The catchphrase “the next big thing” is popular in the tech world, and is often synonymous with an innovation that is mindblowing and will be a game-changer. A good example is smartphones. As soon as they were launched, they were termed “ the next big thing” and rightly so. Today, almost everyone on the planet has one.
However, you’ll find that sometimes a tech innovation is given much hype but doesn’t skyrocket to the moon. It might be popular for a couple of months or years, but ends up in the graveyard of the forgotten or isn’t the talk of town anymore.
One sector that has had a rollercoaster of such is online gaming. Almost every year, a new tech comes up that is said to take the world by storm, but the hype eventually dies down. By considering the billions of dollars spent in coming up with some of these innovations and the publicity they had, things should have turned out differently.
In this article, we’ll look at some of the online gaming technologies that didn’t get the numbers they hoped to get.
Virtual Reality
Virtual reality enthusiasts might be out for my blood for this, but just take a minute to hear my plea. There’s no objection that virtual reality is a popular trend—even selling tens of millions of VR headsets worldwide.
However, let’s go back to the very beginning. When the first VR technology, the Oculus Rift, came out in 2016, it had an extraordinary following and was dubbed “the future of gaming”. Because of the hype around it, analysts speculated that the VR industry would scale up to a market worth hundreds of billions of dollars within 5 to 10 years.
Considering that was way back in 2016, we are only 3 years shy of the 10-year mark, yet the numbers indicate otherwise. According to an analysis by Mordor Intelligence, the VR market value in 2023 is estimated to be around $54.24 billion.
What about the VR headset technologies? If your memory doesn’t fail you, you might remember Google’s VR platform “Google Daydream”. The Android phone-based VR ended up being too limited in terms of functionality and only lasted less than 3 years. When it comes to PlayStation, doubts are slowly creeping in on whether the PSVR2 will outsell the PSVR1.
Crypto Casinos
Satoshi Nakamoto, better known as the father of cryptocurrency, introduced us to a world we didn’t know existed back in 2009. Blockchain technology quickly became a big hit and the only trajectory for crypto was up to the moon. Many tokens came up, even meme coins like Dogecoin. As of February 2023, CoinMaketCap had listed over 8,000 cryptocurrencies.
It became evident that crypto was a groundbreaker and it could be used for various purposes, including online gambling. Instead of the traditional casinos that required one to deposit fiat currency and play, crypto casinos would use decentralized coins for transactions making them fast and secure.
However, not many players are yet to make the great shift from online casinos to crypto casinos. The recent changes in the crypto market, which made many currencies tank in their value, might have made people a bit skeptical. What has been happening lately is that traditional casinos are adding crypto as part of their payment methods but not entirely shifting to a blockchain network.
NFT/Web 3
Yes, the year is 2023 and we are still talking about NFTs to the surprise of many. Even though NFTs had their time and fleeced with people’s money, there are still those who are optimistic about their return and potential.
The first ever NFT was minted by Kevin McCoy in 2014 and was called “Quantum”. But, it was in 2021 that NFTs exploded in popularity and everyone was in a rush to either buy or sell a piece. Seeing the huge following of NFTs, a group of crypto bros had the idea to merge the world of NFTs with that of video/online gaming.
The idea was that the unique digital items could be sold within a game and provide huge revenue for the industry. Another perk suggested was how the NFTs could be transferred between games. To some developers, the idea seemed farfetched and simply wasn’t practical. However, Ubisoft dipped its toe into the concept with the release of Ghost Recon NFTs. The project received much criticism and was abandoned.
Around the same time, blockchain games based on the web3 platform started coming up. Game studios such as Axie Infinity made a name for themselves during this period, but it was only short-lived. A good example is the Bored Ape Game, which is still around but isn’t the talk of town anymore.
The bottomline is that tech innovations will keep coming up and make gaming more immersive and interesting. But, we also need to take a step back and agree that some projects didn’t take off as we had anticipated.
