We know that many of our readers are passionate gamers who have been logging in to the top online games for years now – so you all know a thing or two about how the gaming industry has changed.
Like many gamers, we love the industry for what it is; an entertaining and exciting way to live in different worlds, meet new people, and test our skills. In recent years, we have seen a lot of new technology come and go, but the things that do stick have been able to transform our beloved industry and create incredible new games for us players to enjoy. Here are just four of the most important technologies that we believe are changing our industry for the better.
#1 Blockchain
Blockchain and cryptocurrencies have been on the tech scene for quite some years now, but they have really started to take over the gaming industries in the past decade. Now, many online games offer their players the chance to forget about real money and, instead, bet using their preferred cryptocurrency. Some of the biggest online games like Dota 2 encourage esports crypto betting to quickly transfer, trade, and make money online without having to deal with the intricacies of using traditional forms of currency.
Although blockchain can be a bit tricky to get your head around at first, it offers unparalleled flexibility for gamers. No longer do we have to be restrained by our home currency or have to deal with high transaction fees and delays – everything is pretty much instant when you use cryptocurrencies as your primary payment method.
#2 Artificial Intelligence
There has been a lot of back and forth about the benefits of artificial intelligence in the news recently. On one side, people think that this new technology is stealing jobs and creating more uncertainty in an already tricky online world. On the other side, many people believe that artificial intelligence promises a new dawn for many industries and will allow for increased creativity and innovation.
It can be intimidating to think about all the various capabilities of artificial intelligence across a whole range of industries, but it is definitely going to help speed up a lot of things within the gaming industry. Developers can use artificial intelligence to write and edit certain parts of games, even to perform testing before games are launched to the masses. Although taking the role of humans can be a touchy subject, if it means that we can get new, better games onto the market, we think that it will ultimately be a great thing for the gaming industry.
#3 Improved Graphics Capabilities
The games that people were playing a decade ago look completely different from the ones we are playing now, which is large because the graphics capabilities we have available to us now are much more advanced than what developers used to have access to. This means that our newest games are hyper-realistic, incredibly engaging, and look beautiful.
Although you may still get stuck with some of the common poker slang terms within a casino game, you can now get the feeling that you’re sitting playing at a real poker table rather than just sitting in your room – this is all down to better graphics capabilities. Using the latest technologies, game developers can create scenes and environments that are identical to the places we visit IRL.
#4 Cloud Gaming
When most people talk about ‘the cloud’ you may be met with puzzled faces and confused glances. It seems that not a lot of people know what the cloud is – and up until recently, neither did we! This ominous place seemed like an easy answer to some of tech’s most complex questions, but now it’s becoming a saving grace for the gaming industry.
Cloud gaming reduces the need for players to have physical controllers and hardware to play their games. Instead, it allows them to stream their games over the internet using services like Google Stadia and Xbox Cloud Gaming. In just a few clicks, players can access an extensive library of online games that they can play on their computer, iPad, or phone through powerful online services. This is making the gaming industry much more accessible as players are no longer held back by geographical boundaries or physical resources.
Many gaming developers have started to create and host their games on the cloud to save space and time. Even very recently, Sony started to test out cloud streaming on some of their latest PS5 games to see how they can get on board with this new, exciting technology. It doesn’t seem like it’s going to take long until all of the games we play are hosted on the cloud.