In the new millennium, with the proliferation of the Internet, online gaming has rapidly grown in popularity around the world. Children and adults alike spend an ever-growing amount of time on their computers playing games, seeking recreation and relaxation. There are many companies that create these games and have been enjoying phenomenal success as a result of this trend.

As we embark on 2008, a new trend is taking shape in the online gaming world. Online games are crossing over to video game consoles. Gaming consoles such as the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 are offering new features that allow their users to download games that were previously “online only”. This trend is on its tipping point and we are soon going to see a phenomenal growth in the console gaming field as a result. Arcade games have gone from being available only at local malls, to the computer and now finally to the home console.

PlayStation 3 offers this online service for free, while UFABETเว็บไทย Xbox 360 charges a fee of $50 annually. This allows their users to download content online for their consoles. Playstation’s offer may only be an introductory offer and once this trend is established, I expect them to monetize on this as well by charging some sort of subscription based fee. What’s go great about this is that, the once expensive gaming console games are now almost available for free. Whenever users want a change, all they do is surf the Internet, download new games and plug it into their consoles. They are now watching enhanced graphics on a big-screen plasma of LCD TV and trust me, the experience is way better than online. I foresee a lot of couch-potato behavior happening as a result of this trend!

Experts in the industry opine that enhanced graphic capabilities of online games have really leveled the field between console games and online games. Only a few years ago, there was a very significant difference in the visual experience between online and console games. Broadband proliferation and bandwidth availability was not strong enough to let online gamers get crazy with heavy graphics. Not anymore. The growing Internet usage and ever-increasing speeds have made online games just as good as console games, which is certainly the underlying cause for this trend.

This trend appears to be here to stay. Leading game creators such as JenkatGames dot com and BigFishGames dot com are releasing newer fun-filled games on a regular basis and the demand still keeps going up. It will not be long before all of your favorite console games will be ported over online and directly available for download to your console. With all of the gaming machines now online, and that too at high speeds, if you think online gaming was child’s play, well, think again!