We have lived with video games for over a generation now, the first home video game is generally credited to being developed by physicist William Higinbotham in1958 but the first widely available game is known to be Pong by Atari in 1972. Gaming has come a long way since those days though and is set to change even further in the next generation so we are going to look at some upcoming developments we expect to see over the next few years.
Increased Numbers Of Gamers Across All Platforms
There has been a steady trend in gamers on all types of gaming and given that almost every platform and most games now have some sort of online features such as multiplayer functionality, downloadable content and mobile gaming which is one of the biggest growth areas. It has been noted that there are some issues that restrict mobile gaming but it looks like there are solutions to this and as games become better at retaining interest from users and widen their appeal to more markets then look to mobile to be one of the bug drivers in the future of gaming.
E-Gaming
Jeff Donnelley, founder of mobile gaming company MEGAFANS writes regularly about diversity issues facing female gamers and other under-represented demographics in eGaming. Part of his company mission is to promote greater inclusion in the electronic gaming industry. E-gaming is huge business and with more players being online then there will be a good mix of large and small competition that is accessible to pretty much anyone.
Cloud Based Gaming
Gaming exclusively on the cloud is a gaming phenomenon that has been around, in theory at least, for almost a couple of decades but it’s only really now that it is possible to become a reality. With increased internet speeds it is possible to offer high quality gaming to a wider variety of customers without the need for dedicated gaming hardware in their homes and could well be a huge part of the future of gaming.
Social Media
Social media platforms are very involved in gaming, Facebook especially and it’s not just where the games are provided via the social media platform but Facebook is often used as a log in device for a variety of online games, giving it huge reach and user information databases. Social media games are often simple or easy games that appeal to wide base of users giving that there are so many people on these platforms it is an easy way to attract more players to the gaming industry.
Virtual Reality (VR)
Virtual Reality gaming has actually been with us for a while and there have been variations of VR machine dating right back to the 1990s but it’s with the rise of online gaming it’s time may well have finally come. With Facebook investing heavily and talk of virtual casinos by the main players in the betting world it’s a sure bet that Virtual Reality is one that’s here for the duration.
