Take the highly popular mobile gaming, add the hot, new virtual reality tech that's taking the world by storm and combine the two. What you get is a concoction so strong that life as we know it might just change in the wake of its junction. Remember when Pokémon Go threw the world into an uproar? Get ready for that but with not just one, but many games to choose from. Okay, so maybe we're slightly overestimating portable VR, but nevertheless, it's here and already looking to shake things up.
Since mobile gaming really hit its stride, the usage of video game apps has skyrocketed. According to Statista, usage is predicted to rise from 135 to 203 minutes each day by 2018. It's a staggering estimate that only serves to underline the staggering $30.1 billion the industry amassed in 2015 and just goes to show how much time the world spends playing games on their phone.
And with the ability to browse the internet, these figures aren't even taking into account the online gaming people take part in. Sites such as bgo casino mobile offer a variety of titles ranging from TV and movie themed-games like the American Dad and Rocky digital slot games to more engaging experiences such as Pinball Roulette and Jungle Trouble. Silver Games and Gaming Club expand on that even further as one adds Flash games to the mix – an older style of software, like Flappy Bird, created to give us the quick stimulation fix when we have even a second of free time – and the other adds online tournament play for multiple casino games. All of these titles only take about 30 seconds to find and play which adds to the convenience factor of a phone, a major reason why popularity has only risen since its advent.
Similarly, VR is no pushover when it comes to growth with global revenue estimates coming in at $7.1 billion by the end of 2017 and a projected $75 billion by 2021, as reported by Variety. Although VR is a fairly "young" technology to gaming (not counting the disaster that was the Virtual Boy), many developers have already shown interest in it as ports of Skyrim, GTA V and Mirror's Edge have or will be coming to the shiny, new tech – games that are essentially safe bets, nearly guaranteed to have more than a few gamers interested from square one. However, it's unclear how the technology will evolve to suit its new environment. After all, playing on your cell phone can be enough of a hassle on the bus let alone carrying around and wearing a VR headset.
But it seems that might not have deterred Microsoft from pursuing the technology, as rumors of a high-powered Windows 10 phone have made their rounds across the internet. The phone is speculated to possibly include augmented reality technology, as well as virtual reality capabilities, after Alex Kipman of the HoloLens project was reported as taking the lead on the phone.
So, before we know it, people could be walking down the street playing a hand of blackjack on bgo or Slot Mob as they run their daily errands. With advancements in GPS technology, the whole interface could have small arrows pointing players down sidewalks to their destination as safety will surely be the number one concern with mobile VR.
If Niantic, the developers behind the aforementioned Pokémon Go play their cards right, they might even be able to convert Go into a consistently successful title rather than the passing craze that it was (granted, 100 million users worldwide in its first month isn't bad). OpenMind even speculates that the mixture of VR and AR might be the final culmination to perfect this on-the-go form of immersive gaming where physical surroundings are rendered around the player in real-time and incorporated into the virtual world. And that's what's so exciting about VR. While technology keeps taking leaps and bounds ahead, so can the smaller world that is virtual reality, and because of that, nobody can ever really predict how much it will offer eager gamers. All we can say for sure is that it's coming – whether we're ready or not.
