Over the past few decades, rapid technological change has made the way that we work almost unrecognisable. Billions of people now work in occupations that revolve around a computer; billions more have been indirectly affected by them.
But it isn’t just the workplace that’s been fundamentally altered by new technologies. Our leisure time, too, has been digitised beyond recognition. Screen-based gaming has emerged over the past few decades to become a mainstream distraction. But that emergence is still ongoing, and new and seismic changes in the world of gaming are just looming over the horizon. Let’s consider what the future might hold.
AI-Powered Gaming: Smarter, More Personalised Play
Artificial intelligence is changing the way that games are designed. What amounts to a very sophisticated form of autocomplete is making it easier to develop the games of the future, and helping to squash annoying bugs before they have a chance to make it into public-facing code.
But as well as turbocharging development, AI is also allowing for new, previously unthinkable forms of gameplay. AI-driven characters are now able to learn from player behaviour, and to change their responses to that behaviour accordingly. The NPCs in the next popular RPG might work using Large Language Models like GPT-4, but animations, modelling, and enemy behaviour might all be revolutionised in much the same way.
Cloud Gaming: Accessing High-End Games Anywhere
Today, most games are rendered locally. That means that in order to play them, you’ll need a machine that’s suitably powerful. For high-end PC gaming, that might mean spending thousands of pounds on the latest hardware every few years.
But there’s an increasingly popular alternative method. Cloud-based rendering means that every frame is created on a remote server, before being piped back to the device that created the input message. This might introduce a little bit of lag, depending on the broadband infrastructure near where you live. However, it might also vastly reduce the cost of entry into the world of high-end gaming and potentially allow developers access to a much larger market.
Online Casinos and Digital Gambling
Over the last few years, the digital gambling space has expanded considerably. According to the Gambling Commission, 2022 saw digital gambling reach parity with its real-world counterpart (although real-world gambling reclaimed its advantage after the lockdown measures were entirely lifted).
It’s easy to see why online gaming might appeal. The technology allows for compelling gaming experiences, sometimes including live video feeds of real card dealers. Games like jackpot slots are hugely popular – and they represent a sizeable portion of the overall online gaming market.
Virtual and Augmented Reality
For maximum immersion, it’s difficult to beat the experience of virtual reality. Modern VR requires a special headset, and plenty of graphical hardware if you want to avoid motion sickness and other symptoms. Hundreds of frames need to be delivered separately to two separate displays, every second. This technical hurdle has become less and less of a problem, however, and many mainstream gamers have embraced the technology.
Mobile Gaming: Gaming on the Go
Of course, the biggest development in the technological world over the last few decades has been the introduction of the modern smartphone in the late 2000s. Prior to this, gaming required investment in special hardware; after it, everyone suddenly had access to a vast selection of games, including new ones like Angry Birds, and classic ones like Snake. This allowed developers to target older gamers with limited time, and caused the industry as a whole to swell beyond all recognition!
