When it comes to many tech trends that affect our lives, the $90 billion global video games industry is often one of the first places where many people get to see them in action. This is true for artificial intelligence (AI), virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR), blockchain, and especially the metaverse, which is the hottest word right now.
The Top five tech trends in gaming in 2022:
- Cloud gaming
- The Metaverse
- Virtual Reality
- NFTs and blockchain
- Esports
Video games have come a long way from the simple, blocky sprites that many of us played as kids. Today’s gamers are accustomed to explore realistic 3D environments and engaging in real time with hundreds or thousands of other users. The infrastructure put in place by game makers to make this feasible is built on cutting-edge technology like as super-fast 5G and cloud networking, as well as super-powerful processors. So, let’s take a look at the most interesting and important gaming trends that will happen in this year
What is Cloud Gaming
Video games can be played on remote computers in data centres using cloud gaming. To play a game, you don’t need to download and install it on your PC or console. Streaming services, on the other hand, necessitate a steady internet connection in order to deliver game information to the receiver device. The game is rendered and played on a distant server, but you can see and interact with everything locally on your phone or tablet.
It’s the same as any other streaming service, like Netflix. All that’s different is that the server providing the video stream can also recognise and respond to your inputs. RTX 30-series graphics cards aren’t required, and neither are the latest Xbox One or PlayStation models. All you need is an internet connection to play cloud-based games.
A wide range of possibilities are opened up by this. With a phone clip or cloud gaming app, you can play the latest AAA games on your phone, or you can use a Chromebook to play PC games on the go. So cloud gaming sounds intriguing, but the technology isn’t quite there yet.
What is the Metaverse?
“The Metaverse” is a big catch phrase in tech, business, and finance right now. One thing we can say with certainty: Neal Stephenson used the term in his 1992 book Snow Crash to talk about a virtual world that people used a lot in his imagined future, which was a 21st-century dystopia. In Snow Crash, the metaverse is a virtual reality world that is shown as a market that goes around the planet. Virtual real estate can be bought and sold there, and people who wear VR goggles can take the form of 3D avatars that they choose.
The metaverse is still mostly thought of in terms of these three things: a VR interface, digital ownership, and avatars. But none of them are really necessary to get the idea across. In the broadest sense, the metaverse is a graphically rich, somewhat realistic virtual space where people can work, play, shop, socialise, and do other things they like to do in real life with other people. Metaverse supporters often use the idea of “presence” as a defining factor. Presence means feeling like you are really there and that other people are really there with you.
Virtual Reality Online Gaming
Virtual Reality is gaining popularity as a medium. As the idea of the “Metaverse” grows in popularity online, more people are interested in headsets like the Meta Quest 2. Virtual reality can be used for many things, like having fun, getting work done, and talking to other people. But if you’re a gamer like me, you probably bought a VR headset to play games that feel more real. You’ve come to the right place if you use virtual reality and want to find the best VR games. I’ve made a list of the best virtual reality games you can buy in 2022. So pull out your wallet and put on your headphones.
Following are some virtual reality games:
- Half-Life Alyx
- Beat Saber
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR
- Fallout 4 VR
- Minecraft VR
- Pavlov VR
- Pistol Whip
- Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners
- Resident Evil 4 VR
- Resident Evil 7 Biohazard
- After the Fall
- Vader Immortal
- Blair Witch VR
- Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-Ality
- Eleven: Table Tennis
NFTs and blockchain detailed
NFT stands for Non-fungible token but it doesn’t help explain anything. “Non-fungible” means that it can’t be switched out for something else because it is unique. For example, a bitcoin is fungible, which means that you can trade one bitcoin for another bitcoin and get the same thing. However, a trade card that can only be used once is not. If you traded it for another card, you’d get something entirely different. You gave up a Squirtle and got a 1909 T206 Honus Wagner card, which StadiumTalk calls “the Mona Lisa of baseball cards.” (I’ll trust what they say.)
A blockchain is a public ledger that keeps track of transactions and is where NFTs live. You probably know blockchain best as the process that makes it possible to use cryptocurrencies. In particular, NFTs are usually kept on the Ethereum blockchain, but they can also be kept on other blockchains.
An NFT is made, or “minted,” from digital objects that represent both things that can be touched and things that can’t be touched, such as:
- Videos, art GIFs, and sports highlights
- Collectibles
- Avatars and skins for video games
- High-end shoes
- Music
Even tweets have value. One of the founders of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, sold his first tweet as an NFT for more over $2.9 million.
NFTs are a lot like physical collector’s items, but they are digital. So the buyer doesn’t get an oil painting to hang on the wall. Instead, they get a digital file. They also get the right to own the property alone. Yes, there can only be one owner of an NFT at a time. The unique information on NFTs makes it easy to check who owns them and move tokens between owners. The owner or person who made them can also store information in them. Artists can sign their work, for example, by putting their signature in the metadata of an NFT.
ESports games in 2022
Esports is mainly about how video games have changed to become more like professional sports, with things like live audiences, tournaments, leagues, sponsorships, and paid players. At the 2022 Asian Games, Esports will be included for the first time as an official event. This will be the first time that Esports will be a part of a major international multi-sport tournament. Esports, like many other forms of digital entertainment, became very popular during the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2021, they made more than $1 billion in revenue for the first time, with most of that coming from media rights and sponsorship. they are expected to make nearly $2 billion in 2022. Also, 73 million people watched the League of Legends World Championship final in 2021, which was a 60% increase from 2020. This record is expected to be broken again in 2022. This shows that gaming has truly become a spectator sport, and over the next year, both the number of professional players and the prize pools are likely to keep growing.
READ: FIFA World Cup 2022