If you have been part of an online gaming community or just been around the space for any amount of time, you will have seen somewhat of a shift within the industry that seems to be prioritizing online gaming platforms more than traditional ones. Why is this, and what are some of the biggest examples?

Why online?

Before we dive in, we need to discuss why this shift has happened. Well, there are a few reasons. The internet has become a lot more accessible over the past couple of decades, so it makes sense for there to be more online gaming opportunities. As well as this, there has been a recent push for cross-platform gaming, which allows players to play together, whether they are playing on Xbox, PlayStation or PC. This level of interconnectivity simply would not be possible if it weren’t for a big global push for online gaming.

Another reason that the industry has seen this big push toward online services is because there is a lot more money to be made this way, especially for the live service model, which a lot of modern online games have implemented. They can offer constant streams of paid content for players to purchase every few months, as well as available cosmetic items, which generally have low development costs. This does not mean the consumer is worse off, though, since there is a constant stream of new content to play.

Keeping up the player count

Something that has to be taken into consideration when running an online gaming platform is how to attract and retain a good number of players. This has the community asking questions about how no deposit bonuses affect player bases when talking about online casinos, and how other types of bonuses affect more traditional online games.

Different bonus offerings are generally a great way of keeping the player count up, as they incentivize players to keep coming back for yet more bonuses and rewards. They can be great for both the player and the provider, as there is more content that will be worth the player’s time, and the providers get to keep the player count nice and high.

World of Warcraft

One of the oldest online games that is still relevant to this day, World of Warcraft has been going strong for over 20 years, with many major content updates that add massive new portions of the gameworld for players to explore, new quests to complete and new raids to take on.

It is not hard to see why this game has been at the top of its class for so long. It has become such a sprawling experience in the modern age that a new player could jump in and be entertained for hundreds, if not thousands, of hours.

However, it has found itself in hot water from time to time, largely due to the fact that it is a subscription-based game, meaning that players have to pay monthly in order to maintain access. Depending on who you ask, this could be a good or bad thing. On one hand, there is such a huge amount of content that it might be worth the price, but on the other, it doesn’t feel great not technically owning your game, not to mention how expensive it can become over a period of time.

GTA Online

Originally, the online mode for GTA V was swiftly re-branded to GTA Online, and since then, it has become somewhat of a titan within the gaming space, but again, it isn’t without its controversies.

Offering the player an ever-expanding version of Los Santos, whether that be through map updates like the Diamond Casino, or new missions and races to participate in, has led this game to become incredibly popular and capable of generating massive amounts of revenue. This is where one of its major controversies comes in. Players could and still can purchase in-game money with real money, which, of course, generates a lot of wealth for the providers but calls into question how much of the game is skill-based and if it is a pay-to-win situation or not. Whether you think it is or not is really up to you.

Skate

A rather recent development in the online gaming space is the launch of EA’s Skate, the widely anticipated sequel to the beloved Skate 3 of 2010. This game has seen a wide variety of responses to its launch over the past few weeks – some good, some not so much.

It is widely accepted that it feels good to play; the community agrees that the physics are better than they have ever been. But there have been many complaints about it feeling too corporate and not holding enough of the original trilogy’s DNA. Developers have also faced some backlash about the new inclusion of the skate pass, which operates in a very similar way to the battle pass systems of other games.

The community seems to be very divided about these issues, some looking beyond them and enjoying the game for what it is, while others are not able to get past this roadblock. Either way, it is free, so giving it a try might be worth it!

Conclusion

The big shift the industry has seen toward online gaming is both a good and a bad thing. On one hand, gamers are more connected than ever before, especially with cross-platform technology, and they are being treated to massive amounts of content. But on the other hand, a lot of people within the community see this shift as predatory, as ‘buying’ a game means something different now than it once did. Nowadays, you don’t really own a game. Because they are always online in theory, the developer could just turn the servers off.

But that’s just in theory; in practice, that would be incredibly unlikely to happen. The gaming industry is still relatively new and it’s developing all the time. It could go anywhere from here, and that’s rather exciting.