It’s hard to argue that gaming is one of the fastest-growing and innovative industries, which is expected to grow up to $295,6 billion by 2026. If around 15 years ago, people knew how they would play games in the future and how much effort is put into their development, they would have hardly believed it. The industry has made a giant leap and is rapidly advancing, mainly thanks to constant technological advancement
A handful of world-known companies embark on game development, hiring thousands of top-notch programmers from all over the world. Actually, the industry also positively impacts the labor market. Building remote and in-house teams allows thousands of people to influence the gaming market. They develop innovative solutions, which might turn the usual understanding of the industry upside down
Here, then, we picked up several significant technology advancements, all of which have already made an impact beyond the imagination yet still have something to shake up the industry
Cloud-based technology
Gaming-as-a-Services allows people to play games without being tied up to the equipment or place. Since expensive hardware has always been a constraint on the way of receiving an excellent playing experience, cloud technologies will make it possible not to be limited by anything. There will be a possibility to combine several genre fragments and work out everything in detail
Players won’t have to install or download games anymore because they can outsource them to remote hardware. 5G plays a significant role here as well because it is changing the speed of data transferring, making this process several times smoother and attracting more people who play from their phones
AR/VR experience
Games that utilise Ar and VR technology take the user engagement to another level. The critical feature to succeed on the market is to come up with a game that makes users question themselves where the real and virtual environment is. Real-time interaction is a great way to combine the pieces of digital and real information and significantly enhance gamers’ perception.
Strapping headsets are expected to evolve into visual encounters to introduce more immersive experiences. The constant change of perspective allows users to see the digital environment from different angles and feel the new level of gaming experience. These technologies are creating immense opportunities for developers and users because the scope of creativity is not limited and things, which can’t be possible in reality, become usual in the AR/VR environments
Game streaming
The sense of community makes people join live game streaming and watch others players completing the levels or defeating the competitor. Such videos are watched and shared by millions of users worldwide. They gladly attend various contests, which are held on several platforms apart from YouTube, namely Twitch and Periscope, as well as social networks and personal blogs
People connect to the screams from different devices, and there, they can find out more about their favorite games, like interesting techniques, tips, or easter eggs. Users find communities and streamers with common interests, and in case streaming is used as a marketing tool, the companies have to understand their targeted audience and reach out to credible streamers
3D graphics
A well-developed world in games can go a long way because the ability to visit different cities and locations will significantly increase user experience. Besides, even if the game concept is immaculate, low graphics can make it fall below expectations
3D modeling enables creating real-life objects for the games; it’s useful when the game is located in a specific place. Also, the games imply the usage of various textures, like Specular maps, Alpha Maps, Diffuse Maps, and Normal maps
Nowadays, games are considered new movies, since playing some well-thought games is equal to watching a TV show. The green screen isn’t necessary anymore because games can be developed with game engines, Unity and Unreal Engine 4. It’s hard to imagine what level of hyperreality games will achieve in a couple of years because the specialised companies expect to bring about higher quality standards
Mobile gaming
Artificial intelligence is one of the main tools for providing a better gaming experience to the users since it can identify whether the gamer is feeling frustrated at a certain moment. For example, in case a person finds it hard to complete the level, the game will provide hints to help the player understand what to do next and help him/her win. AI analyses user behavior and allows the creators to learn how they can improve their products to increase user satisfaction
And again, 5G takes its place here as well because it reduces the downloading time and reduces latency. It enables delivering content multiple times faster and playable ads, so the players don’t get annoyed every time the advertisement pops up
Internet of senses
The Internet of Senses is the service economy, which is delivered using digital sensors that involve all senses, namely sight, taste, hearing, smell, and touch. It will be formed by the services created on the basis of the following technologies: AI, VR, AR, 5G, and automatisation
Over time, the Internet of Senses will become a large competitor for the usual electronic devices as they’ll become almost inseparable elements of physical reality. Navigation with the power of the mind, perfect voice imitation, taste improvement, digital smells, the melding of the real and computer worlds – all of these trends are expected to turn into reality within ten years from now
Wrapping up
Gaming industry development is skyrocketing to the extent that Netflix considers Fortnite, a popular video game, its main competitor. The new Unreal Engine 5 is able to produce a picture, which can hardly be distinguished from a screen cap. Games are among the most powerful storytelling tools and are expected to change the cinematography and relations between screenwriters and viewers
The technologies are consolidating the real and virtual, giving the industry new tools, and allowing creators to come up with the products, the existence of which was hard to imagine several years ago
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