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The trees are up, the festivities are underway, and most people have got their gift shopping done. That can mean only one thing — the holidays are upon us and we’ll soon be ringing in the New Year.
With the changing of the calendar, we’ll see the fashions, new fads, and new trends in just about every area of life. Gaming will be one of the areas that changes significantly as this fast-moving industry grows, innovates, and adapts to changing consumer demands and technological developments.
While it’s impossible to predict everything that we will see happen in the new year, here are some of the trends we’ll likely see in gaming in 2022.
More Remasters
Remasters are a controversial topic among many gamers. Some consider them to be a sign of creative bankruptcy and a lack of ambition to experiment with new ideas, while others relish the chance to play a classic game on modern hardware.
The rate in which games have been remastered, reskinned, and recreated has increased dramatically in recent years. In 2021, we’ve seen popular titles like Resident Evil 2, Crash Bandicoot, and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword all get refreshed and re-released.
This trend is only going to continue into 2022 as video game publishers seek to cash in on the gold mines of intellectual property on which they sit.
Accelerating Demand for iGaming
The iGaming industry has fared very well in recent years as more and more people turn to online and mobile platforms to place wagers on sports, lotteries, and casino games. In many parts of Europe, the industry has been operating uninterrupted for much of the last 25 years and has grown into a multi-billion euro industry in that time.
In the UK alone, which has been a pioneer of the current legislative model, more than £6 billion is wagered remotely each year. Many of the world’s biggest iGaming companies are also registered in the country and/or traded on the London Stock Exchange.
Demand for online casino games will continue to grow as companies continue to develop new and exclusive titles like Buccaneers’ Frenzy, Big Bass Bonanza, and Mount Riches that appeal to a wider and wider audience.
In addition, the ever-expanding number of states in the US that have legalised iGaming will be a huge driver of growth for the industry in 2022 just as it has been in 2020 and 2021.
A Push for Blockchain Gaming
Crypto enthusiasts have been developing blockchain games for some time, but there has been a noticeable increase in the number of established publishers integrating the technologies into their content in recent months.
For example, Formula 1 has been licensing its branding to video game publishers for decades, but there is now also an official blockchain-based F1 game. Known as F1 Delta Time, players can take part in games and earn cryptocurrency rewards for in-game success. These REVV tokens then can be traded for other digital currencies or cash on a small number of exchanges.
In early December 2021, Ubisoft announced it was launching a blockchain element for many of its titles. EA has also made its intentions to do the same public, with more details expected in the coming months.
It seems pretty clear that this trend will continue and accelerate into 2022 and beyond.
Hardware Delays
Even without blockchain titles, the growth in popularity of cryptocurrencies has been having an effect on gamers. This is because more and more people have been getting involved in mining — an activity that requires powerful computer hardware to do the number-crunching needed to verify blockchain transactions.
This has driven up demand for high-end GPUs, making it hard for PC gamers to get the hardware they need to enjoy the latest releases.
However, this phenomenon has extended to console gamers in 2021 has global supply chain issues have made it harder for Sony and Microsoft to meet the demand for their latest generation of gaming machines.
It’s unlikely that this will relent any time soon, particularly as shortages of shipping containers and microchips look set to continue well into 2022.
What Gaming Trends to Expect in 2022
Source: Kalayaan News PH
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