Gaming capabilities are ever evolving, so it's no surprise that gaming media is always keeping an eye on the latest technology --- as are developers. If you're interested in what your games might be capable of in the coming years, take a look at our list of technological innovations in gaming.
Cloud gaming
Ubisoft recently made the news for, let's say, annoying its customers. That's not the word that was used because we're talking about gamers here, but close enough. One headline even went so far as to say that they couldn't help themselves. After the joyous release of Skull and Bones, Ubisoft announced their games for rent initiative, saying users "no longer need to own games".
How is this possible? Well, with the cloud. By having a near-infinite storage system with no hardware, like a disc, for example, there is "no need" for the user to have a disc drive. They can have as many games as their console or PC can store, able to dip into the cloud and pull out any game at whim.
Everyone understands that gaming catalogs are the key to this success. If a service doesn't have the right games, customers will look at alternatives. This is exactly why the iGaming industry is as energized as it is, constantly outdoing itself in a bid to stand out from the crowd. New and regular players depend on key resources that cut through the noise and shine the spotlight on the very best titles of the moment. The industry is in a constant state of evolution, and a resource like Casino.org ranks the best games for customers to know exactly which games to put at the top of their 'To Be Played' lists.
What's the other side of the story? Well gamers are a nostalgic bunch. It takes a long time for any game to get developed, which means they get attached if it arrives good and without too many bugs or problems, therefore they want to invest a lot of time and having that physical copy elevates that tie. However, they're also very aware that connections can still be made without a physical copy --- for instance, Call of Duty: Warzone is a prime example of a discless game that millions covet.
The blockchain
Blockchain is the foundation on which cryptocurrency is built. Every crypto financial transaction is recorded and stored as a block of data in a chain. That's the simplest way of putting it, and yet a majority of the population is confused. However, you should take note that the iGaming industry has fully embraced cryptocurrency. Historically, online casinos are always at the forefront of technology. When the internet first went mainstream, casinos were some of the first websites to offer paid for services. Blockchain, crypto and online casino gaming all fit together seamlessly, which might be an indicator that you should keep an eye on all this crypto coin talk.
Ray tracing
Gamers appreciate exploring a new world. A world that looks good. If you open any review on any given game, one of the first or main points you're going to see will be about the image quality. Maybe the recent The Lord of the Rings: Gollum game brings about comparisons to second gen console games, or maybe the ability to see the very pores on Aloy's nose in Horizon Forbidden West will awe gamers, but it's all possible with ray tracing.
Ray tracing technology is providing complex lighting and reflections for more photorealistic graphics. The latest GPUs are optimized for ray tracing to create a world that you can realistically see yourself wandering and movements that don't look out of place. In a traditional rendering pipeline, effects like shadows, reflections, and refractions have to be faked using various tricks. With ray tracing, these effects can be accurately simulated in real-time as light rays bounce around the scene. As consoles and PC hardware improves to handle better graphics, games improve for more interesting worlds worth looking at.
Mobile gaming hardware
The dark horse of the gaming world, mobile gaming is quickly rising without much notice. Did you know there are ongoing, regularly updated mobile gaming campaigns created for the Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty franchises? And, even more shocking, they're quite well received.
Whether the console and PC gamers (like Blizzard fans) like it or not, mobile gaming brings in the most money, so developers are likely to keep putting resources into mobile games. Someone is playing them.
And mobile games aren't as mindless as you might think. People are dedicating real time to critically acclaimed mobile games like Monument Valley or mobile equivalents of popular IPs like Stardew Valley and Among Us.
Backward compatibility
We mentioned that gamers are a nostalgic bunch. They want to play the same Mario Kart game they played when they were a kid, not the remastered version, because the dodgy imaging and controls are part of the nostalgia.
So you can imagine the fanfare that Xbox Game Pass has gotten for allowing backwards compatibility on a lot of Xbox One games. This means that older games are available to play whenever you want. Sony hasn't been so praised. Their backwards compatibility only goes as far back as the PS4 --- and keeps getting teased and marketed as though that is enough for gamers. The concept can be implemented in various ways, so only time will tell if Sony can catch up to the nostalgia train.
Conclusion
Technology dictates much of the innovation and changes in the gaming industry. Trends follow what's conceivably --- think: financially, logistically, and appealingly --- implementable and business follow the trends to try to keep up with the crowd so as not to be left behind. Cloud gaming, blockchain, ray tracing, mobile gaming hardware, and backward compatibility all have roots in 2023 and even years before that, but 2024 is the year they become more widely and deeply used in the gaming industry so they maybe no longer become trends but, instead, standards.