Casino Games and Consoles
Online casinos have managed to first penetrate the PC market, then the mobile market and now it seems their new frontier will be home consoles. Unfortunately companies like Sony and Microsoft have not been open to licensing their platforms for casino gaming but they are definitely missing an incredibly lucrative market.
With things like Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade or the Play station Store, players would be able to easily access either casino apps or single real money casino gaming titles. With the online play features, can you imagine sitting down at your console and taking part in Poker tournaments with players all around the world?
We have already seen what a hit competitive gaming is already, so if you add real money bets into the equation you have an incredible opportunity to create something unique that will change the industry again, just like online casino gaming changed the land based casino industry.
Playing Casino Games On Consoles
All new consoles that are released have some kind of online functionality. Anyone who has owned a PlayStation 3 or 4 or an Xbox console knows that whenever you get a new game you would need to download a few gig’s worth of updates before you can actually play and enjoy the game.
Modern versions of consoles all feature built in browser software so this means that you can log in to your online casino account. Players can either use the console’s gamepad or plug in peripherals like a keyboard and mouse to control the casino gaming action. With the PlayStation 4 you can use the game pad’s excellent touch feature to control the browser and games.
Players will be limited to in-browser gaming unfortunately as you will not be able to install casino apps on your console. This isn’t a deal breaker however and you can also make use of the consoles built in recording and live streaming software to broadcast your casino gaming.
No Real Money Gaming
When it comes to real money casino games that are dedicated to home consoles, players are out of luck. Currently there are no real money titles since the big game companies know that they have a very large under age demographic and releasing casino games into this market, even with appropriate controls and restrictions in place is still something that will be frowned upon.
A perfect example of gambling and gaming meeting to public outrage was the recent Counter Strike GO controversy. The game has in-game items and weapons called skins. These items can be earned by playing the game or bought with real money.
A small gambling community started around these skins and when the story broke to the media reaction from the game developers was swift and decisive. The players were banned, companies were fined and apologies were numerous.
Konami and Online Gaming
It is quite interesting that videogames and casino games have diverged so much, especially when you think that one of the biggest gaming empires around, Nintendo, had their start in Pachinko games, basically Japanese slot games, and this is in a country where gambling is completely illegal.
One modern developer who hasn’t let online casino gaming pass them by is Konami. This legendary developer is responsible for some genre defining games like Contra and the evergreen Castlevania series. They have expanded their gaming footprint to include the mobile market as well as the online casino market.
They have released online slot games and a Japan exclusive online pachinko games. Rather surprisingly they have focussed on creating original casino gaming content rather than using licences from their amazing back catalogue.
The Casino and online console gaming market seems destined to live parallel to each other but may never cross in our lifetime, we’ll have to wait and see!