Flash gaming is starting to make a slow exit from the gaming market just as its Adobe Flash player made its exit back in 2017. With HTML5 the new way to play mobile games, it seems like Flash’s job of helping internet users watch videos and play games is sadly coming to end.
The first victim for Adobe was its flash video player, and now it is browser support for flash that is falling victim to new technology – namely HTML5 and JavaScript. Google already announced recently that its browser would end support for Flash and eventually all browsers will slowly fade out this technology.
With HTML5 able to carry JavaScript into browsers, this offers game developers much more flexibility, and that means a better gaming experience that is unmatched by Flash. However, this article is not here to slate Flash because that would be unjust. Flash did a brilliant job and all that has happened is that its time was up.
Much like Kodak film came to an end, music CDs and DVDs died a death, and fax machines replaced with scanners and software all due to newly developed technology, Flash is also a victim of modernization in a fast-moving technological world. First mobile gaming became popular which is evident in this report by Forbes regarding online gambling where mobile app and browser gaming is pioneering the success of this industry.
Before we delve into why Flash is coming to an end, let us take a quick look at the positives. We think everyone should remember that it was Flash programming that first introduced us to advanced mobile gaming via web browser technology to replace the need to design mobile games to work on multiple apps.
Flash Helped Millions of Online Gamers Replace Apps
On a positive note, Flash did its job well for the time that it was relevant within the online gaming market. It solved issues with browser gaming helping millions of online gamers access game content without the need for an app. It also helped gaming companies rise on the World Wide Web thanks to its ingenious web browser gaming prowess.
It also gave gamers access to a wider variety of games. iOS players could now use Flash to play an Android game that was once only available as an Android download. However, now that very same game is accessible via Google Chrome or Safari on their Apple iPhone or iPad. Even PC gamers could play games that were once only available on mobile apps.
Flash by and large changed our mobile gaming experience completely giving us the ability to play games on any device via any operating system that has a web browser installed on it which today is pretty much every device out there.
You can also read about the evolution of the gaming industry here at Investopedia which will bring you up to date as to how video gaming evolved into mobile gaming and beyond.
Flash Helped Gaming Companies Eliminate the Need For Apps
In the past, if a gaming company was trying to attract mobile users, it would need to create an app for every operating system. Therefore, if you owned a mobile game, you would need to create a Blackberry, iOS, Android, and Windows mobile app to maximize your reach.
That’s 4 different apps that a gaming firm would need to update and maintain. Most gaming sites ended up only designing games for Android and iOS because these are the most popular mobile operating systems out there. Flash stopped this crazy market in its tracks by bringing mobile games to browsers which would act as the app.
With full-screen modes on web browsers, players can now play mobile games as if the browser was the app. For developers this meant only designing the game once instead of twice – once for Android and once for iOS.
How Did HTML5 Begin to Dominate the Web Browser Market?
It was not so much HTML5 but a team effort that brought new technology to the mobile gaming industry. javascript is an object-oriented programming language that allows game designers to use several mechanisms code and create picturesque mobile-enabled games with intense animations and top-notch sound quality.
3 key components help JavaScript offer more flexibility and adaptive technology that will fine-tune the game’s code according to the hardware on the device in initiating the game stream.
- Canvas – designers can create 3D graphics
- WebGL – hardware acceleration and adaptivity
- WebAudio – high-quality audio syncs
The Flash programming code does not offer the same kind of flexibility as JavaScript. Some of the issues with flash are the minimum hardware requirements it often applies and lack of hardware acceleration while JavaScript adapts rather than limits game code.
Where HTML5 comes into the picture here is that it is a transport agent for JavaScript to web browsers. Therefore, developers and gamers can now design and play higher quality and more attractive games than using Flash. With many game developers realizing this, the switch to HTML5 from Flash was inevitable.
HTML5 Eliminates the Issue with Flash Updates
Another issue with Flash is its updates. People often had issues with updates and even fresh installs. This was an issue for both gamers and game providers. For example, sites like slotxo44 can have customers that use flash slot games and when flash stops working the customer contacts the site because this is the only place they know where to get technical support.
This puts a strain on the website operator because they need to pay for their support agent’s training and invest their time into fixing Flash issues. HTML5 has no such updates, and as such it eliminates these technical issues freeing up time and putting that time towards more productive tasks to help grow their website and improve their customer services.
What’s Coming Next?
For now, HTML5 will remain the dominant force and there does not seem to be any other code that can replace JavaScript coming into the web browser arena. However, we should never count out new developments especially since blockchain technology is making a huge technological push which could bring a new era of mobile gaming to our screens.
For the time being, we should thank Flash for bringing the idea of web browser gaming to the mobile game scene and embrace the emergence of HTML5 giving us less complex and more streamlined gameplay on our tablets and smartphones.
