Gamers are always looking toward the future, wondering what tech is being developed that could take the gameplay experience to the next level. While today’s tech is impressive and has allowed developers to create games that would have been unimaginable a couple of decades ago, as hard as it is to believe, there’s still room for things to get better. The gaming industry is at a crossroads with transformative advancements just around the corner that, if they materialize, will completely change how we play video games. In this article, we take a look at some of the possibilities and how they’ll shape the future of gaming.
Cloud Gaming in the Era of 6G
It feels like 5G was just released yesterday, so it’s hard to believe we’re already thinking about a world where 6G is the reality. If you think 5G is fast, 6G will blow your mind. 6G will feature ultra-low latency and massive bandwidth, making gameplay flow without interruption. Gamers who spend a lot of time playing online titles know how important fast connection speeds are to the gaming experience. Games that used to be played almost exclusively in person have moved online. One example many are familiar with is casino games like roulette.
The roulette wheel is a mainstay of the gaming floor in all casinos. People gather around as the roulette wheel spins, and players place their bets on a table that corresponds to the wheel’s numbered slots. While the roulette wheel still attracts a crown in brick-and-mortar establishments, the experience is also available online, along with other card and table games like blackjack and baccarat. When 6G rolls out, online casinos will be able to support next-generation technologies like immersive VR environments that bring a new level of realism to the experience.
It’s not just online casinos that stand to benefit from 6G; games like multiplayer online titles and cloud-based RPGs will experience smoother performance and be able to support state-of-the-art technology. Cloud gaming will also become more mainstream as players will be able to enjoy near-instant access to gaming libraries without needing to buy expensive gaming consoles or PCs.
Hyper-Realistic Graphics and Physics
Compared to games released 20 years ago, it’s hard to believe that gaming can get much more realistic, but that’s exactly what’s about to happen. Game studios continue to look for ways to make games more lifelike than they already are, and this is spurring new technological developments. Real-time ray tracing, which simulates how light behaves to create realistic shadows and reflection, is already becoming more sophisticated, making video game graphics look even more realistic.
Developers now have access to rendering engines that allow them to create detailed game worlds that can respond to player interactions in a believable way. AI-driven texture generation is an emerging technology that has made it possible to create highly detailed surfaces without any manual input. Photorealistic avatars aren’t far off, and when they get here, they’ll be able to replicate human expressions and movements with a high degree of accuracy.
Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs)
If BCI comes to pass, we may soon be using our brains to control the games we play. BCI works by establishing a direct communication pathway between your brain. With BCI, game controllers would become a thing of the past. Instead, we’d control games in a more intuitive way.
Experiments are already underway with prototypes that are looking at how feasible this technology is and how it could be used beyond gaming to help people with physical limitations use interactive entertainment. BCI is truly the stuff of science fiction and could make it possible to control in-game actions with thoughts alone.
Advancements in AI-Driven Gameplay
AI has already ushered in an era of smart, non-player characters that have dramatically improved the realism of games. The AI of the future will be able to change based on how a player interacts with a game and adjusts to their playstyles in a much more realistic way than what’s possible today. We may soon be playing games with personalized storylines where the action unfolds uniquely for us in game worlds that are generated in the moment based on a player’s preferences and decisions.
