Across all platforms, the world of gaming is incredibly competitive. Be it online, mobile, or console gaming, developers are continually trying to create and utilise new technology to set themselves ahead of the competition.
Having completed a quarter of 2019, we now have a strong understanding of what’s in the works for the year, as well as what technology is being pushed and how it may influence gaming trends this year.
PlayStation pushing their virtual reality tech
#IronMan VR is coming to PS4 and it looks so cool: https://t.co/LvYvfgL58d pic.twitter.com/bvwzqFTFbo
— Nerdist (@nerdist) March 25, 2019
At this point, PlayStation is effectively the market leader in virtual reality gaming, offering a wide range of incredible games to enjoy through their PSVR headset.
For many years, Nintendo has hosted news live streams to update fans with what’s to come, so PlayStation decided to do their own rendition at the end of March. The PlayStation news live stream, State of Play, heavily focussed on upcoming virtual reality games, with a quick showing of their next triple-A title, Days Gone, and some more information on Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fuelled.
It’s clear that PlayStation want to keep their VR programme in high-esteem, announcing big-name titles like Marvel’s Iron Man VR, Five Nights at Freddy’s VR: Help Wanted, Blood & Truth VR, and the virtual reality mode ‘Beyond’ available in the phoenix from the ashes game that is No Man’s Sky.
Volatility becoming key in online gaming
For a very long time, players on the largest online casino gaming platforms have clicked on games based on their RTP percentages, jackpot size, or theme and images. While all of these do contribute to the player experience, the savvy gamers have discovered the many online resources which help them to narrow in on the highest paying games.
It is clear to see that players are now trending away from high RTP games and towards those deemed to be volatile with high variance ratings. Games like Rich Wilde and the Book of Dead, Bonanza, and Rise of Olympus are all extremely popular at online casino redbet, despite Rise of Olympus being the only one released in the last year.
Players want to have a greater chance at landing a big win rather than many smaller wins, which high variance games deliver. That said, there’s still a place for the very low variance games as Starburst remains very popular at the online casino.
Google makes its way into gaming
What do Google’s competitors think of Stadia? Not much just yet https://t.co/mrz7O8qkHR pic.twitter.com/OAoaADvmCH
— GamesRadar+ (@GamesRadar) March 28, 2019
Technically, Google is already one of the largest gaming platforms in the world thanks to the ocean of mobile games in the Play Store, but in 2019, Google plans to take the industry by storm.
Announced at the end of March 2019, the Google Stadia claims to be able to deliver triple-A games to anyone with an internet connection of 25mbps or greater, regardless of their hardware. It’ll be a game streaming service which could completely change the industry.
Three games that have already been announced for the Stadia are Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, the upcoming Doom Eternal, and a Q-Games title which is still in the works. To play these games, players will be able to use their existing console controllers via a Wi-Fi connection, or they can purchase the new Google controller.
In 2019, virtual reality, tinkered game mechanics to make them more volatile, and Google’s new game streaming service are set to be among the biggest trends across gaming.