While we’re still a long way from the Metaverse being completed and ready for the general public, it’s already having an impact on the technologies that will inhabit it. Chief among them will be the gaming world and the variety of ways it will likely change gaming forever. As one of the most anticipated technological leaps in decades, there are a myriad of expectations for how things will work.
While the internet is still finding new ways to enthrall users, the Metaverse promises to take the concept of cyberspace into new dimensions. The weird part is that no one is completely sure how it will all work once it’s completed. As one of its probable big winners, the gaming industry has a huge stake in it all. With that in mind, here’s a look at how the Metaverse will likely change the gaming industry.
A Massive Gaming Industry
The gaming world has already seen major upheaval in the last two decades. While traditional gaming has grown ever more sophisticated, iGaming has carved out a massive niche for itself. For example, if you’re a gambling fan from Philly, the best PA online casinos in 2024 provide legalized online gambling options to cater to any card, table, or slot game you can think of. Sports fans have just as much choice as online sports betting is just as prominent in online gambling. In fact, whether you’re from parts of the US, Asia, Africa, Australia, the UK, or any other corner of the globe, online gambling has become a massive part of the gaming industry.
However, even if the colossal rise of iGaming isn’t something that interests you, traditional gaming has seen just as much growth. With console games seeing constant advancements in every arena from Sony’s PlayStation to Xbox, and Nintendo consoles, PC games, mobile games, and online gaming have all grown exponentially with the rise of the smartphone industry.
That has added up to the gaming industry becoming a massive, multifaceted industry. With such a huge industry, the biggest developers and platforms are all gearing up for the next stage of technological advancement. For now, generative AI may be the technology of the day, but the Metaverse is also sure to shake things up in ways the world has not witnessed since social media and influencers became a part of our daily lives.
What Exactly is the Metaverse?
For now, the Metaverse is little more than a concept. There’s no doubt that it will be complete and ready for the general population to enter one day. Although, for now, it’s probably still years away from that. As a result of these constant theoretical discussions about it without any digital infrastructure ready for mainstream testing, most people aren’t entirely sure what it will actually entail.
For now, chief proponents of it like Mark Zuckerberg encourage us to imagine a virtual world where people will be able to log in and do many things online that we have always traditionally done in real life. We’ve already begun experiencing what this might be like as digital technology has slowly given us the ability to do things like socialize, shop, order food, plan dates online, and even decentralize finances and contracts through the current trends in blockchain technology. The difference, for now, is that most of us do these things through our smartphones and experience these online activities on a screen.
In contrast, the Metaverse imagines a virtual world that we can all inhabit through virtual and augmented reality. Through our avatars, we will basically be able to step into this world and experience anything and everything it will have to offer in the most immersive ways possible.
An Entire Virtual World
To illustrate, picture your current Facebook feed. You can see your friends’ posts, check out pages for your interests, watch videos, see pictures, play games, join groups, chat, and socialize in a myriad of ways. Now picture being able to do all that with a VR headset on, in a virtual world where you can actually walk around and explore the entirety of a digital social world.
Rather than joining groups to chat with people, you could run into their avatars and actually speak interface to interface. Rather than watching videos or viewing pictures, you could actually visit the places and companies that offer them and see their attractions in a virtual way that’s as close to actually experiencing them in reality as possible.
The Possibilities are Endless
Everything you could imagine doing, or currently do on the internet, will have a more realistic offering in the Metaverse. The Metaverse will likely act as an entirely digital world filled with different ecosystems, financial setups, digital environments, and just about anything you can imagine.
For hardcore gamers, not only would online gamers be able to interact directly with their friends’ and opponents’ avatars, but games will most likely be more immersive than ever, allowing players to actually step into the realms they’d previously only experienced on a screen. Now that it’s a little more clear, here are some of the most likely ways gaming industry will be enhanced by the Metaverse.
VR and AR Technology
The Metaverse is envisioned to be a digital realm where every user can log in and actually explore it in 3D, 4D, and one day, even 5D realities. That means that virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technology will play a large part in it. While this kind of tech has already been rolled out in gaming, it’s still highly specialized. As a result, it’s currently extremely expensive and therefore not accessible to the average household.
However, by the time the Metaverse is fully operational, it’s likely this kind of technology will become more mainstream. Since the Metaverse will depend on being a virtually inhabitable world, VR and AR technology is likely to ramp up and begin driving toward more mainstream accessibility in time.
What this all means for gaming features the Metaverse will include is already looking like every gamer’s dream. Games will likely be fully immersive worlds where players can virtually be in the game world itself and experience everything as if they are the characters themselves. The possibilities are mouthwatering, and one of the reasons why gamers are among the most excited communities looking forward to the Metaverse.
A More Connected Experience.
iGaming will be taken to new levels with online casinos now providing fully VR and AR-capable experiences. Imagine playing your favorite online gambling game, only now you’re sitting at a table in Caesar’s Palace or Monte Carlo while doing it.
Another huge plus is that platforms like Roblox are already gearing up for their presence in the Metaverse to give gamers the opportunity to become creators themselves. Roblox’s plans for the Metaverse include allowing players to design their own experiences and possibly even monetize them too.
To name just a few things gamers can expect from the Metaverse, these are just a few ways it will likely reshape gaming.
- More seamless communication
- Greater social interaction
- A more connected experience
- Superior RPG environments and entire worlds to explore
- Virtual universes
- More opportunities for developers
- Democratized and decentralized economic ecosystems likely run on cryptocurrencies
- AI-driven games that can adapt and change as you play them
Conclusion
The Metaverse may still be years away but it already promises to revolutionize the world as we know it. From featuring an entire virtual world for people to interact, socialize, shop, learn, earn, and do just about anything we can in the real world through an augmented reality interface, it’s set to be the next big thing in technology.
The gaming industry has a particularly high stake in the Metaverse. With most major gaming companies already gearing up to succeed within it, the Metaverse will likely change the world of gaming in a myriad of ways. From more immersive experiences to more connected communities, and greater opportunities for gamers and developers, the possibilities for a new age of gaming are virtually limitless.
