Since day one, the gaming industry has always embraced innovation and growth. Today’s video games look nothing like their 20th-century counterparts – and all the better for it! Today, gaming technology is so sophisticated that there is a multitude of platforms on which gamers can enjoy diverse experiences.
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What Are Gaming Platforms?
Gaming platforms can refer to both hardware and software, encompassing devices like consoles and digital game streaming services. The hardware side of things includes static consoles like the PS5, gaming laptops, PCs, and even smartphones. Software platforms, meanwhile, are typically accessed online, although some digital platforms still run on the client software.
How Do You Want to Play?
Whether you’re choosing a static platform or a digital one, you need to decide how you want to play games. This is probably the most essential decision you’ll make – you don’t want to invest in a new PC if gaming on the go is more your thing, nor do you want to sign up for an indie gaming platform if blockbuster games are more what you’re after!
Once you’ve got your hardware sorted, you can move on to deciding the type of games you’d like to play.
What Do You Want to Play?
The modern gaming landscape includes games you can play offline and online. Online games are undoubtedly the easiest to access, regardless of the medium you use to play them. If you’re playing games offline, however, you’ll need to download them to a device, so ensure your hardware has the storage capacity to cope with your library.
Moving on to choosing software platforms, consider the type of games you enjoy playing. Are you into the latest craze, Battle Royale gaming, or do you prefer to take your time with strategy-based games like Civilization V? Or, maybe you’re a casino enthusiast looking for the best free slots to play.
Some digital platforms specialize in certain gaming genres more than others, so thinking about what you want to play will help narrow down your options. Of course, you don’t have to stick with just one gaming platform, especially if you have diverse tastes.
Some software platforms you might want to consider using are:
- Steam, for all round general gaming
- Itch.io, for indie games
- PS Plus, for cloud gaming on PlayStation
- Roblox, to develop and play your own games
- Epic Games Store, to get your hands on exclusives like Fortnite
Are You Playing on Multiple Devices?
The advancement of gaming tech means that it’s now possible to play your favourite games on multiple devices. Cloud gaming is a major new development in the industry that applies the cloud storage technology you may have come across in the workplace to playing games. Using a cloud gaming service means that any games you purchase via a platform are stored on cloud servers, so they can be accessed by any connected device, even smartphones.
Cloud gaming is still a burgeoning segment, so it hasn’t quite reached the mainstream just yet. Saying that, however, there are a number of streaming services you can currently access based on your location and compatible devices.
Sony and Microsoft have released cloud gaming subscription services for the PlayStation and Xbox, respectively, which also offer the potential for cross-play. Meanwhile, Amazon’s Luna has already proven to be a success with critics and the gaming community. However, it’s still in Beta mode and is only available to US-based players for the time being.