As pieces of software available since around 1996, online casino games have experienced significant evolution over the decades. From graphical resolution to sound quality and user interface design, almost no elements of iGaming releases have been safe from the march of progress. Yet, of all the changes experienced by casino games over the years, none has been more important than the death of Flash.
Once the king of online interactivity, Flash wasn’t just used for online casinos. It was the basis of early YouTube, and backed many webpage components and moving visualisation elements. Discontinued in 2020, online casino games have since turned to HTML5 and related technologies, so why is this, and will these systems remain the basis of online casino gaming in the future?
What Caused Flash’s Death?
The program, which would eventually become known as Flash began its life in 1993. Called SmartSketch, early iterations of this software started as a simple graphics editor built for Mac-based pen computers. It was noted during development that the system could have some uses in animation, and so animation-friendly features were added shortly before launch.
Over time, the pen-computer trend died out, and the software was forced to evolve. Through its evolution, the software was bought and sold by several developers, including FutureWave, Macromedia, and Adobe. Each company added more to the system, and its success on the internet grew.
No matter how much Flash was added to, it had core issues that would never change. Flash was a complicated program built on a shaky foundation. Over time, the inefficiency and insecurity of its increasingly bloated code base become too difficult to manage. Each year, Flash created bigger problems, and each year, evolving HTML found ways to solve those problems. Eventually, HTML5 could do everything Flash could do, without the downsides. This was the nail in the coffin, and in the late 2010s, the move away from Flash began.
The Reliability of HTML5
The strength of HTML5 comes from its flexibility, not just in casino games, but in almost every aspect of modern online casinos. Consider modern slot sites as an example of the depth of HTML5’s integration. While games like Cleopatra and Lucky Lemons use HTML5, so too does the backing website. From navigation tabs to the backing security systems, everything ties into this single core. Because of this, replacing HTML5 isn’t especially viable.
Other platforms on which games can be built can be equally flexible as HTML5 is, and some are considerably more beginner-friendly. The Unreal Engine, for example, uses a flowchart system that’s easy to follow and requires little in the way of actual coding knowledge. The program is also bulky, however, and since it can’t integrate as well into web pages, these advantages are moot.
With the death of Flash and the arrival of HTML5, the future software backing behind online casino games seems all but solidified. There are no other systems that come close to HTML’s advantages, and with HTML5 still being updated, there doesn’t seem to be a way for the coding language to ever become truly obsolete. This platform could very well serve as a basis for a hundred years to come, which, for everyone who had to port older Flash games to HTML5, is an encouraging thought.