We may only be halfway through January but already gaming fans are making some big predictions for the next advances in PC gaming this year. These range from how to make playing ever larger and more complex games more practical/ user-friendly, through to the predicted continued growth of E-Sports and Independent titles. Even is just three or four of these improvements are realized over 2018 it is promising to be a very important year for fans of PC gaming. Take for example the huge improvements in online gambling with the likes of Royal Vegas a Microgaming-powered online casino and the best online casino in Canada nowadays. As ever gambling companies lead the way when it comes to creativity and delivering the best games possible, so what can we expect from more traditional PC gaming?

1) Expansion Of Cloud Storage & Services

Industry watchers have been murmuring for a while that the latest big name releases use an utterly insane amount of storage space. We can expect to see the biggest blockbusters routinely start to weigh in at 100GB+ - a fact that may deliver stunning visuals and visuals, but presents a few potential issues too.

Quite simply not even many serious gamers have the hard drive capacity to keep numerous data heavy games installed at a time. Even more irritating is that the Windows Store continues to insist that players perform multiple downloads to every device they intend to play the game with. For those with capped data allowances or in low-speed areas, it's likely that fresh downloads may begin to take days to complete.Windows have mentioned that this is a key issue and they are looking for a solution to maintain their strict DRM policy, but also improve their service along the lines of Steam, GOG and UPlay.

2) Tighter Rules For Online Play

There are signs that game hosting services are going to finally take more punitive action against players who are disruptive, offensive or cheat at multiplay games. Even though this is clearly long overdue, it is a key improvement to proving a positive gaming environment that people of suitable ages can enjoy. Given that so many PC games are now starting to emulate console releases and focus on their online experience, this will be welcome news to those who are sick and tired of overt toxicity.

3) PC Games Will Continue To Dominate E-Sports

All the signs suggest that E-Sports is set to continue its spectacular growth in popularity and that PC titles will continue to be the most closely followed. The likes of LoL, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, DOTA 2, and Overwatch are now attracting serious prize funds and professional standard online broadcasting and sponsorship. With millions of players across the globe playing these games every day, such organized online competitive play is likely to play an ever more important role in the style and format of upcoming releases.

4) More Immersive & Imaginative Gaming

Sure there's always going to be a market for the big name FPS, driving or sports titles but many pundits are expecting some interesting new styles of gaming emerging this year. With affordable VR set to become a domestic staple, we've already seen how some games are including special modes to take advantage of this. Assassins Creed Origins contains a combat-free option which just allows players to explore the gorgeous world. This kind of play styles will clearly appeal to players who maybe want to enjoy a more casual/less bloodthirsty gaming session - expect 2018's releases to feature plenty more examples.

5) Indie Developers Will Take On The Big Boys!

Ask any gamer what their biggest gripe is about gaming and most will agree that it is having to pay out additional amounts to access special edition content. With the cost of new releases already artificially inflated to an extent that it smells of greed, plenty of indie developers are pledging to never implement such policies in their games. Instead, they are trying to encourage players to get involved in modding new content, with there now being lively communities for those interesting in doing so. It certainly helps that so many gamers also play lower graphics-intensive games on their smartphones, meaning that there is much more openness to enjoyability over presentation than before.

6) Smarter Peripheral Device Management

Microsoft has committed themselves to enhancing their Cloud storage system, but many players still find that the Win10 architecture is intrusive and takes up too many resources far too often. It is understandable that the software giants want to keep their flagship release as up to date as possible, but the updates are often performed in the background without offering the user any prompt. The same is true for graphics and soundcard drivers, and all the while these are taking place the broadband connection will be seriously compromised. Naturally this isn't ideal for regular players, so hopefully, Windows will start to be a little more understanding of this fact and make their OS a little kinder and customizable for casual users.