The gaming industry always quickly catches up with the latest technological developments. It’s a massive and innovation-thirsty industry with a global market size above USD 280 (GBP 220) billion, according to Fortune Business Insights for 2023 estimates. Virtual and augmented reality are among the hottest trends in this niche. They’re a success fuelled by increased accessibility of such gadgets and more availability of games.
The first VR game, Quake, was released in 2000. The AR version of the classic FPS game required a head-mounted display and a backpack with a computer. This technology took considerable strides in the past two decades, though. Nowadays, there’s a vast variety of games, and LEGO has joined the trend with LEGO Bricktales. Come with us and learn how VR and AR are shaping the future of gaming.
Looking Back
The first versions of VR gear weren’t portable, let alone accessible. The first attempt dates back to the 1960s, when scientists from the MIT Lincoln Laboratory developed “The Sword of Damocles.” The device was so heavy it had to be hung from the ceiling. Still, it brought ground-breaking innovations, such as the magnetic tracing system, adjusting the monitor to the moves of the player’s head.Indeed, Quake’s VR gear was already miles ahead of The Sword of Damocles but still clunky and costly. The game began to change in 2012 when Oculus Rift released the first commercially viable headset, including the latest computing technologies and portable enough to go along with smartphones. Facebook quickly understood the potential of the new headsets and purchased Oculus for about USD 3 billion. It didn’t take long until other tech giants like Google joined the competition, driving prices down. Google went as far as developing super cheap Cardboard, mounting a special lens on a cardboard structure, and providing a much more affordable VR experience. Finally, the sci-fi-like device was taking flight, becoming accessible to much wider audiences, allowing users to play games ranging from online poker to sports games and more.
Looking Forward
Nowadays, VR/AR is a market with a projected global revenue of USD 32.1 (GBP 25.3) billion in 2023. More impressively, the user penetration rate for such devices is likely to rise by 104.9% by 2028. The widespread availability of this technology indeed attracted the attention of game developers, catering to a huge and still expanding audience. The global VR/AR market has never been so big and is unlikely to stop growing anytime soon.
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