Many tech innovations have rocked the gaming world over the last 60 years. Without a shadow of a doubt, the most influential of these groundbreaking ideas was the implementation of the internet. Some gamers think online gaming refers to playing against a friend on their PlayStation, PC or Xbox. Others believe that online gaming refers to playing directly via a website, while others focus their gaming attention on mobile app games that rely on digital stores.
The truth is that they’re all examples of online gaming innovation, and the US is not just the most prominent gaming market in the world but is home to some of the most prominent and influential changes we have ever witnessed in the online gaming world.
Factors That Have Led to Online Gaming Innovation in the US
It’s not just the rise of the internet that has revolutionized the online gaming industry in the US. The once-in-a-century innovation afforded us by the rise of online facilities meant that gaming designers could flex their creative muscles and think outside the box. The rise of sweepstakes casinos is an excellent example of this – it’s an industry that just wouldn’t have been feasible before the rise of online casinos.
In fact, land-based casino bosses would’ve laughed at the mere suggestion of them back in the 20th century, simply because there was no real demand or yield. However, in the US, there are still prominent states that forbid online gambling. California is the main example here. Sweepstakes casinos allow people in the state to play casino games without worrying about breaking the law.
A state that has a population of over 40 million people taking such a hardline approach means that sweepstakes have become a viable alternative. Using in-game tokens and on-site payments to replicate real cash led to a raft of new sweepstakes operators emerging. Sweepstakes Casino identified this trend and has a team of expert reviewers who rank the highest-rated casinos based on their customer service, gaming quality, site security and other factors.
Within a few decades, online casino gaming has gone from a small corner of the gambling industry to revolutionizing how game designers implement payment systems and facilitate casino gaming transactions.
Mobile Apps and Microtransactions
Sweepstakes casinos are just one of many examples here. Another key example is the rise of mobile app gaming. Between 2007 and 2017, mobile apps went from an almost irrelevant part of the gaming world to driving huge levels of innovation. This was apparent in the US, just as it was across other prominent gaming economies like the UK and China.
League of Legends mastered the free-to-play model, developing a free-to-download game and allowing players to purchase in-app upgrades and updates. This model is now commonplace.
Still, League of Legends became and remains so popular that the mobile app, free-to-play model and in-game purchases are now integral to the development of the gaming industry, both in the US and further afield. The game has grown to such an extent that the World Championships, held annually, attract millions of viewers online and offer millions of dollars in prize money.
Microtransactions, as they are better known, are now one of the biggest money-spinners in gaming. It’s a topic that has created serious discussion in the US and has revolutionized how games are designed on all devices and home video consoles. Microtransactions wouldn’t have risen to prominence without the revolution in online gaming and the surge in the number of people playing online games via mobile phones.
Injecting A New Social Element and Changing the Foundations
Some would argue that this is the most noticeable change the US industry has experienced over the last 20 years or so, since the emergence of online gaming. I would argue that social elements have always existed, but online implementation has allowed the social side of gaming to flourish.
However, millions of people now playing against each other online have created a raft of other submarkets, including an enormous and continuously growing market for gaming gear and gadgets.
Game designers did not just have to focus on their base game; they had to explore design elements that included online gaming – look at how Grand Theft Auto has transformed.
Although it was one of the greatest gaming franchises before the internet took hold in gaming, its adaptation to online platforms has shown how elite game designers can continue churning out novel ideas, even when presented with such a disruptive innovation.
Global Competition
American game designers have fared well against the expanding global market. While they were always in direct competition with world-leading gaming industries, especially the likes of Japan, the rise of the internet levelled the playing field for designers all over the world.
Game designers could develop mobile games for a small upfront cost and launch them on the App Store. This transformed the traditional market and forced US companies to take note of grassroots designers, some of whom were putting together ideas that proved more popular than some key titles.
Summary
American game companies have long operated on the frontlines of technological change in the industry. Before the internet, arcades were full of gamers feeding their quarters into gaming classics like Tetris and Space Invaders.
When the home video console revolutionized widespread change in the industry, ultimately phasing out arcades, the mainstream gaming market had to make a significant adjustment, so the rise of the internet hardly took people by surprise. Quite the opposite, in fact, was true; there were those within the industry who relished it.
Considering a lot of the pioneering digital technology in the 90s and 2000s came from the US, it wasn’t that much of a push to see these companies work together, and as the internet brought a global world of gaming ideas closer together and allowed a facility where game designers and software providers were able to share their ideas easier than they ever could before, it changed the US gaming world forever. The general consensus is that it has been for the better. I am certainly in that camp.