For the past 30 years, gaming has been an everyday part of our lives. In those early days, we were glued to our home computers, loading games from tapes or floppy disks, and then from the early 90’s, we entered the era of the consoles.
Today, it is all about online gaming and leveraging multiplayer functionality. After all, everyone knows it’s more fun to take on a real opponent than to try to outwit an artificial one. PC gaming is as popular as ever, and the rise of eSport has brought it to a new and broader audience. Consoles have defied the predictions of all the commentators and remain good sellers. Yet it is without the doubt the rise of mobile gaming that has seen the greatest growth and caused the biggest changes in gaming over the past decade.
Gaming for all generations
The thing about mobile gaming is it appeals to everyone. Preschoolers have their own $25 tablets, while senior executives use mobile games as a stress reliever on the train home from work. The latter sector, in particular, has proved a rich hunting ground for game developers. The online casino reviews at Online Casino BlueBook detail literally hundreds of sites where adult gamers can channel their inner hustler and try their luck on the slots or at the roulette wheel. And the sector continues to grow and evolve as more investment dollars are poured in with every passing week.
It’s not just the lure of big money in the casinos, however. Social gaming is another area that appeals to all ages. Farmville looked innocuous enough when it came out, and really didn’t break any new ground. But you could say the same for CS:GO – sometimes it is not the game that makes a difference, but the way people interact with it.
In Farmville’s case, it was a little like those reality shows where you watch for two minutes and find yourself drawn in for months. People invested their time, emotion and sometimes money in the game, and the social aspects were more important than the gameplay itself. Most of us know a story of some friendship or romance that started through Farmville.
Mobile gaming is about to get bigger
Currently, mobile gaming accounts for around 40 percent of the global gaming market. By 2020, it is expected to be more than half. In 2017, games were the most downloaded apps of all and Rovio, the company behind Angry Birds surpassed 3.7 billion downloads towards the end of last year.
The rise of mobile gaming has gone hand-in-hand with the growing influence that smartphones have on our day to day lives. They are almost an extension of ourselves, and as such we reach for them for the slightest diversion. Waiting in a queue or sitting having a coffee, we are unlikely to pull out a laptop and start playing CS:GO or Grand Theft Auto, but a quick spin on the reels or indeed a check on those virtual carrots? Why not?
With increased investment, a growing audience and exciting technological developments, for example in VR and AR, expect the coming years to be truly golden ones in mobile game development.
