January 3, 2019 4 min read

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The biggest game-changer in the way we consume anything these days has to be the technology considering it has a role to play in all the facets of our lives. From Hospitality to entertainment, it has had a wide reach. Particularly, the Gaming industry is at an advanced stage where the most casual of gamers have adapted to it making it one of the most consumed mass technologies. It has changed the way we create and consume games with the leading gaming markets USA, China & Japan being at the forefront of it.

According to Statista, at the beginning of 2018, there were 2.1 billion Mobile gamers in the world and 56per cent of this gaming population played 10 or more sessions a week. The number is only likely to rise by another half a billion in the next 3 years. To fulfil this demand, huge investments in newer technologies is being done.

Here’s a look at some new and emerging technologies in gaming that are set to take over 2019:

AR & VR – The Next Big Mass Bet

The trend of using technology to enhance games isn’t going to slow down either if anything we’re likely to see it become more prevalent as the time goes on. As we look forward to the future, we can already see tech like Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality coming onto our screens. Last year, a company launched a mobile cricket game with Sachin Tendulkar, which had motion captured batting shots of the legend recorded in the same studio as the James Bond movies in London. But, for the world of AR, the whole Pokemon sensation had shown the potential technology plays in gaming, not just in terms of revenue but the global appeal and reach as well. The key is also taking a game that already has enough brand appeal that the technology becomes easy to accept.

Facial Recognition in Gaming

Technology has also contributed immensely to the way we interact socially, removing barriers of communication across the world. It also has a bigger role to play in making things much more intuitive inexperience. Facial recognition, a technology that has been primarily introduced as a feature on mobile phones are also bound to come into play more within our games in the next 2 years. From character creation to judging our emotions, this tech will be able to bridge the gap between the real world and the virtual world.

The list of companies working on these new technologies is endless. Intel with its RealSense 3D camera allows developers to scan 78 different points in a person’s face. A dismayed face at the game screen would result in the system reducing the game's difficulty. Custom avatars can be created with FR technology. In China, Tencent uses facial recognition to figure out the user’s age. Voice commands can be used to control gameplay, interact on social media play selections from media library or simply searching the web.

Story based games are also likely to see game worlds become much larger and more graphically advanced. This will greatly impact gaming as we know it. With so many great titles hitting our screens in the past few years, it is going to be interesting to see how developers will use this to their advantage while creating content.

Cloud Gaming – The Solution

Conventionally, huge investments in hardware were needed making it difficult for the masses to get a hold on Games. Cloud gaming solves this problem, Gamers need an internet connection and they can extract any game, any time they want from the cloud. Major active companies bringing cloud gaming services. Microsoft and Google have entered this forum with Project stream and Project xCloud as recently as October 2018.

With the rise in technology, gaming, entertainment all over the globe. The need for internet is higher than it ever was. The global average internet speed is 9.1Mbps. Many of the countries of South Asia, Latin America and Africa have only basic internet connectivity with speed less than 3 Mbps. As the advanced countries are saturated, this population is likely to drive the next phase of growth in the gaming industry.