Whilst browser games were once renowned for their clunky graphics and excruciatingly slow gameplay, we’ve now reached the point where these games are now starting to look seriously impressive. And thanks to some innovative advances in JavaScript frameworks, it’s led some commentators to suggest that the future of gaming could eventually take place entirely within the humble web browser.
Industry enthusiasm
Certain elements in the gaming industry seem to see the future in the web browser. Companies like Kongregate and Miniclip have become highly regarded in the gaming realm thanks to their exhaustive supply of browser games that take in everything simple puzzle titles to immersive strategy games.
And with Miniclip recently being the subject of a successful takeover bid by the Chinese entertainment giant, Tencent, it seems as though browser gaming is becoming an increasingly lucrative part of the games industry.
Casual gaming
Whilst there will always be a core part of the gaming demographic that favours using PCs and next-gen consoles to deliver some rigorous and in-depth entertainment, part of the success of browser gaming is the fact that it’s geared towards casual users.
It’s something that Mozilla, the makers of the hugely popular Firefox browser, have realised as they are making efforts to ensure that browser games are able to handle the immense processing power used by their more data-heavy counterparts.
Instant gameplay
Although some of the graphics in games like Tanki Online are pretty impressive, part of the appeal of browser gaming is that it gets straight down to the gameplay without getting bogged down in the boring narrative that makes AAA titles like Mass Effect: Andromeda so tedious.
Whilst it only takes a couple of seconds to quickly understand the gameplay appeal of browser hits like slither.io, there are also plenty more enduring browser gaming options out there with some of the live casino games at InterCasino showing how the introduction of real-life opponents and dealers can bring these classic card games into the 21st century.
Browser limitations
But before we throw away our PS4 Pro consoles, it’s important to remember that browser-based gaming has certain inherent limitations.
Regardless of advances in HTML5 and JavaScript, browsers are only do the simple task of looking at web pages, and so it’s unlikely that they’ll ever manage to approximate the engaging interactive experience of many top gaming titles.
But for casual gaming and hobbyists, it’s hard to argue with the convenience of browser-based gaming!
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