“My Samsung Smart TV’s apps” (CC BY 2.0) by James Cridland
Gaming and television sets have been a famous pair since the 1980s. Hooking up a console and jumping into early titles on Nintendo or Sega systems was a revelation, with popularity only growing from that point on. Recently, however, we reached an age where consoles are less important than ever. Thanks to smart TVs, the new generation of interactive entertainment could be setting a new standard. Best illustrated by the evolving landscape of online casinos, the prospects for casual and hardcore play are both portentous and exciting.
Why Mention Online Casinos?
With smart TVs being in the mainstream for over a decade, their growing processing power has made them increasingly flexible. One of the best illustrations of how far they’ve come can be seen in how they access games like online slots. On modern smart TV browsers, games like Bonanza and Pumpkin Patch can be run at full speed without compromise. Being able to play advanced HTML5 titles like these sets a strong precedent, and the bar is being raised with each new generation.
The reason this is so important is that online casino games will likely serve as the harbinger of what’s yet to come. With low requirements on both processors and bandwidth, being able to access and play online casinos games at full speed serves to mark true achievement, both for developers and consumers.
What Comes Next?
Though online casino games don’t require much power, it’s worth noting that the same can also be said for many mobile apps and older games. As limited as a smart TV might be by the standards of a modern gaming PC, they are still miles ahead of the consoles many of us grew up with. To this end, porting over older games and smaller apps to work on smart TVs could be the next big step.
To a limited extent, we’ve already seen an exploration of this idea thanks to backing software like the Android operating system. Initially confined to cameras and mobiles, the Android OS is now taking over implementation as the backing framework of many modern smart TVs. This means that games invented for smartphones and tablets are easy to port over to TVs in the same way that casino browser games are.
The only major limitation that appears with this option is that of input. Being developed for simple touch screens, online casino games on TVs are still easy to manage with television remotes. Meanwhile, more active video games aren’t quite as remote-friendly. Solving this problem will likely require s to adopt Bluetooth peripherals like controllers or keyboard/mice combos, which many of us will have lying around anyway.
Playing Tomorrow
“Google Stadia Cloud-gaming” (CC BY 2.0) by dronepicr
Today, all you need to play an online casino game on your TV is a remote and a browser. Tomorrow, all you could need for advanced video games could be your TV and a controller. Add game streaming services like Stadia into the mix, and we could end up with AAA experiences on the couch for a fraction of the cost of traditional gaming consoles. Gaming is getting easier, and no matter how you choose to play, that’s a very positive thing.