The world of iGaming took many steps forward during 2020. A lot of this stemmed from necessity due to the major global upheaval caused by the pandemic, and there was plenty of impressive innovation on display. This meant that online casino games underwent some of the biggest jumps in quality across the entire area of video gaming. With VR becoming more and more prevalent in the gaming arena, what can we expect to see from virtual reality developers throughout the coming year?
Advances in Live Dealer Games
Live dealer games are, without a doubt, some of the most immersive casino games online at the moment. They put the player right in the driving seat for anything from Blackjack to Roulette to game show-style games, allowing them to interact with a real dealer while still in the comfort of their own home. But how can VR advance this already-immersive experience?
It’s quite simple, really. The best VR headsets just need to be configured to offer the optimum live dealer title experience. This might seem complicated but it’s much easier than creating a brand new game from scratch. If a live dealer game can be configured to enable players to see different areas of the screen as they move their head, and if surround sound can be added to the headset, live dealer games could conceivably take players deeper into the virtual environment than ever before. That’s fantastic for seasoned fans and newcomers alike.
While the current iteration of live dealer titles offers fantastic immersion through high-definition video streaming and intuitive controls, the addition of VR could really take it to the next level. It wouldn’t need high-quality visuals to be created, as the live video feed would already provide photo-realistic graphics. All it would require is the addition of extra controls to take full advantage of what VR headsets offer to players.
One example of this could be that the hand controls provided with the VR headset would allow players to place their chips on the table using their own hand motions. With the addition of in-game animations, this could truly create an incredible VR casino experience. However, there is a possibility that teams behind VR live dealer games are thinking a little bit small.
VR Casinos
Virtual reality brings a large number of possibilities for today’s developers to explore. One area that is currently being looked into is creating fully-functional VR casinos using blockchain technology. While blockchain-based games are not an entirely new concept, the idea of creating a full casino, and in VR, on the blockchain is something that hasn’t come to fruition yet. It does, however, offer a lot of potential for players.
Besides the fantastic gaming opportunities that are on offer, the blockchain could actually allow players to experience a full online casino in VR. Just imagine the level of immersion that current live dealer games offer, but scaled up to fill the entire casino. This is just one of the amazing feats that could be achieved if VR was used to create an online casino.
It means that players could walk their way through a well-designed, fully-rendered casino without ever leaving their home. Taking in all of the sights as they explore the casino floor would make playing with VR headsets more of an awe-inspiring experience. It would also enable online casinos to mimic the fantastic experience that brick-and-mortar casinos offer to players more accurately.
The live dealer casino games could also become a bigger part of the experience if the loading time between choosing a game and starting to play it was as short as possible. This is the only aspect that takes players out of the moment, even if only for a short space of time. On top of this, additional games could also be created using VR capabilities to add to the immersion. Imagine a video slot title in which the animations of a coin dropping into a slot were displayed on screen. This could be an impressive part of the VR casino experience.
New Games
While new versions of current online casino games could be developed, there is another aspect that could bring a whole new world to online casino games: the development of new gaming genres.
This is obviously an area that is difficult to talk about in too much detail, purely because it’s speculative. However, with the iGaming industry well regarded when it comes to being forward-thinking and innovative, it’s very likely that games will be in development. As VR technology becomes more affordable and of a higher quality, it’s only a matter of time before the iGaming industry capitalizes on it and creates high-quality VR games for the growing audience
Whatever happens in the world of iGaming over the next year, it’s likely that VR is going to be a big part of it. It could lead to another round of innovations for the market.