The gaming industry is currently worth $90 billion and has grown significantly over the past few years. There are several reasons why this has happened, from people spending more time at home and having more time to play video games to new technologies that have boosted the capabilities of gaming.
Some of the most significant advancements in the gaming industry include the introduction of the metaverse and cloud gaming. In addition, improvements in games that facilitate virtual reality have enhanced the overall gaming experience, leading to more people trying out new games. NFTs and blockchain technology have also made their way into the gaming industry and brought a new way to play games that have never been seen before.
The first ever video games created were simple 2D games that didn’t have many features but would keep you entertained for hours. Nowadays, the possibilities in gaming are endless. You can find a game from just about any genre you could think of, and you play with people from all around the world. Below we will go through the top four advancements in the gaming industry that have significantly impacted how games are played and will be played in the future.
The Metaverse
The metaverse is best described as an online world where people from around the world can join and interact with others to do just about whatever they want. Microsoft and Facebook created it to bring gamers together in a universe that was entirely online and virtual. We have already seen some examples of what the metaverse may hope to achieve through things like online concerts seen in Fortnite as well as games such as Roblox, where gamers have the tools to do anything they like with each other in an online world.
One of the main ways some of the most popular games have been trying to copy what the metaverse is trying to do is by changing the design of their game and turning it into more of a platform that gives users much more control over how and what they play. The gaming industry has started to encompass a much wider range with respect to forms of entertainment. Instead of simple linear games that can only be played a couple of different ways, the latest games have started incorporating things like socializing and spaces to meet other people without necessarily trying to complete something. This has greatly increased the number of people interested in playing video games as you now have much more control over what you want to do.
Cloud Gaming
The first ever video games were created back in the 1970s, and since then, there has been a requirement to buy the latest computer or console to keep up with the demands of the latest games. However, with the introduction of cloud gaming, we will likely be seeing less of this in the near future. If you look at some of the biggest companies involved in the gaming industry, just about everyone now enables players to participate in cloud gaming through a subscription service. The companies that introduced this new way to play video games include Sony, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Tencent, and Nvidia.
This has allowed people from all around the world to access the world of video gaming much more easily without having to purchase expensive consoles or upgrade their hardware. Cloud gaming works by facilitating all of the power for video games through a cloud data center that utilizes streaming services in homes as the output source to play games. It is thought that with the introduction of 5G, cloud gaming will become more popular and allow more people to gain access to gaming worldwide.
Virtual Reality
Virtual reality is a relatively new technology that has provided gamers with a whole new gaming experience that is more realistic and immersive. The virtual reality headsets that are currently available have advanced technology at affordable prices so that a lot more people can try out this new form of gaming.
The number of games that now facilitate virtual reality has also increased, with popular titles such as Minecraft and Doom now allowing players to use their virtual reality headsets in their games. In the future, as technology continues to advance, we will likely see the implementation of virtual reality in video games more frequently.
NFTs And Blockchain
NFTs are digital assets that people can own and sell for real money, and some game developers have started incorporating them into their video games. This is usually in the form of in-game items that players can trade or even sell on a marketplace that can then be converted into real money. Cryptocurrency and the blockchain technology that protects it has also made their way into the gaming industry as a way for players to earn crypto through playing a game. As the world of crypto continues to grow, we may see a lot more incorporation of digital assets into video games.
