Netbook boom bodes well for casual gaming

Netbooks are relatively low-powered devices that thrive on their portability. Whilst they all boast excellent in-built wireless internet connectivity, many do not include internal storage and instead rely on server-based web applications for work and gaming.

As well as being easy to carry around, netbooks are also substantially cheaper than laptops or desktop PCs, and can often be found for free when consumers sign up for things like mobile phone contracts.

A recent report on iStockAnalyst reads: “Netbooks will almost certainly become the most popular PCs. And PC gaming is already far bigger than all console gaming put together. So netbooks are headed towards being one of the most important gaming machines on earth. And this has a significant impact on the future of gaming.

“Netbooks have reduced storage and processing capabilities. They cannot store and run big and complex games internally. They make up for this by having brilliant connectivity. So they are the perfect tool for playing online games such as MMOs and the contents of all the casual gaming portals. They are going to have an immense effect on pushing gaming onto servers. Boxed retail games are not what netbooks are about.

“This is another arrow in the back of high street game retail. And another major factor into making gaming an online industry. So it will help force social networking and gaming closer together. Portals like Steam need to evolve to become more server based but they are agile enough to do so. It will not be a revolution, more like speeded up evolution.”