VR, AR, Cloud Gaming: the future of online casinos
Much like spectacular casino halls decked with flashing lights, the future of Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and cloud gaming casino games look bright – through your VR/AR goggles, anyway. Virtual and Augmented Reality games are going mainstream and replicating the excitement and glamour of real-world casinos right from the comfort of your own couch. Combined with live game streaming services offered by cloud gaming consoles, this means blackjack, spinning roulette wheels and slot machine games are now accessible in three dimensions. This is a new world that allows you to experience your casino favourite like never before. What’s not to love?
What is a Virtual Reality casino?
VR technology and games have attempted to penetrate the mainstream for the last twenty years. However, unlike the VR equipment and games of the 90’s and 00’s, like Nintendo’s Virtual Boy and VFX1’s VR headgear – which were not technologically advanced enough to take avid gamers to another dimension – today’s virtual worlds are quite something to behold. Once we entered 2016, tech giants began producing a range of innovative VR gaming gear, such as Facebook’s Oculus Rift and Sony’s PlayStation VR, and the industry began experiencing an online casino gaming renaissance.
The evolution of VR gear and games has enveloped almost every genre from horror to adventure, but online casino games are the new frontier. Increasingly, gambling casinos and providers have built their online presence to meet customer demand for easy access and 24/7 gaming. Fast forward to today, and not only have casino games refreshed their platforms, the once inconceivable and impractical dream of VR gambling is a 21st century reality.
Virtual Reality is so powerful because it seamlessly blurs the lines between video games and gambling. As a result, A string of VR casino games are sweeping the market – games like Slots, and VR Casino are both popular with online gamers.
What is an augmented reality casino?
Augmented reality is a technology that superimposes a computer-generated image on a user’s view of the real world. While it is the lesser known of the two reality gaming platforms, AR broke into the mainstream with Niantic’s hugely popular mobile game, Pokemon GO – and it’s taking the online gambling industry to new heights.
Augmented Reality’s share of the gaming market is set to increase exponentially over the next few years. In 2017, the value of VR headsets sold amounted to more than £8 million. In the same year, AR glasses generated a total of nearly £900 million, and predictions suggest that by 2020, AR’s market share will reach a colossal £72 billion compared to VR’s £21 billion market share.
Moreover, according to BtoBet, Augmented Reality has become the newest persuasive strategy used by online game providers to entice gamers into using more personalised, emotional and focused content. But how does this affect the future of online casino gaming? Well, AR mobile gambling apps, for example, go beyond the typical placing of bets, as provided by VR games, and instead offer bettors real emotions and player-to-player interaction, allowing them to give and receive information with other players as well as benefiting from on-tap virtual assistance.
So, while VR and AR will both play central roles in the future of online gambling, it appears AR is the farthest-reaching technological development of the two. For anyone looking for the best AR casino games around, consider the world famous Blackjack Bailey.
What is Cloud Gaming Gambling?
Long gone are the dust-collecting, old and heavy games consoles of the past. Instead, the future of online gambling looks likely to be in cloud gaming. The worlds biggest online tech companies – including Google, Microsoft, IBM and Amazon – are competing to be cloud gaming champion. But what exactly is cloud gaming? Essentially, cloud gaming works in the same way as any other cloud application: the user’s input (in this case the buttons pressed on the gamer’s mobile, PC, laptop or console controller) is sent to a cloud server, where it is processed. The data is then streamed to the user as a live video, which minimises the load on the user’s hardware and allows all the resource-intensive processing to be done on a server over the internet.
This platform-independent style of gaming is hugely popular with streaming sites such as Vortex and GameTreeTV, both of which enable you to play your favourite games whenever and wherever on your mobile or tablet. If you’re looking to upgrade your current online game library, consider the only UK based online gaming site that directly helps health-related good causes across Britain: Health Games. Sign up today and enjoy hundreds of bingo, slingo and slot games whilst benefiting from 22 free spins with no deposit required and a first deposit bonus (with terms).
The evolving virtual and augmented future of online casino games looks bright. And with the option to gamble with bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, you can play online while avoiding losses through currency conversions and digital manipulation. The world’s biggest tech players are claiming a stake in VR, AR and cloud gaming, which means we can expect more innovation in coming years. What do you think? Are you a fan of VR, AR, or cloud gaming when it comes to your favourite online and casino games? Let us know in the comments section.
