Firefox's WebAssembly Can Play Modern Video Games On Browser

Current video games played on consoles or the PC come with incredible power and processing requirements, which web browsers have yet been able to fully support. With the new Firefox 52 update that comes with WebAssembly, a few modern games can now be played on browsers. Oh, and there are some security upgrades to go along with the feature, as well.

As Engadget notes, modern video games with top-tier graphical qualities require huge amounts of processing power in order to run. On a local level such as computers, mobile devices, and gaming consoles, providing this power is not a problem. It becomes significantly more challenging when trying to do so over the internet, especially with a universal platform like the Firefox web browser.

Thanks to WebAssembly, this becomes a lot less problematic since the coding process for creating apps and such is a lot easier. It won’t likely run the same way as it would on a local level, but modern games will at least look and feel much better than they would without the new addition.

As to how it works, WebAssembly basically enables C or C++ to access web browsers. This then allows the higher computer languages to make swift computational transitions that are necessary to keep up with the ever-changing settings of modern video games. Without this bridge, games experience frame rate issues and graphical glitches.

Mozilla, Firefox’s parent company, played a huge role in the development of the technology. As such, it gets first dibs on integrating the programming language into its web browser. Afterward, Microsoft and Google can join in.

Along with the potentially huge impact on web browser gaming, the new update also has a few tweaks to security on Firefox, eWeek reports. The update addresses up to 28 vulnerabilities that were found, which should help make web surfing much safer for users.