Video Game Streaming – The Uncertain Future of Gaming

Google has recently shed light on its gaming service Google Stadia a while back. At the time of its announcement, some lucky people were given a live demo of the platform and it was truly mindblowing. 

It is very clear that Google is not the only company to jump on the game streaming bandwagon. Other key players include NVIDIA, Microsoft and Sony who showed off their own demos at E3 2019. But the concept of game streaming is not really new. It started about 10 years ago with a gaming brand named OnLive. The company promised low latency and high definition game streaming via a dedicated micro-console or app at a time when real broadband was unknown. Unsurprisingly, the concept did not take off well with the consumers and the company failed to make a mark in the gaming landscape. Sony later bought the company and merged it with its online streaming service, PlayStation Now in 2015.

Google has already announced a similar Cloud game streaming concept. Game Developers Conference. If the concept goes well with the consumers, it has the potential to change the entire gaming industry. At the demo, the company announced that they will be able to run Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Doom Eternal at 60 FPS in 4K resolution. All the player has to have is a minimum of 25 Mbps internet connectivity and a device that can run the Chrome Browser. Sounds insane, right?

So, what are the advantages of Cloud game streaming services over regular gaming? It’s not like we hate playing current games such as Roulette from Spinzwin Casino on regular devices! So, why change something which isn’t broken? To be honest, there is nothing wrong with our console and PC gaming, Every year, we see new titles being pushed by game developers along with powerful gaming systems. So, why are companies chasing after Cloud game streaming?

First of all, it will increase competition among gaming companies. Nowadays, Microsoft and Sony charge around 30% from developers to put their games on the platforms. With game streaming services, consumers will have more choice and companies will be forced to provide better value to the customers and developers. Secondly, it will be beneficial for the gamer in the long run. As game streaming allows subscribers to play through a huge collection of games without having to buy the individual titles, it is advantageous for regular gamers to avail these services. Cloud game memory is not limited to the hardware storage space of a device. As long as you have a robust internet connection, you will be able to save as many games you like on the cloud.  The third reason why companies are interested to try out game streaming is that it will make game piracy obsolete. Currently, there is no mechanism to pirate games that run on the Cloud. As long as there is no physical software of the game, players cannot infringe the copyrights. This is exactly what Netflix and Spotify did with the movie and music services respectively. After they came into the market, the piracy rates have reduced drastically. The fourth advantage is the availability of more devices, Cloud streaming technologies eliminate the need for console gaming and allows the use of multiple devices as long as they can support high-speed internet connection. Moreover, they exclude the limitations posed by hardware. After a consecutive number of years, gamers have to upgrade their consoles or PC parts to play the AAA games at their optimum levels. Not with the case of Cloud game streaming. With Cloud game streaming, games with high-end graphics can be played on lower-end devices, thanks to video compression, accessing GPU on the Cloud and lower bandwidth costs. 

From a gamer’s perspective, playing games from anywhere and on any devices is like a dream come true. Although the Cloud gaming services have their fair share of advantages they have to resolve some disadvantages to cement their success in the coming years. First of all, due to video compression, the quality of the games won’t look that high detailed as you see in the conference game demos. Next, is the bandwidth requirement. Currently, the cloud games require more than 3GB per hour in bandwidth which is a huge problem for the bandwidth caps imposed by our ISP providers. Another issue is the issue of latency. Clearly, Cloud services will have more latency than local hardware devices. Microsft’s Project xCloud has resolved this issue of latency by adopting a hybrid model that uses both Cloud technologies and local hardware center. With Cloud gaming services, game developers can focus on the game content rather than focusing on the consoles and PC hardware.