Evolution of PC Gaming – An Exciting Ride Ahead

The industry of PC gaming has been doing the rounds for many decades. PC gaming started as an entertainment-centric endeavor, but with time, it has turned into a multi-billion dollar industry. Today, PC gaming is not confined to entertainment dens only but has expanded to academia, research, and professional training for specialized skills. As the worldwide outlook towards PC gaming has changed, nearly every country has been embracing it with open arms. As gamers in a country are rising steadily, employment opportunities too are expanding.

The gaming industry is witnessing a meteoric expansion in revenue growth and popularity, and there is no sign of slowing down. If you look back at the last six decades of PC gaming, you will find it tough to believe that it has covered such a long distance. People saw the very first taste of PC gaming in the absence of any functionality. It depicted only some dots and was driven by huge-sized computers. Nowadays, gaming has turned into one of the biggest industries in the globe, so it does not seem surprising that it is driving lots of dollars in revenue. Players can use various hacks and cheats from Lavicheats. Today, gaming proposes players with novice levels of realism; hence, it becomes tough to differentiate gameplay and graphics from the actual thing.

The massive evolution

See how PC gaming has advanced through the years

1960s

It was in the 1960s when people got the initial glimpse of PC gaming, as before 1962, players weren’t aware of gaming. This year, some MIT students formed Spacewar, a pioneer game. Spacewar was a multiplayer battle game where all the players needed to ruin others' spaceships to win.

1970s

The 1970s was an equally thrilling year for gaming, as at Stanford University, a competitive contest for gaming was held. In 1972, Pong, a tennis-style game, came to fruition. Allan Alcorn created this game. This game had simple functionality and graphics and was formed for arcade machines. Though this game was very simple, it offered excellent entertainment and received many sequels.

1980s

In the 1980s, the first PC came into being, and it brought with it the springboard effect. This effect launched gaming into the worldwide spotlight. It was called the IBM PC, and BYTE was described as a superb gaming device due to its sophistication and revolutionary speed. During this period, players could play games sitting on their favorite couch. The earlier titles were named MS Adventure and MS Flight Simulator, and they were both simple in function and design. Towards the end of the 1980s, the market of PC was expanding exponentially as DOS computers began to dominate homes.

1990s

The 1990s witnessed the arrival of the gaming and hardware sectors. Wolfenstein 3D was released in 1992, and it became successful in selling more than 200,000 copies in just one year. Though it was given credit for forming the 1st person shooter game, Doom outshone it, and it was released after one year. After the arrival of Doom, it fast became a highly influential game as it pioneered the 1st-person shooter game. Between 1991 and 1995. DOS turned hugely popular, and it began to dominate the gaming world. Towards the finishing of the 1990s, Valve released Half-Life. This game was a fast classic amongst countless players, which is why it turned into one of the most prevalent 1st-person shooter titles that hit shelves.

2000s

By the 2000s, gaming hardware and graphics grew at an exponential rate. Nearly every household began to have personal computers. Hence, gaming, too, turned hugely popular all across the globe. Towards the finishing of 2000, Valve released Counter-Strike, and it quickly turned into one of the well-known competitive 1st-person shooter games. It sold more than twenty-five copies globally and sparked a competitive gaming scenario. After two years after releasing Counter-Strike, Valve released the Steam platform, which instantly turned into one of the highly popular gaming platforms that offered many games. In the 2000s, quicker graphics accelerators, as well as improved CPU technologies, resulted in high levels of practicality in computer games as both RADEON and Nvidia offered high-performance options for the graphics card.

2010s

During the period of 2010s, gaming turned into one of the biggest industries of the globe, and it evolved on a year-by-year basis. By this time, Intel and AMD got involved in a battle to outperform each other. Now, gaming reached novice levels of realism and started becoming closer to what people know by today’s standards. After eleven years of development, Unreal Engine 4 was released, and it soon established itself as the high of 3-dimensional graphics capacities. Developers used it for various other genres of PC games that, included RPGs, MMORPGs, and fighting games.

Modern-Day gaming

Today, graphics have been proposing gamers with novice levels of realism, and that was never thought to be possible. With time, PCs have become a home staple as custom personal computer building turned into a massive industry worldwide. GPUs have become more potent than before, and they cost nearly $1,600. Players today can play thousands of games, and most of them display modern-day graphics. Again, competitive esports have been driving lots of dollars every year, and professional franchises are hiring upcoming and young stars for their expanding game rosters.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes