Video gaming is an industry that benefits from healthy competition. Even though giant corporations operate within the space and desperately try to one-up each other to obtain market dominance, they all have unique and iconic game titles that help them develop into significant forces in the market.
Over the last decade, gaming has been helped immensely by other variables and contributing factors. For example, the accessibility of smartphones has exploded. Moreover, they have become cheaper and technologically advanced within a very short timeframe.
Likewise, the internet has now become much easier to access on a global scale. This has allowed players from all corners of the globe to play against each other online more effectively.
Another sector that saw the enormous benefit of the rise of digital gaming is the casino industry. You can now play many casino games on your phone, thanks to the rise of smartphones and internet availability. In addition, you can play sweepstakes online for money or enjoy other casino games, such as roulette or poker.
If you gamble online, remember to do so purely for entertainment. However, if you begin to see gambling as a source of income or start to chase your losses, these are red flags that you can’t ignore. Speak to a professional if you are developing an issue with your gambling.
Esports
As gaming advancements go, esports has added a whole new dimension to the world of competitive video gaming. Since the early 2010s, the functionality to play online against each other has become better equipped to handle international gaming and direct competition across continents.
However, esports gaming has gone one better than that and devised tournaments based on the world’s best players coming together and facing off in massive games.
Some prize money in esports is in the millions of dollars. Even though it is called esports, it is not sport specific. You can play games like NFL or FIFA, but most bigger esports tournaments are in games such as Call of Duty and Fortnite.
It doesn’t just end there, though. Some tournaments are so big and widespread that they are played in arenas. Many of these arenas will sell out well in advance of a game that is due to take place. As a result, the most prominent companies in esports have profit margins in the tens of millions of dollars. It is a spectacular amount for an industry that barely existed a decade ago.
Internet connectivity
An exponential rise in video gaming occurred throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Although the internet was generating massive publicity and making serious waves, the mass adoption we began to see in the early 21st century hadn’t occurred by this stage.
Early versions of the PlayStation and Xbox were shifting tens of millions of units, as were the games sold as a package deal with the devices. Some games are household names, such as Crash Bandicoot, Super Mario Bros and Halo. Many analysts stated that the possibility of playing against people worldwide would transform the industry, which is precisely what happened.
Tech companies ploughed billions into research and development to create quicker ways to connect people via the internet.
In the 1990s and early 2000s, internet access was exclusively dial-up. It took a while to connect to web pages and you would have to unplug your home telephone to dial into the expensive version.
Once broadband came onto the scene, and tech companies made more devices to adapt to this incredible rise in interconnectivity, the gaming industry took on a completely new look. Of course, it fueled the rise of the esports industry we discussed earlier, but it also allowed games to become social occasions where you could join a party with friends and chat.
Mobile gaming
As we discussed in our introduction, the sophistication of internet connectivity and mobile gaming has soared over the last decade.
Following the creation of the iPhone in early 2007, Apple became the number one tech company on the planet, mainly due to their incredible innovations in the smartphone sector. As smartphones became increasingly accessible, and graphics and computing also advanced, mobile gaming became a substantial industry.
Handheld consoles such as the PSP and Nintendo DS achieved some success in the early 2000s. However, since mobile phones gained an additional function with which you could connect to the internet and play various games, the money flowing into this sector became colossal.
Now that the gaming sector has become an interconnected international marketplace, the need to continue to innovate is more crucial than ever, given that the opportunity for profit is growing
