The world of video gaming has been ever-changing over the past few years, from the consoles that we use to the software and gaming premises that we interact with. Statistics show that children turn to video games as a form of entertainment and play than outside play than ever before. The accessibility of gaming and the devices that can host games, paired with social media marketing, means that video games are globally waited for.
(Source: Statista)
A recent conversation investigated what prominent gaming influencers and industry experts thought would happen in the world of gaming last year, and their predictions aren’t far from what is happening in 2021 and could be even more reflective of what the future of gaming holds.
Dan Greenwalt, the Game Director at Turn 10 Studios, predicted that the gaming industry will cater to a more diverse audience than ever before. User-generated content and experimental gaming ideas mean that more and more people will be attracted to gaming in some kind of shape or form. This sentiment was supported by Paul Denning, a Senior Gameplay Programmer at Rocksteady Studios, who said that the future of gaming will be more mainstream than ever. Consoles such as the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS attracted a new brand market of non-gamers, and more and more companies are following suit. There is a lot of untapped potential that comes with the new styles of video gaming that steer away from traditional hardware.
Further contributing to the conversation of diversifying the video gaming market is supported by Yannis Mallat, the CEO of Ubisoft Montreal. Widening the pillars of the entertainment industry will be very much linked to widening its reach and expanding on the cultural diversity of the gaming audiences and consumers.
As the experts within the gaming world have made it clear that diversity within the gaming community is primary to the future of the gaming industry, there is already an expanding number of methods that different types of people are entering the gaming world, and we can only hope to see more of that over the next decade alone.
Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality
Augmented reality and Virtual Reality are becoming more and more prominent in the gaming and technology space. Augmented reality imitates artificial concepts into a real-life environment. This can give a user an insight into the possibilities of something whilst still being in the real world. From directional maps that are seen whilst walking with smart eyewear to using headsets to create an interactive digital space is an ideal concept that is only going to continue developing over the next decade. Smart eyewear alone is still very much in the infancy of its development, so seeing this become more available to the gaming community is not far-fetched.
(Source: Unsplash)
Virtual Reality is very much a separate world that is created digitally for the user and has been an adored part of the gaming community over the last decade alone. This virtual world has the capability of inserting the gamer or user into an alternate realm and make them feel less separated from the game they are playing. Using virtual reality headsets, gamers can use movement to play their video games, and it is great for simulation. As the last year has shown, using virtual reality to showcase potential plans and enable people to see how something may look became more and more relied upon and popular. With the use of virtual reality being seen more in real life, we can assume that virtual reality technology will become even more accessible in the gaming industry and world.
Games such as Pokemon Go showcase the success of combining the digital world and the real world. Using location and augmented reality, users could ‘find their Pokemon’ in the real world around them using just their phones. This gaming phenomenon is expected to become a commonality as mobile phone gaming is very much going strong and is predicted to continue doing so over the next decade.
The Rise of Mobile Gaming
Mobile gaming and gaming apps have been game-changer when it comes to the accessibility of video gaming. Having the ability to target audiences that may have not otherwise been reached with traditional consoles very much opens up the industry to more ideas and users. Over the next decade, the innovation that will come from mobile gaming will only continue to develop and result in a more diverse gaming community.
(Source: Statista)
With cloud-based technology allows forefronting the gaming space, the need for an empirical data saving device will no longer be necessary. Mobile gaming is predicted to make use of this technology over the next decade. Although this is still very much in the works, moving away from traditional PC gaming and shifting into mobile is very likely to become a commonality.
Gaming apps, such as Candy Crush, have dominated the phones of so many users. These types of simple formats can show the accessibility that people will have for more traditional games when they make the shift into the world of mobile phone gaming. As mobile phone gaming can be a platform for different users to create and bring their ideas to life, it comes back to gaming being dictated by the people for the people. Seeing a large user mass playing games is something that will most certainly be on the rise for the future.
Games Streaming
As streaming technology is becoming more developed, so will its prominence in the gaming world. Gareth Wilson, the Creative Director of Traveller’s Tales (The LEGO movie 2 videogames), said:
“Streaming technology will become mainstream in the next 10 years. As network infrastructure catches up, it’ll be commonplace to buy a game and immediately start playing it via streaming. We’ll still download games for some time to come, though, and the best experience in 2030 will still be on a standalone console or PC.”
The development of streaming whilst gaming could get to a point in the gaming world where you no longer have reliance on certain hardware or location. You could access your games from anywhere, at any time, on any device without compromising the gaming quality or experience.
Denby Grace, the Executive Producer of 2k (Mafia III), said:
“I think the biggest advancement in gaming technology is already upon us, with cloud gaming. When it gets to a level where you’re truly no longer tethered to the hardware you have at your house – when you can take your gaming experiences wherever you are in the world, on whatever device you have – that’s when it will really open the doors to everyone and anyone being able to access to the content they want, whenever they want it.”
Paired with the development of augmented reality and virtual reality, the opportunity to game from anywhere could be a more normalised method of gaming. There is complexity in this development, but streaming within the gaming industry is very much on the cards for the next decade.
Data Centers
(Source: Forbes)
Just as the cloud will be heavily relied upon for games streaming, so will the data storage required for it. The cloud is an infrastructure that requires less energy and power to maintain as well as increased accessibility to the information stored there. This type of data centre makes it vital to the advancement in the gaming world.
The implementation of 5G should enable the cloud to be used whilst gaming and storing data. This type of technological structure will not only align with the predicted rise of streaming but mobile gaming in general. The rise in the potential of cloud-based gaming could mean that there could be phones within the next decade that are more powerful than computers. There will be a shift in the future gaming audiences, which is something that makes the prospect of streaming and cloud-based technology so exciting.
Gaming Subscription Services
When the premise of Netflix arrived on the scene, there was much scepticism surrounding it, but now it has become an everyday expectation of those who watch things online. The same is predicted to happen within the gaming world. The innovation in this space is expected over the ten years without compromising on the quality of a user’s gaming experience.
As the reliance on certain hardware is predicted to decrease over the next decade, the introduction of gaming subscription services is not that far fetched. Having a ‘games on demand’ set-up could make it easier for gamers to try a new selection of games as well as potentially being more economically viable for many people. Once again, this potential development would increase the gaming industry’s audience and diversify future users.
With so many developments and changes happening in the gaming world, the future diversification of gamers is something that is very exciting for the industry and much-awaited for games designers. As technology makes gaming more accessible, these changes may happen sooner than we think.
