Cloud Gaming is Shaking Gaming Industry: What is Happening in the Gaming World
As of 2020, there are several cloud gaming services available. Popular services like Google Stadia and Playstation Now offer you an excellent gaming library paired with awesome features.
For those out of the loop, cloud gaming is a gaming technology where games are streamed to devices. Under this method, a set of powerful servers run the game, which then streams it to the user’s device at 30 to 60 frames per second. The inputs that the gamer makes are likewise transmitted to the server, to which the game responds and the server transmits the response back instantly.
The cloud gaming market is estimated to be valued at USD 306 million in 2019 and is projected to reach USD 3.1 billion by 2024, at a CAGR of 59.0%
But does cloud gaming offer what regular console gaming motion , PC gaming quality, and smartphone gaming accessibility don’t?
Why Cloud Gaming will shake Gaming Industry
One of the biggest advantages offered by cloud gaming is that you do not need a dedicated gaming device anymore. For casual gamers who rarely play games, this might be important. They will not need to invest in a dedicated gaming device to play once in a while. This will help bring in a new host of people who are curious about hardcore gaming.
Hardcore gamers meanwhile will be able to play their favorite games on-the-go via cloud gaming. Most cloud gaming services now either support or are planning to implement support which allows you to stream and play games on your smartphone. Since the smartphone is a device that nowadays is always on a person, gamers will be able to play games on their consoles at home and then continue their progress on their phones while on-the-go.
A third reason is improvement in the technology. This relates to mainly two things: internet speed and data infrastructure.
Internet speeds have rapidly risen over the past few years. We are now able to transmit large amounts of data unlike ever before. Streaming gaming requires the transmission of huge amounts of data at high speeds. Current premium internet services thankfully can handle this. Some of them can be used to stream games smoothly. With internet speeds rising further and the introduction of 5G, this experience is only going to get better.
As for infrastructure, cloud gaming requires powerful servers that can process and then transmits data instantly. Many who attempted to bring cloud gaming and failed didn’t have such an infrastructure. Presently, however, some of the biggest players in the market like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon, already have the infrastructure to do this and more.
Challenges Faced by Cloud Gaming
However, that does not mean that it will be smooth sailing for cloud gaming. There are still a few challenges cloud gaming service providers will have to overcome.
The chief one is the internet. Sure, internet speeds have gotten better. But cloud gaming uses so much data. An ordinary gamer may not be able to afford the high-speed internet services required to substitute their regular gaming with cloud gaming. As for mobile internet, the speeds still have a lot to improve and cloud gaming with smartphones may not take off until 5G is here.
A second problem is the challenges in pricing. Many are opting to provide their services as subscriptions. But even under subscription, some of them do not allow players to play all the games in their library. The players instead have to buy some of them. Many players will not be on board with this pricing method of paying a monthly subscription and then paying separately for some of the games on top of that. So cloud gaming providers might have to experiment with more.
But we can safely assume that the service providers will be able to overcome these challenges. Cloud gaming has leaped to such great heights in just a few years and has overcome many obstacles. So it is only fair to assume that they will figure these issues out too.
Conclusion
With the triggering speed of new technology evolution, game development also transforming its dimensions, but will play a huge part in the future of gaming.
If you are interested in trying out cloud gaming, there already are a few services available. There is Stadia from Google, Geforce Now from Nvidia, and Playstation Now from Sony among many. Microsoft is going to make available their xCloud service later this year as well.
