What is in Store for the Future of the Gaming Industry?

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The Future of the Gaming Industry 

The gaming industry has seen a meteoric rise in the past 40 years, becoming the most popular pastime for many people. Recently, with the addition of mobile gaming, playing games is now accessible to everyone with a smartphone. 

Every game has been digitized with even some of the best online board games available to play for free. Gaming online has brought people together, from strategy games to first-person shooters, everyone can play with their friends whilst communicating. With the new generation of consoles, the graphics have become almost real, so where does gaming go from here? 

The most recent trend is that of mobile gaming. It came to fruition with the invention of the iPhone, with games like Candy Crush and Angry Birds going viral, being downloaded billions of times. Moreover, all gaming developers are looking to get a piece of the mobile gaming market. Nintendo, for example, only used to exclusively sell its game on its console. But now, you can play Mario Kart Tour for free on Android and iOS. 

The gaming company Zynga, famous for its Farmville, poker, and slots has become very popular for people to play on Facebook. The social aspect of table games has led to them becoming more widespread in places such as South Africa. As such, online casino games are trending. And to help, there are comparison sites that check for all the best welcome bonuses. Moreover, the platform helps with rules on all the best games from keno to baccarat. In addition, each operator recommended has been thoroughly reviewed. 

The future of gaming seems to have two avenues; cloud and virtual. Firstly, cloud gaming is like Netflix but with games. Currently, the technology needed to render visuals over the internet is not there, but in 5 years’ time who knows? The pricing model will be similar to other subscription models, paying $X per month and having access to all the games available on the platform. 

A more exciting trend is that of Virtual Reality (VR). With Facebook’s recent name change to Meta and a complete embrace of the “Metaverse”, gaming will be at the forefront. Even in Mark Zuckerberg’s keynote speech, he admitted that the technology will be driven by gamers. The first version of VR released was by Sony on its PS4, and it provides an immersive gaming experience. Nowadays the market leader is Meta’s Oculus Rift, with games being as close to the real thing as possible. 

The gaming world is booming, in part because of the COVID pandemic. As people were stuck in their homes all ages played games to stay in touch with one another. As the industry grows year on year, so does professional esports, which have grown into massive spectacles in a short space of time. 

The largest esports event to date is the Fortnite World Cup in 2019, won by 16-year-old Kyle Giedorf. The prize pool was $40m, with Kyle taking home $3m, a truly eye-watering figure. And as esports is growing exponentially, these numbers will only increase. Nowadays, the highest-paid sports stars are in baseball, soccer, basketball, and American football. Nonetheless, it is only a matter of time until an esports player eclipses them. 

Simple games will always be popular, with Wordle recently making the headlines for an easy-to-play word game. Its popularity has grown mainly because of its ease to send your results to others via emojis, in a messaging app. Nevertheless, games that keep your mind sharp will always be widespread, with the classics being Scrabble and Boggle. 

By far the most common pastime for youngsters today is gaming. And with huge companies all competing for a slice of the pie, games are getting better. Recently Google announced Stadia, whilst Apple has just released Arcade, a cloud-based gaming service on the iPhone. Mobile games are at the forefront of innovation as the barrier to entry for developers is a lot lower. 

PC games are going from strength to strength with titles such as CS:GO, DOTA 2, and League of Legends being more popular than ever. But whatever the future holds in store, gaming is just becoming a bigger part of people’s lives.