William Higinbotham created Tennis for Two in 1958, and this was regarded as the first true video game. Before this, video games didn’t exist. Fast forward 65 years, and there are millions. The computer scientist couldn’t possibly have envisaged what he was giving birth to at the time, but anyone involved with the multibillion-dollar industry that exists today will be grateful that he made this groundbreaking offering. Ever since then, the gaming industry has grown exponentially, with online gambling being a particularly incredible success story.
Vast Number of Games and Genres Highlights How Far Things Have Come
Look at some of the booming online gaming sites that exist today and it’s clear how the industry has ballooned in size and is always continuing to swell. The gambling sector is a prime example of this. In the late 1990s, the first online casino software emerged, and it featured rudimentary versions of table games like roulette and blackjack. Now, players have access to state-of-the-art versions of these games in various formats, along with live links to real-world dealers. At 888casino, an online casino Canada, there are countless categories on offer, from different genres of slot titles to exclusive and groundbreaking casino games such as Bonus Poker.
It’s the same story when you look across other offshoots of the bustling gaming industry. On mobile, players have an almost endless selection of games to choose from, with the App Store offering approximately 984,000 games in 2021. These titles exist within an increasing variety of genres as well, ranging from puzzle to action or RPG. Players know that they can log on to the App Store or an online casino and find something that is going to suit their needs. This is because there are just so many games nowadays that everyone is catered for.
Part of the reason for this incredibly vast selection of games is that sites in competitive industries know they need to offer a lot of choice. If they don’t, they’ll lose out to rivals that have more to give. This is clearly seen in cutthroat sectors like online gambling, where simply offering a welcome bonus is no longer appealing enough. It is also becoming more apparent with subscription gaming services, which have started to rise in popularity over the last few years. Part of the way that Microsoft will try to win the battle with Sony will be by providing a greater number of titles in its Xbox Game Pass service. That will lead to PlayStation increasing its options on PlayStation Now, and so on.
As the gaming industry has expanded and attracted multitudes of additional players every year, it has brought about more opportunities for developers. The online world has also made the sharing of ideas much easier, and progression has happened faster in the last two decades thanks to this.
How Have Different Sectors Amassed and Satiated Fans?
The gaming industry has separated into countless offshoots, with the main options in 2022 being online casinos, mobile, console, and PC. The latter two go hand in hand, but there are major differences between the three sectors and the way they have amassed their fanbases. The mobile sector is a prime example of how quickly things can snowball in gaming. The first-ever mobile game was Tetris for the Hagenuk MT-2000 in 1994, and this was the precursor to Snake on Nokia devices later in the decade.
As soon as smartphones were introduced just over ten years later, games on these portable devices started to blow up. Angry Birds from Rovio Entertainment was one of the earliest success stories, and it has been downloaded more than 250 million times. This inspired other simple puzzle games at the time but, as the devices became more advanced, genres expanded massively. Clash of Clans from Supercell was one of the first freemium games where players could play for free and pay for upgrades. It inspired a whole marketing model, and this has been the way that most developers on mobile have satiated fans.
Online casinos have amassed fans through their abundance of choice and their constant striving for evolution. This has been seen with slots most notably, as they have been made with inventive new engines and themes. Table games have also been enhanced with technology such as live streaming, and fans are appeased by the continuous efforts to up the immersion levels.
For console and PC players, it has always been imperative that developers provide cutting-edge games that push the boundaries of what’s capable on modern machines. To keep up with mobile and casinos, this offshoot of gaming has altered in recent years too. There has been a rise in subscription services that allow players to pay a monthly fee to gain access to a wealth of titles.
Staying Competitive with Money-Saving Promotions and Offers
The competitive nature of the gaming industry has helped it to thrive throughout the decades, and all businesses know that they need to keep up to date with promotions and offers to be able to cut it. The online casino industry is the best place to witness this in action, and you’d be hard pushed to find a site that doesn’t have a welcome bonus. On mobile and console, subscription services like Apple Arcade and PlayStation Now are trying to undercut one another with their pricing and offers.
Franchised games have been a major reason why the gaming industry has skyrocketed. People who enjoyed a certain Hollywood movie or television series often want to appreciate it in other ways, and they search out games to do so. Every branch of the gaming industry has a long history of creating licensed titles that achieve this goal. Jurassic World is an example of a franchise that has broken out into gaming in numerous ways, and the popularity of the films led all its related titles to garner massive playing numbers.
With new technology constantly emerging and current devices regularly being improved and upgraded, games have a fertile landscape on which they can grow even more. The gaming industry will continue to boom, and it’s hard to imagine it ever dying out.