According to Statista forecasts, in 2021, the number of gamers may reach one-third of the world’s population. What technologies will shape the face of the industry and how will their popularity affect our lives?
This information is especially relevant for students. Since they are usually the pioneers in adopting new technologies in their personal life. While gaming is so much fun, students still need to handle their studies, pass the exams, and write great writing assignments. If academic writing is a struggle they can get qualified help and pay for essay writing services.
In 2019, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said in a letter to shareholders that the main competitor of the service is not Disney+ or HBO, but the computer game Fortnite. Games — the latest format in the global entertainment industry-are becoming more popular and interactive. Developers adopt new technologies and even provoke their development.
Experts expect that the market of the priority trend of the gaming industry — cloud gaming-will grow to $450 million by 2023. Technology is already making games more democratic. Services like Google Stadia, Playstation Now, or Playkey run resource-intensive applications without being tied to hardware capabilities. In the future, they will give developers the freedom to create without technical restrictions.:
- There will no longer be a barrier in the form of expensive equipment: anyone will be able to realize their fantasies in creating games;
- There will be a new type of games that are initially created under the cloud standards and are not technically limited. For virtual worlds, including in the VR format, unprecedented horizons will open up. Cities and even entire planets can be pictured to the smallest detail — it will be difficult to distinguish them from the real ones;
- The boundaries between genres will no longer exist: a new class of games will combine many genre fragments;
- The social approval of the player’s actions will be an important element of a game— virtual communities will increasingly resemble real ones. For example, the developers of Death Stranding introduced likes as a tool to encourage the actions of other players-such as buildings or warning signs about the danger.
The driver of cloud gaming development is the spread of 5G. This communication standard will increase the speed and make the transfer of an array of data from the cloud uninterrupted. The technology will cause a wave of growth of gamers who will play from the phone. There are already more than 2 billion such users, and thanks to 5G, their number will increase several times.
Games Instead of Zoom Conferences and School Lessons
Games are no longer just entertainment. Virtual worlds turn into a new platform for communication. They hold working meetings, build university campuses and teach, arrange concerts.
The world is moving faster and faster towards the translation of communications into a game reality. Self-isolation only helped this process — the universes of games like Fortnite are much more versatile and functional than Zoom. They have a large set of tools for personalization and allow you to gather a huge audience.
In the future, games will also change the education system. Of course, they will not replace the lessons in their entirety, but rather become an addition to them: the skills acquired in games will be applied both in school and in work. So, researchers from the University of Glasgow found that games develop critical and reflexive thinking, and also develop a reaction.
Teachers have already adopted the game: a geometry teacher from San Diego conducts classes in the VR-offshoot of Half-Life. Last summer, the Institute for the Development of the Internet proposed to include electives in Dota 2 or World of Tanks in the school curriculum. Russian experts believe that these games develop creativity, logic, and the ability to work in a team.
A New Model of Content Consumption
The difference between games and other forms of entertainment, such as movies, will be completely erased. The new Unreal Engine 5 already produces a picture that is hard to distinguish from Hollywood. Virtual avatars of actors become heroes of Cyberpunk 2077 or Death Stranding: games are an interactive way of storytelling that will change the drama itself and the relationship between the viewer and the screenwriter.
The interactivity of virtual universes will allow you to finally destroy the fourth wall. The viewer will determine the development of the plot and will become the director of their productions within the game world thanks to the streams. The definition of sports will also change: millennials are already more likely to watch game broadcasts than the usual sports matches. Thanks to the growing audience, esports will become a familiar type of competition — maybe even enter the Olympic disciplines.
The lack of linking games to the platform thanks to cloud technologies will also affect our consumption. Users will pay for the game content and the social part of the games, such as access to the community, and not for the platform. You can enter the virtual world from any device with a screen and a 5G connection-from a smart refrigerator to a smartwatch.
The future of gaming devices
The control of the character will change: the development of neurocomputer interfaces will allow you to control its actions with brain signals. These devices already exist, the Emotiv EPOC device, with which you can work with software “with the power of thought” — for example, control drones with the help of neurotransmitters. According to Ericsson experts, the technology will become mass-produced in this decade.
The mentioned 5G standard will allow you to use not only sight and hearing but all the senses in games. We will find the ” Internet of feelings»: digital sensors using artificial intelligence, VR and AR will allow you to taste the game universe-literally.
How does 5G Work and How will it Change our Lives?
Tuning the perception of the virtual world by ear will become more accurate. Ericsson believes that by 2035, players will be able to configure the headphones to automatically translate from any language. You can also choose the sound of the gamer’s voice personalization.
An even greater field for experiments, which will give the “Internet of feelings” — synesthesia. Players will be able to listen to the red color of the traffic light or feel the growl of the monster from the game on their own skin.
Another promising technology is “digital taste” and “smell”, which more than half of the Ericsson experts expect to see by 2035. Rapid urbanization, in which more than half of the world’s population already lives far from nature, makes this development not so unrealistic.
Paradoxically, games can become a new way to interact with nature. Imagine a VR walk through the forest, where you can smell all the smells and taste the virtual berries. Technology will mix the virtual and the real and give game drama new tools.
This article contains sponsored links.
