Here Are The Technological Updates That Will Change The Gaming World
As technology advances, so do the tools available to game designers. Here are the technological updates that will change the gaming world!
Many people look forward to new technology making their lives easier, but there is an often unspoken benefit of new technology that affects one area in particular: video games. Many gamers look forward not just to playing new games, but also to what future technologies hold for consoles and computers while they wait for these next big releases.
With this in mind, I’d like to give you a rundown on three upcoming technologies that could be very influential in video games over the coming years. Each of these will play some part in improving graphics or gameplay within video games by refining current processes (rendering) or by providing entirely new elements (cloud-based gaming).
The following four technologies are only the beginning of what could be an endless list. However, if video games follow suit with other industries, these will likely be the biggest technological advances within a game design for several years to come.
1) Virtual Reality (VR)
Virtual reality is defined as sensory experiences created by computers or machines that allow users to interact in some type of virtual space. This technology can take many forms, but its most popular form at present is the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift systems. The headsets combine with special controllers to create an immersive gameplay experience unlike anything seen before in the gaming world. Users are able to walk around their virtual environment while controlling their character’s movement with actual hand motions. This technology has been around for some time now, but recently experienced a surge in popularity. Several years ago, VR was rejected by gamers due to poor quality and uncomfortable experiences that left many users with motion sickness. However, the technology has since improved, making it more accessible for gaming. This is evidenced through Facebook’s purchase of Oculus Rift for $2 billion not long after its release just a few months prior.
The most exciting aspect of virtual reality is being able to interact with your environment as if you are actually there within the game. It provides an entirely new level of immersion that will be even further enhanced by haptic feedback systems—the ability to sense your physical surroundings via your skin. These types of technologies would allow players to feel specific elements within the game. This could be as simple as a light breeze on your face and arms or as complex as hitting another player with a sword.
The future of virtual reality in gaming is still uncertain, but several developers have already taken the first steps toward incorporating this technology into their games. During the most recent E3 conference, we saw announcements for several new VR titles being released to various consoles in 2017 including Fallout 4 VR, Doom VFR, Skyrim SE VR Edition, Star Trek Bridge Crew VR, The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind, and more. While many of these are simply ported versions of current games that support the new technology through head tracking systems, others take advantage of being able to move around within an open world environment by allowing you to walk around your chair. A few games even allow you to play in the third-person mode so that you can see your character’s body while interacting with the world.
As amazing as this technology is, it isn’t without its flaws. The initial cost for an Oculus Rift system currently sits around $600, not including enhancements like haptic feedback. Additionally, there are many factors that could prevent virtual reality from being successful within the gaming industry such as motion sickness and accessibility issues for users with disabilities or limited mobility. However, if developers build out more open-world environments and enhance existing game experiences by adding haptic feedback systems, then we’re already seeing the beginning of an incredible future for video games during which every player will feel immersed in their favourite worlds regardless of whether they’re playing from a couch or from their own personal holodeck.
2) Augmented Reality (AR)
Augmented reality is a technology similar to virtual reality, but it has the ability to interact with users in real-time rather than creating immersive worlds through a headset. This can be achieved through your mobile device by scanning physical objects and displaying additional information within the game as you can. Pokémon Go was one of the first major uses of this technology that gained widespread adoption among gamers, who quickly realized how much fun it was to collect these digital creatures while exploring their local environments. Since then, several other games have been released that use augmented reality for various purposes such as Harry Potter: Wizards Unite and The Walking Dead: Our World.
While augmented reality is still in its infancy, it has already begun revolutionizing the way people play their favourite games. For instance, Fallout Shelter (a popular mobile game) was updated with an AR mode that allows you to experience your virtual world right through your phone’s screen and interact with it as if it were projected on top of the real-world environment around you. This could be a precursor for future titles and an example of how developers can use this technology to enhance existing elements within their games by simply adding another layer to them instead of completely rebuilding everything from scratch.
3) Blockchain Technology
The blockchain is a digital ledger that stores information about every transaction occurring within the system—similar to how a bank records details about deposits and withdrawals from a bank account. This technology was originally developed for the cryptocurrency known as Bitcoin, but it has been expanded into other uses that could influence gaming in the future. While the blockchain makes it possible to trade digital goods that have real-life monetary value within a game or on an open market, this also means that players can buy and sell these items while being confident that they’re not being scammed by another player who happens to be selling fake items (which is currently an issue in some free-to-play games like The Division where people are using bots to play the role of every character in missions so they can win rewards and sell them).
While no games currently support blockchain technology at this time, there will likely be several open-world RPG’s and MMO’s in the future that use the blockchain to define the outcome of in-game events based on decisions made by gamers. For example, a group of players decide they want to overthrow the current ruler in an online game and elect one of their friends as leader instead. If this decision is guided through a voting process managed by blockchain technology, then each vote would be irrevocable and could alter the outcome of that event. Since this is already possible with cryptocurrency like Bitcoin, it will likely be used within video games at some point in the near future to allow every gamer to feel like their actions have consequences within their favourite virtual worlds.
4) QR Codes
QR (or Quick Response) codes are two-dimensional barcodes that can be scanned by smartphones to display a link, text, or another type of digital information. QR Codes have been around for many years and have been used in multiple industries such as logistics and marketing. However, they have only recently become popular among gamers thanks to a new use for them: character customization.
While it is possible to create custom outfits for your characters in several games, the only way to do this up until now was through Steam’s “Workshop” section where players can create user-generated content (such as weapon skins) and upload their designs so other people could buy them. This process takes time and costs money, which means players who wanted unique items would often need to spend days/weeks saving up enough virtual money (or real cash) to buy the items they wanted.
One game that compensates players for their time is Fortnite. Epic Games added an in-game “loot llama” vending machine where players can use their hard-earned V-Bucks to purchase new outfits, emotes, sprays, gliders, and other types of customization options for their characters. Instead of having to spend hours playing the game just so you can afford one item you want, it now takes minutes or seconds thanks to QR Codes which allow gamers to pay real money for digital content without needing Steam’s approval. This process has streamlined the way games handle character customization while also allowing some models/skins originally created on PC to be used with the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of a game. While it’s unlikely that QR Codes will ever be used as a primary method to purchase items, there is a chance that some future games will use these barcodes as part of an in-game achievement system where players can unlock the ability to purchase new outfits or weapons for their characters by completing certain challenges within the game.
As technology advances, so do the tools available to game designers. Here are the technological updates that will change the gaming world! Many people look forward to new technology making their lives easier, but there is an often unspoken benefit of new technology that affects one area in particular: video games. Many gamers look forward…