The rise of video games as an entertainment media has gone on pretty much unstopped since Nintendo resurrected the segment with its NES in 1983. But what impact have video games had on casinos and, in particular, online casinos?
Part of this compelling experience is making sure the player is clear on how the game works and is kept entertained by it. Video games have mastered this art and, using flashy graphics, loud sounds, and a rewards system that is second-to-none. We’re starting to see many of these same effects pop up in eSports and other entertainment venues.
One way that video games keep people enthralled with the action on screen is with bold, bright graphics that deliver timely information about what is happening on screen. Online casino games are starting to pick up on this and the result is that players find themselves stimulated while also thinking about their next move. In short, this combined presentation results in a multimedia experience like you would get from a video game or even a movie.
And this trend isn’t expected to go anywhere anytime soon. As machines become more advanced and player needs evolve into more complex forms, online casino games will more closely mirror video games than anything else. We see evidence for this already in Japan’s many pachinko parlors which, long a separate entity from video games, have increasingly taken on the IP and multimedia presentations of those games.
This has resulted in machines that make heavy use of known characters and video game series in order to push a new and novel gaming experience. The benefit of this format is that people who had never considered pachinko before now find themselves drawn to those machines while veteran players get a more pleasant and, in some ways, fulfilling experience.
At the end of the day, that’s what it is all about, too, and that is giving people a reason to keep on playing for just a little while longer. As a genre that has mastered that skill, video games have particularly interesting mechanics and presentation methods that will inevitably work their way into online casino games. Analysts predict that, beyond the slicker presentations we see now, we could see full multimedia properties in online casino gaming formats.
Think licensed IPs, interactive elements, and other compelling mechanics that elevate the format beyond what it is now and has ever been. Online casino games at Betiton in New Zealand not only show marked evidence of the influence of video games, but also offer a robust player experience that was nearly impossible to achieve in the past. Part necessity, part effort to broaden the audience for online gaming, the need for casinos both in the physical and virtual space to offer consumers a compelling experience that they can’t get anywhere else is only going to increase in the future. There’s perhaps no better analog – or superior insights – than those the online casino gaming industry can get from the video games industry.
