It’s exciting to see the continued evolution of the connected play space, in particular strong growth in voice and location based experiences. Collabsco have done an amazing job of tracking and cataloguing the companies and brands bringing physical and digital play together. I can’t wait to see what the next 12 months bring!”

**John Keefe**
**Co-Founder & Director,** **Draw & Code** | **SwapBots**

‘At Novalia, we’re really interested in using technology to enhance a child’s natural play; making it responsive and explorative by creating products that challenge children to build, make and think, rather than just be passive observers. As technology evolves to become embedded within everything around us, it’s great to see Collabsco’s connected play landscape both embracing and reacting against this for the industry.’

Kate Stone,
Founder, Chief Inventor, Novalia

*“The connected play landscape has been a hugely valuable piece of research for my upcoming* *Taming Gaming* *book. Understanding the vast array of tech-toys on offer, and situating them in specific genres enabled me to see the wood for the trees.”*

**Andy Robertson**
**Author of** *Taming Gaming* , Forbes contributor, TEDx speaker, journalist for the Guardian and **broadcaster for BBC**

“This invaluable tool has again proved its worth this past year, a growth of 20% across the connected play sector, we simply couldn’t keep up without it”

***Peter Jenkinson***
***Toyologist, Co-Founder, Toyology***

“Valerie Vacante’s Connected Play Landscape is the “go to guide” to the industry! Her global perspective on emerging technology, product innovation and business growth are what the industry needs to create experiences for the way people live, learn and play.”

Marco Carvalho,
*Founder,* Immersive Play

“Collabsco’s ever evolving connected play landscape positively highlights the opportunities where digital play can compliment the traditional toy space. It acts as a bridge between two industries, while often seen as competing, they can actually benefit each other – kids still play with physical toys even if their exposure to tablets and other smart devices is increasing. Achieving the balance between tech and physical is the beautiful challenge.”

**Robert Earl-Ocran Jr.**
**Product Designer & Invention** **SoSound**

At Collabsco we work with global brands and startups to create product innovation solutions for growth – we believe that providing a full view of the connected play landscape will help uncover innovation opportunities, potential collaborations across the industry and inspire the future of play.

More Info + Booking Services: To schedule virtual briefings, onsite workshops, connected play insight sessions, speaking engagements or other collaboration opportunities please contact Valerie Vacante, Founder & Managing Partner Val@collabsco.com

Media: If you’d like to feature Collabsco; arrange an interview, comments or speaking engagement please contact Valerie Vacante, Founder & Managing Partner Val@collabsco.com

See our Press Kit for photos and further assets.

Introducing the Connected Play Landscape

Collabsco introduces the Connected Play Landscape featuring over 100 physical + digital experiences across IoT, AI, Voice, AR, VR and more.

Download the Connected Play Landscape

Collabsco is officially launching the Connected Play Landscape, a single view of emerging technologies and companies creating the future of play.

Connected Play goes beyond toys, it encompasses gaming, edtech, makers, and emerging technologies that impact how kids play, learn and explore the world around them.

Collabsco’s Connected Play Landscape provides a single view of over 100 connected play companies and experiences segmented by emerging technologies: Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Robots, Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), EdTech, Makers, Wearables, Social, Near Field Communication (NFC), Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and Voice Assistants.

As new technologies have evolved, so have the ways kids, interact with the physical and digital world; Collabsco’s Connected Play Landscape outlines technologies and companies that have impacted and improved connected play.

“The connected play industry is complex and ever evolving; our goal is to provide a useful, single view of the companies and technologies impacting how kids play, learn and explore the physical and digital world.” said Valerie Vacante, Founder & Managing Partner, Collabsco We wanted to provide a consolidated view of the Connected Play Landscape to create an awareness of the companies and collaborators breaking barriers through the power of technology and connected play.

With an anticipated growth of 200% over the next five years connected play is more than fun and games; according to Juniper Research, “Smart Toys will represent an $18 billion hardware and software market by 2023, up from an estimated $6 billion in 2018.”

Top growth markets include North America, Western Europe and the Far East & China. Global companies and startups will continue to capitalize on growth by understanding the players, competitors and potential collaborators creating new technologies and new ways to play in the physical and digital world.

The industry is moving fast and it’s hard to keep track of the whole scene and players, Valerie Vacante’s Connected Play Landscape gives a good break down of the players and as to which aspect they play, allowing us to be aware of potential collaborators or competitors. – Silas Adekunle, Founder at Reach Robotics Ltd

For the first time, Collabsco have assembled the most complete picture of the Connected Play Landscape This category goes from strength to strength and the most exciting aspect for me is how startups are competing alongside the giants of the toy world. – John Keefe, Co-Founder & Director, Draw & Code | Swap Bots

During the Play Innovation Summit in London, Valerie Vacante’s ConnectedCool Kids, Connected Play Landscape insights we so in depth and inspiring. Her knowledge and expertise on children and technology gave us a great perspective on how the industry is evolving. – Yesim Kunter, Play Expert, Futurist

Being able to access at a single glance all the players involved in this rapidly evolving space is so advantageous. It is imperative I’m switched on to all the players in this space, the Connected Play Landscape from Collabsco offers me a significant contribution to ensure just this. – Peter Jenkinson, Toyologist, Co-Founder, Toyology

“The Connected Play Landscape is one that’s super new, emerging and generally there’s fairly limited information on who exists within it. It’s also one that’s rapidly evolving to include technologies like AR, VR, robotics, AI, Voice, making it ever more confusing and vast. A great asset in understanding the evolution of the VR/AR world recently has been the market landscape model developed by The Venture Reality Fund and it’s great to see Valerie Vacante, Collabsco come up with something equally useful for Connected Play that brings the ecosystem into one core form.” – Ed Barton, CEO at Curiscope

For more information about collaboration opportunities with Collabsco, please contact Valerie Vacante, Founder & Managing Partner Val@collabsco.com

About Collabsco

Collabsco is a strategy + innovation collective based in Austin, Texas.

We are independent, executive collaborators, emerging technology strategists and product experience leaders; we believe that having a collaborative approach and outside perspective will provide companies with an executive perspective on a frequency that is meaningful to their business needs.

We work with brilliant companies ranging from global brands to up-and-coming startups to create product innovation solutions that drive growth.

www.collabsco.com

Media

If you’d like to feature Collabsco; arrange an interview, comments or speaking engagement please contact Valerie Vacante, Founder & Managing Partner Val@collabsco.com

Press Kit: Collabsco – Infographic, quotes, photos and assets