Since the dawn of gaming, video games have advanced a tremendous amount, with development and improvements becoming easier as technology gets better. There seems to be something brand new with almost every game that is released nowadays.
However, what is on the horizon for games and the gaming industry? Futuristic games are actually a lot closer to reality than you may think.
AI Creation
AI has been part of gaming for many years now, but it is en route to playing a bigger role in game creation. Developers are already teaching AI to understand levels in games and then create a level using the same parameters.
The bigger picture is that we will get to the point where AI can be used to create worlds that would take human developers months to create. This means that games can be packed with sprawling seas, islands, forests, and land. AI can take the concept of open-world to the extreme.
AI in Games
With regard to AI in games, we have already seen how AI can learn and change the behavior of characters towards the player. The Nemesis System in the Shadow of Mordor is the best example of AI learning, adapting, and remembering how a player acted towards an NPC (non-playing character).
AI can be used to create a far more personalized gaming experience. Each and every NPC can change how they act towards you, become more or less helpful on your travels, more or less hostile, etc. This means playthroughs will become unique and different each time you run through them.
Virtual Reality
Virtual reality at this stage has already become more advanced than we first thought, and it is only going to get better. Developers are working on the technology to allow us to feel textures and smell what is around us in-game.
We are quickly making our way to the day where we can play VR games and have difficulty telling the difference between what is real and what isn’t. The thing stopping that from happening now is immersion.
Our immersion can be broken too quickly due to graphics not being ultra-realistic, the clumsy movement, and you can feel it isn’t real. This is going to be a thing of the past as VR continues to develop and advance.
Mobile Gaming
Mobile games have come a long way over the past few years. It feels like only yesterday when Snake was the most advanced mobile game we could play; now, we have games like Call of Duty Mobile and Fortnite on our devices.
Considering how fast mobile phone technology is getting, it is only a matter of time before mobile-specific games like Candy Crush will be a thing of the past, and AAA mobile games will be the norm.
Cloud Gaming
Cloud Gaming has been the term on everyone’s lips of late. In short, Cloud gaming is the ability to stream full games to your network-connected device without having to buy or rent them, like Netflix but for gaming.
Microsoft has already launched a Cloud gaming subscription that gives users access to the entirety of their gaming library. What is so appealing is the fact that you don’t play trimmed-down versions of the games; you play the full game from start to finish.
Cloud gaming has a couple of sticking points at the moment, the biggest being internet connectivity. You will need a solid and consistent internet connection to Cloud game, which isn’t possible for many people across the globe. With 5G becoming more widespread, this can quickly solve that problem, though.
Better Technology = Better Games
While it may be obvious, we mustn’t forget that games will get better alongside technology becoming better. Games naturally advance as technology does, so even if we ignore everything else on this list, games will still be better than we have seen in five or ten years.
New consoles, graphics cards, CPUs, whatever it may be, allow developers to add something or create something they couldn’t before. This is one of the most exciting aspects of the future of games; we just don’t know what’s next or what can be possible in the future. Either way, it is going to be mind-blowing.