10 Gaming Trends That Will Shape The Future

A new era of gaming is upon the community – and these are the 10 trends to look out for.

Because of technology and cultural changes, new gaming trends are constantly emerging. Some stick around for a long time, while others quickly fade away into irrelevancy.

10 Gaming Trends That Will Shape The Future — Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash.

Over the coming decade, these electrifying gaming trends will change everything. Whether you’re a PC, mobile, console, or Nintendo Switch gamer, the details below are guaranteed to excite you.

1. Android And iPhone Online Casinos

Android and iOS are two of the biggest platforms around the world for gaming.

· 21 percent of Androids apps downloaded are games (EarthWeb)

· 25 percent of iOS apps downloaded are games (EarthWeb)

Whether you own an Android or iPhone, you’ve likely downloaded multiple games from the app store over the past year. But have you downloaded any online gambling apps from https://bettingapps.org/ yet? The online casino and gambling genre has fast become one of the biggest gaming types on mobile and desktop. This is primarily because online casinos allow people to play with real money and compete for other prizes.

When you play normal video games, the only prizes you can win are virtual – with online casinos, this isn’t the case. The involvement of real money can be quite exciting and adds to the entertainment factor. Essentially, online casinos and gambling platforms are filling a market space in gaming that has huge demand behind it.

In the era of microtransactions, it’s not surprising that people love online casinos. It’s a smart platform: players get to access classic and new games while betting as little or as much as they like. Moving forward, this is why online casinos on Android and iOS will likely continue to skyrocket in popularity.

2. VR Headsets

VR headsets have been slowly growing in popularity. Now, it’s reached a point where they’ve gone fully mainstream. Whether you’re on a PC or console, there are now plenty of VR-compatible games that you can download. The catch? You need to own a VR headset!

Sadly, VR headsets are still pretty expensive to buy, no matter which platform you’re on. The good news, though, is that they’re likely to decrease in price moving into the future.

Right now, VR headsets are still very much ‘the latest thing’, but keep a look out for significant price reductions between 2023 and 2026.

3. Cross-Platform Gaming

Cross-platform gaming is insanely exciting. Finally, through specific games, you can now play against your friends even when you’re using different gaming platforms.

For example, if you own FIFA 23 on the PS5 and your friend owns it on the XBOX Series X/S, you can still play against each other on Ultimate Team. Years ago, this was something that gamers were dreaming of – now, it’s a reality!

Minecraft and Fortnite are other popular games that currently allow cross-play.

4. Cloud Gaming – Bye-Bye Disks!

Game disks will soon be a thing of the past. For decades, they’ve served gamers well. However, the introduction of cloud gaming, where you can access games exclusively over the internet without needing to download any files, will probably lead to disks becoming obsolete.

The PlayStation 5 Digital was Sony’s first diskless console. By the time the PlayStation 6 rolls around, it’s expected that most consoles will be diskless, too. It’s reasonable to assume that disk gaming will no longer be active by 2030.

5. Crypto Purchases

Recently, many gaming companies have started to allow customers to purchase games and in-game content via cryptos like Bitcoin.

Right now, this is still a small trend. However, if the crypto market continues to thrive, then it’s highly likely that console and handheld platforms will allow people to start purchasing games exclusively using crypto. This will make an interesting change from digital currency purchases that have been the norm in gaming since the industry began.

6. More Season Passes

Ah, season passes: some people love them, while others can’t stand them. Whichever side of the fence you’re on, season passes (sometimes called ‘battle passes’) will continue dominating most major game releases.

In case you didn’t know, a season pass in any game provides you with access to current and future downloadable content. Usually, you must play the game and complete challenges to access this DLC.

For instance, if you purchase a season pass in a Call of Duty game, then you’ll typically get access to map packs, weapon skins, and other cosmetic items.

7. Free-to-Play Games

One of the best trends to hit the gaming industry since the mid-2010s has been the introduction of free-to-play games.

Now, thousands of games on consoles, PC, and mobile are free-to-play. In other words, you don’t have to pay a penny to get them. You simply go to your platform’s digital store and hit download.

The reason why free-to-play games are the future is simple: they’re super popular. Plus, they provide developers with greater profits due to the fact that people are purchasing season passes and DLC in-game.

8. Battle Royale Domination

Battle royale games first took over in 2017. Five years later, they’re still on top. From Fortnite to Warzone 2.0, battle royale games are dominating the gaming charts.

They’re dynamic, fun, and non-stop entertainment, so it’s hardly surprising that battle royale games have become the crowd favorite over recent years.

9. Futuristic Set-Ups

Thanks to Twitch and YouTube streamers, an entire generation of games have been inspired to create their own futuristic gaming set-ups at home. From smart LED lighting to 8K TVs, there are lots of features you can add to your own set-up if you wish to make it as modern and futuristic as possible.