When Sony introduced the first PlayStation in 1994, it signaled a new generation for consoling gaming and enabled leading brands such as Nintendo and Microsoft to become dominant in the marketplace. This had a detrimental impact on small developers and independent design studios, however, who were unable to compete with their more established rivals without the necessary production budgets.
This has changed during the last seven years, however, ever since Apple launched the first iPhone onto the market in 2007. This opened a gap in the market that multiple smartphone manufacturers have since exploded into, which in turn has diversified the entire industry and created new opportunities for small and independent designers. With cross-platform gaming now also set to take hold in the next eighteen months, independent firms will become even more competitive across a range of sectors.
With mobile, laptop and desktop gaming now increasingly popular in the contemporary market, players have a huge range of choice when selecting individual titles and platforms.
Tablet and Mobile
Mobile gaming is in vogue right now, with rising market revenues and the release of purposeful devices such as the iPhone 6 and more specifically the Nvidia Shield Tablet. This popularity has triggered a rise in the number of games available through this platform, which is also creating greater diversity through resources such as the iTunes store and Google Play.
Casino games are particularly popular, from themed slot machines to the fast-paced poker games offered on Full Tilt Poker. The latter is a responsive game that offers users flexibility in terms of how many hands they play within a given time frame, while it also enables players to compete for real or play money. There is also a  poker control that can help to add realism and create an immerse experience when playing this game, while the widening range of accessories available for mobile devices is continuing to drive the market forward.
Desktop Gaming
The PC gaming market has enjoyed a huge resurgence in the last decade, thanks largely to the popularisation of online game play and multi-layered titles such as Minecraft. To support this, a Games Market Revenue report by Newzoo revealed that the PC sector has generated more revenue than the console alternative annually since 2010, while desktop models also offer considerably greater processing power and higher quality graphics. In addition to Minecraft, Skyrim and Counter Strike: Global Offensive are two of the most popular titles available through this platform as they embody all that is great about PC gaming. More specifically, they are packed full of adventure and imagination, while veering as far from a linear gaming experience as you can imagine.
Laptops
While laptops should theoretically provide the ideal hybrid of desktop power and mobile portability, the truth is that they tend to fall short on both counts. Not only do laptops lack the processing power and graphical capacity of PCs for example, but they also lack the market penetration and ultimate freedom provided by mobile devices. Google’s Chromebook has helped to revive the market, however, and it is well on course to sell more than 5 million units by the end of 2014. To negate the lack of processing power, it has focused on promoting simple and easy to learn games that are incredibly fun to play that have become exceptionally popular. So while the World of Warcraft is the single most popular game available through the laptop platform, stripped back alternatives such as Arcane Legends deliver excellent mechanics and an engaging experience to players.