Since the turn of the millennia, technology has driven the gaming world to new heights. Gone are the days of basic consoles and arcades. With the advent of the internet and more mobile gaming tech, the modern industry is almost unrecognizable from its roots in the 1960s and 70s.
Technology has driven the evolution of gaming in many impactful ways. But can you name the most intriguing? For example, poker was one of the first games to be played online back in the 1990s. Not only could players from around the world log on to play, but they could even compete against other remote players.
Today, this legacy can still be felt in the popularity of virtual poker platforms. Whether sampling new strategies as they play Omaha or looking to qualify for in-person tournaments in Texas Hold’em, the modern virtual poker world originates in the technological advances of the mid-1990s.
While few attach poker to the first multiplayer gaming platforms on the internet, it was this game that helped pave the way for future innovations. What other unique technology has been (at least partly) driven by gaming interests? Let’s explore.
Educational VR
The concept of virtual reality has been around for decades. Some believe that the very first iteration of VR was the fake planes built in the 1930s and 40s to help educate new pilots. Rather than toss them into the air to learn the ropes, educators sought safer ways to teach the basics of manning an aeroplane.
However, the first digital iterations of VR came in the form of a virtual reality game titled Sword of Damocles. Throughout the 1980s and 90s, dozens of gaming developers sought to turn these early projects into a feasible and marketable form of gaming hardware. As of 2024, VR still has many obstacles to overcome—but it looks to be finally taking off.
Uniquely enough, advances to headsets from Oculus, Valve, Sony, HTC, and others have paved the way for not just highly immersive games—but also more meaningful educational experiences. Dozens of businesses and higher education institutions rely on VR to teach students complex ideas, including surgery, astrophysics, biology, and more.
Blockchain
Blockchain is one of the most exciting new concepts in the tech world. Whether or not decentralized finance ever goes mainstream, the merits of blockchain can’t be ignored. Gaming has helped drive new applications and innovations in the blockchain space.
First and foremost, blockchain technology is fundamental to popular games like Decentraland and Axie Infinity. It’s actively helping drive interest in metaverses that run on blockchain and crypto. But aside from providing transactional ledgers for games, it’s also helping steer the future of smart contracts.
Already, companies like Microsoft are using blockchain to create smart contracts for game publishers. These contracts automatically pay out royalties to the correct parties, reducing manual errors and labour. As blockchain becomes more commonplace, it will continue to work behind the scenes to streamline the gaming industry in similar ways.
5G Networks
5G is one of the most unique topics in the gaming world. The rollout of these powerful networks helped spur global interest in mobile gaming—which was already on the rise by the mid-2010s. In tandem, the proliferation of 5G networks and mobile gaming has helped push this technology to new heights.
Partly thanks to the rise of mobile gaming and serious demand for seamless network connections, some networks are already looking to develop 6G networks. Though this technology is still in its infancy and is far from being commercially available, it’s already slated for release by 2030. Along with video streaming, gaming is one of the key reasons that mobile providers want to expand and improve their networks. A 6G network would be able to offer an even higher capacity in terms of quality and speed, while also minimizing issues like latency and lag. For competitive mobile gaming scenes, that’s particularly important.
