That’s really one of the things I love about video games. It’s a whole new world every time you start – Jennifer Hale, a Canadian-American voice actress
For people, video games have become a culture and somewhat kind of a routine. The gaming industry has become a babysitter for kids, a career for teens, and relaxing sessions for the working adults. Rising through the form of arcade gaming in the 70s, the industry has evolved through labs to the arcade to shelves and now cloud. Conclusion, video games have evolved rapidly in the last half-century. The current generation of gaming includes fast processing units, high-end graphics, improved user engagement, and better gameplay.
This evolution comprises technological advancements and user-engaging tools, which has taken the industry to a whole new level. Emerging game development companies have further pushed the boundaries of video games to create something interesting and engaging. Another big thing noticed in the current era is the rise of Esports. Esports have changed the perception of gaming from just being a hobby or relaxing session to a professional career. However, being a two-sided coin, adversary to the advantages, the developers have gone towards making more money and shipping the game sections in parts. Setting aside the greedy aspects of gaming, the industry is booming and shows no sign of stopping in the upcoming years.
Technological Advancements
The current AAA titles have evolved to more than just providing life-like graphics. The titles now feature the ability to destroy or interact with in-game objects that abide by physics. Consequently, user interaction has improved drastically and makes the experience more engaging. This advancement is further helping small and indie game developers to turn into professional developers. In recent times, the games such as Minecraft, designed by the indie developers have received a tremendous amount of feedback and good reviews.
The Rise of Esports
Lately, Esports have become a large entity in the gaming industry. It has become a profession and has shaped the careers of countries like India, where the top professions were Engineer, Doctor, or Lawyer. Some of the popular Esports titles are League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Rainbow Six-Siege, and many more. Esports is not only helping the game hosting companies but is also aiding the players, clans, sponsors, etc. The matches in Esports are viewed by millions of people and thus speak to the popularity of such high stake tournaments. Esports titles even support the developers and professional players as half the money invested by the people goes directly to them.
Enters the Cloud
Cloud gaming has brought forth the partnership of companies, that one would not be able to see before. The already present cloud technologies like SaaS, BaaS, and now GaaS has introduced new methodologies that will become a mainstream phenomenon for the audience. Industry giants like Amazon, Tencent, Google, and Microsoft are already opening their own data centers, through which the games will run virtually as a non-enterprise application.
The Market Break
The emergence of Epic games’ own store has set up a barrier against the virtual monopoly held by Valve for decades. The result, Valve and Discord showed up with discount rates on their stores right after Epic’s exclusive announcements. This market break is going to help players and game developers. The customers can now have more choices with effective pricing. Services will be custom-oriented with stores being focused on providing more functionality and improved user experience.
Hurdles in the Framework
The advent of new advertising and marketing tactics has somehow polluted the gaming industry. The line between marketing and entertainment has become blurred and in the process, the user experience is taking the hit. Earlier, the games were cheap and buyers used to get the full game experience for what they were paying. There were no DLC packs, no monthly subscriptions, or microtransactions. Now, the firms are luring players into spending more and more in order to experience the whole functions of the game. The games itself have become expensive, excluding the DLC packs. Players now wait for the season’s sale or keep on adding the promotional codes, in order to enjoy the full gaming experience.
For example, big publishers like EA have made the option to pay and upgrade to a character that has some good stats already. Another big name in the online gaming: Counter Strike- Global offensive have inbuilt microtransactions for the weapon skins and their containers. This has led to skin gambling and is a big problem in the CSGO community. Not only kids but even the pro players were also caught in cheating, throwing the game just for the sake of acquiring premium skins.
All these issues have led to many players boycotting games with micro-transactions. If these greedy and money making trends continue, the industry will lose true hardcore gamers. Chances are you will fall short of an unskilled player who has paid his/her way to upgrade their character. Single player games have also taken a hit in the process and the stories and intimacy that they used to provide are lost in the current multiplayer scenarios. The present scenario is without a doubt good, but it begs the question, are the extra, money-snatching tricks necessary for providing a good gaming experience? One can definitely say that the players can compromise on the technology and graphics but one cannot compromise on the experience the game brings with itself.