The digital age we live in has accelerated the evolution and transformation of video gaming. In the past three decades, we’ve seen an incredible jump from 2D games with just a few colors to modern video games promising immersive experiences with their photorealistic visuals, fun features, and more.
To stay informed and make better decisions as a gamer, you should follow the latest trends in the video gaming industry. For that purpose, we have created this guide to the current top 5 video gaming trends.
Cross-platform gaming
Are you a game console player? Or maybe you prefer playing on your computer? Of course, there’s also a chance that you use your mobile device to play your favorite games. For many years, avid gamers have argued about which option is best.
Some experts emphasized the long-lasting game compatibility of game consoles. In contrast, others were impressed with the performance of the most powerful computers. Now, thanks to cross-platform gaming, these discussions may become irrelevant.
With cross-platform gaming, players can play online multiplayer games from two or more devices of different kinds. Simply put, if you play on a desktop computer and your friend has a PlayStation 5 console, you can play in real-time against each other (or together, depending on the game you have selected) without any hassles.
Blockchain gaming
If you are unfamiliar with this term, you should know that blockchain gaming is a relatively new concept. As its name suggests, it relies on blockchain technology in video games. Basically, it’s all about the developer behind it and its ownership.
Conventional video games have developers and publishers behind them. On the other hand, blockchain games are managed by a blockchain network leaving these titles without a decentralized game system. In general, the currency, economy, and assets are decentralized across the blockchain ecosystem, where most players rely on cryptocurrency for in-game purchases. This is something that already works pretty successfully in online gambling, with Bitcoin casino sites offering crypto deposits. On such platforms, players’ funds are being deposited without a central financial institution, giving them more freedom and flexibility with their purchases.
Mobile gaming
We can’t say that this is a new concept. Still, it’s definitely worth mentioning mobile games because they are evolving faster than their traditional counterparts. This makes sense because mobile technology is changing rapidly.
Mobile gaming is about playing video games on mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones. One of the trends we can expect in this area soon is an increased number of free-to-play titles.
An increased number of in-game purchasing options or more ads will be added to these releases. So, if you want to eliminate the ads, you should pay for the mobile game. We should also note that more and more developers are trying to create offline content that’s equally engaging as online content keeping players busy even when they don’t use a Wi-Fi connection, 4G, or 5G.
Cloud gaming
Once again, we have a trend that started a few years ago, but thanks to technological advancements, it has become more relevant today. We all know how successful video streaming services like Netflix, HBO, Apple TV+, and Disney + are. Well, cloud gaming tries to follow their example.
With its help, you can access titles and play these games on-demand if you have a stable Internet connection without downloading and installing them on a specific device. Cloud gaming processes games on remote servers and streams the video and audio to your device in real time. There’s no need for extra storage and powerful devices.
The fiber-optic internet is expected to overcome one of the biggest challenges of cloud gaming – a stable, high-speed internet connection with low ping/latency. As this type of internet connection becomes available to more players, we expect the popularity of cloud gaming to increase.
Also, we believe we will get more services offering subscriptions like the abovementioned video and music streaming services. PlayStation and its PS Plus subscription are one example of that. With its help, you get instant access to hundreds of games. Remember that the cloud streaming service is available only to PlayStation Plus Premium users.
AI in video gaming
Artificial intelligence is a trending topic these days. Still, the fact is that AI has been used in video gaming for some time. Still, the more advanced AI technology introduced not a while ago is taking this trend to another level.
One of the first things we can think of is the impact of this technology on NPC characters found in many video games. Thanks to AI, NPC can learn from their actions, adjust to player actions and make reasonable decisions based on the current situation.
The same goes for providing a more personalized experience to players. This could lead to creation of dynamic game worlds that provide a more natural and realistic experience. The gameplay scenarios can change based on your decisions and preferences. We’ve seen this in games in the past but in a much simpler form.
