Innovation of Video Games
By: Jonatan Campos
Video games consolidation has risen, along with technology advances. There were times when video games did not have features like online mode, realistic graphics or virtual reality. Offline story modes with decent graphics and textures were more than enough in the '90s and 2000s. The addition of online gaming brought several changes to the way we used to play. Techcrunch specifies that:
"By the time of the Xbox 360 release, online multiplayer gaming was an integral part of the experience. Nowadays, many games have an online component that vastly improves the gameplay experience and interactivity, often superseding the importance of the player’s offline game objectives."
Since the internet and video games have worked together, the community has grown exponentially. Online gaming allows its users to explore a virtual world never seen before, so the importance of making friends is what stands out. Virtual stores revolutionized how downloadable content appeared, so they created more possibilities to enjoy a game with expansion packs. That means that the base game is sold to receive future updates; some of them might be free, but others might require microtransactions or payments to receive additional content in-game.
Overall, Forbes gives the data that industry spending in the U.S. was up 13% over 2017, with total spending reaching $16.67 billion over 2017's $14.716 billion. This number does include everything; however, once you figure in subscriptions and microtransactions, total spending balloons to $43.4 billion over the previous year's $36.9 billion.
Nowadays, the gaming experience is diversified as there are many options in the market, being the strongest Playstation, Xbox and Nintendo. Even though these companies compete with each other, they display similarities in the product that they advertise. Consoles, games and accessories are at the same level, and their novelties are announced at the same time too.
Diversification is what video games have reached in 2020; designers can develop and create games not only specifically for consoles; smartphones are capable of running most of what we used to play on the TV in previous years, and PC gamers are sought in the market as everyone can build it with more powerful specifications than modern consoles. YouTubers and streamers are trending, so they need to have a powerful PC that allows them to exert tasks like going live, having their stream tools active and playing video games while interacting with their followers.
With the evolution of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG), the online play experience has fundamentally changed since it allowed one player can battle another player regardless of geographical location. The undisputed champion of MMORPG is World of Warcraft, which has more than 8 million subscribers, according to Skywell Software. The eSports has created the modern term of professional gamer (A person who plays video games professionally earning a salary beyond the prizes for which he or she competes). The next generation of video games is coming with the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series release with new games, so the gaming industry is diversifying to attract more players worldwide.