Web browsers still make for excellent interfaces for online games. In fact, development of browser-based gaming has come a very long way in the last couple of decades. Despite an increase in the number of mobile apps and downloadable software, the convenience of playing games within a web browser has made online gaming accessible to the masses.
Online Browser Gaming - An Evolution of Games
Today, we almost take for granted the plethora of games available to play through our preferred browsers e.g. Firefox, Chrome or Edge. With such technology as HTML 5 underpinning our online gaming, it's easy to forget how far browser-based gaming has come in a short space of time.
Even at the turn of the millennium, online gamers relied heavily on Java and Flash, which created thousands of mini-game-style browser-based games, modelled on everything from 21st-century celebrities and sports stars to retro 8 and 16-bit games console franchises. However, more recently, browser plug-ins such as Unity and Silverlight have been utilised to good effect, creating many stunning games within compatible browsers.
However, the former is certainly being phased out already, with the likes of Chrome and Firefox already discontinuing their support for Unity-powered browser games, preferring to focus their attention on HTML5 gaming.
Commercially, the iGaming industry has certainly benefited most from browser-based gaming software. Leading online gambling brands such as Guts online casino operate games developed by pioneering iGaming software developers such as Micro-gaming and NetEnt, with engaging 3D slots offering graphics and high-definition audio.
Guts aren't the only ones benefiting of course, with LeoVegas, Casumo Casino and SlotsMillion Casino just a few of the many others benefiting from access to over 600 casino games available through browsers for their customers.
The likes of Micro-gaming, NetEnt and Playtech have all had a big hand in evolving in-browser gaming technology to deliver the very best gaming experiences on casinos and other gaming portals. Broadly, they have sought to design most games to be compatible with Android and iOS mobile users in-browser, as well as on desktop and laptop.
In particular, Micro-gaming has worked hard to develop iGaming software that's supremely flexible enough to offer a native gaming experience on any device used. Introduced in 2010, the Quickfire platform was designed to integrate games seamlessly with Flash and mobile platforms, providing online casino players with an instant-play experience.
It's certainly proved cost-effective for casino brands to adopt, with hundreds of tried and tested games available at the touch of a button. The Quickfire architecture works by hosting and managing all of the gaming server hardware itself, giving casino sites the ability to integrate high-quality gaming content tailored to whichever device is used to play.
NetEnt certainly weren't far behind in terms of adopting HTML 5 as the 'next-generation' iGaming technology. After previously using Flash technology to operate its casino games, NetEnt also readily acknowledged the benefits of HTML5 in making games compatible and playable on virtually any device operating almost any type of web browser; releasing its first HTML5 desktop game in December 2014.
The combination of HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript software development gives developers the ability to create a wholly interactive gaming canvas, requiring less bandwidth and overall computer memory and processing power to operate; thus making them much more compatible with browsers on mobile devices as well as desktops and laptops.
Today, very popular mobile games are still transitioning over to browser-based form, with the likes of Cut The Rope going from an in-demand game on the iOS to a significantly larger audience via web browsers. For a truly fluid gaming experience, browsers are still hard to beat. 🙂
