The world of gaming is on the fast track to the future. Modern technology is revolutionizing people’s lives, including the gaming industry that’s continuously improving with every innovation to hit the market. That’s exactly why it pays to keep up with the growing tech trends in gaming this 2021.
Gaming is no longer limited to just consoles; it’s available on smartphones, laptops, tablets, and desktops because of the introduction of online gaming. And the sheer number of available games online can easily overwhelm anyone new to the gaming scene because there are too many options to choose from.
For example, there are online casino games such as slots, roulette, poker, or blackjack, which means people no longer have to physically go to a casino to play these games. There are also multiplayer games that allow social interactions from anywhere in the world, provided that the users are playing on the same servers.
It’s safe to say that at this point, there’s no telling what can happen next in the gaming industry. The possibilities of what game developers can achieve are endless, and if you blink, you might just miss out on the next big trend. So, here are three growing tech trends in gaming that you should know:
eSports
eSports tournaments have been around since the early ’70s, and they have only grown larger over the years. With the new millennium came major international tournaments for eSports, such as World Cyber Games or Major League Gaming. This also paved the way for multiplayer online battle arenas or MOBAs to be integrated into the eSports genre.
So this means that eSports is not exactly a new trend in the gaming industry. However, since the global pandemic in 2020, more and more gamers have liked eSports, particularly because physical sports games were being suspended. And eSports gave them a chance to compete with other gamers without compromising their safety.
Since then, eSports has been on such a steady rise to popularity that even real-life sports games are now competing with it for views, participants, and attendees. Just like how thousands of people are being drawn by the crowds in stadiums during games, it’s not a surprise that eSports is seeing the same success, if not more.
VR and AR Gaming
It has been nine years since the first Oculus Rift, aka virtual reality (VR) gaming headset, hit the market in 2012. At the time, it easily became a phenomenon in the gaming industry because it offered people a different way to enjoy their games—by experiencing the games first-hand through virtual simulations.
But because creating the gaming hardware costs a lot of money, it became nearly impossible for casual gamers to experience using the VR headset, let alone afford to have their own systems. At least, that is until gaming console brands like PlayStation started offering VR games too, which made the tech trend more accessible.
Aside from VR, augmented reality (AR) is also making waves in the gaming industry. But you might wonder: what is AR in gaming? In essence, AR has the power to combine real-life and virtual elements into one simulation, which makes it more interactive than VR alone. Think Pokémon Go, but for other video games as well.
Through this developing tech trend, you can expect that gamers will no longer need their controllers or smartphones to play their games. Instead, they can use wearable AR technologies like glasses or contact lenses and use their bodies to carry out the actions they could only do in the past using controllers.
Cloud-based Gaming
Game developers are currently exploring the benefits of using cloud computing services to carry some weight of games, especially because these would otherwise require more powerful and expensive hardware to run. So instead of having to take up space on hard drives or gaming consoles, video games can be streamed through the internet.
In fact, Netflix, one of the biggest on-demand and live-streaming platforms to date, has even announced that it is planning to offer video games alongside its TV shows and films because of this growing tech trend. If successful, this development initiated by Netflix could very well be a game-changer for both the gaming and entertainment industries.
No one knows what the future holds, but you can expect that gamers will no longer have to download their games soon because they can just as easily stream them online. This development means that gamers won’t have to be bounded by the physical limitations of their hardware anymore.
There have been tremendous changes in the way people play their games in the digital age. Gone are the days when people relied only on their consoles connected to their televisions to play games. Now, all gamers are free to enjoy basically any game available and even create mods to their heart’s content.
