Is Cloud Gaming Going to Change the Industry?

Not for another five years.

Cloud Gaming, allowing all the technical operations of a game to be handled in the cloud, thereby only streaming the graphics to the player, is far away from being viable, especially for Triple A titles.

Below is a poorly produced video, but it accurately explains the appeal of cloud gaming (I recommend watching it at 1.5x speed):

Appeals of Cloud Gaming

To highlight the appeals of cloud gaming:

• Requires no downloading of games.
• Requires no purchasing of specialized hardware (expensive consoles).
• Instantaneous.
• Allows developers to make major upgrades on the fly.
• Can be streamed from multiple devices.

Won’t Work For Triple A Titles

Sounds appealing right?

It is!

But it’s not yet anywhere near technically feasible for major Triple A titles.

Major internet speeds are necessary, and currently we are far off from this.

First of all, in Japan, which has the fastest and most stable broadband out of the G7 economies, performance is still lacking.

AAA cloud gaming is not feasible in Japan, and it is far off from the other G7 countries.

Optimists hope that peak 5G will be a solution to cloud gaming. This may be the case, though it is unlikely to be a standard in the EU and US until after 2030.

Ways Around the Objections

Latency is definitely an issue.

Some argue that in order for some form of high-end cloud gaming to be possible today, servers would have to be co-located in the same geographical area as players.

However, this still would not be a solution for Triple A titles.

Crazy fantastical, hyper realistic, AAA journeys within cloud gaming rely on a sophisticated and reliable network of ISPs which are far off from what we have today.

PlayStation Now, Liquid Sky, Vortex

How about Vortex, Liquid Sky, and the revered Playstation Now?

Here’s PlayStation Now’s very exciting trailer:

PlayStation Now and the others here are great values.

The only things you need to buy are the subscriptions and the controllers.

This is great, but you will still experience latency and choppy streaming while playing through titles on previous tech.

It is not the most impressive streaming experience, but it is definitely still usable.

If you’re okay with all this, I would recommend one of these services.

Does Not Beat a Gaming PC

A major promise of cloud gaming is that it makes gaming PCs obsolete.

“Long gone are the days of needing to buy or build your own hyper fast PC for gaming…”

Not quite.

Playstation Now, the most sophisticated cloud gaming service has noticeable compression and scenes with foliage, for example, still look unappealing.

Simpler graphics will work well, but there is also latency which definitely hurts FPS gaming experiences, and many others.

There’s Still a Market for Cloud Gaming

I’m of the firm belief that cloud gaming will not work for Triple A titles for some time.

This does not mean however that cloud gaming does not have a market.

If for the right price, and expense savings, many players are okay with below par streaming experiences. Some people just want to escape for cheap, and cloud gaming allows that.

AAA titles may not be possible, but that doesn’t mean they’re necessary.

Fortnite is B level.

World of Warcraft is 2006 tech.

Even Call of Duty isn’t AAA.

These games, as examples, get millions and millions of players.

I’ve sat in a cab with somebody playing Fortnite on his phone. He did not care about an under average gaming experience. Others do not either.

Conclusion

I don’t think cloud gaming is the future for the most immersive and graphically impressive games, but cloud gaming does raise some questions about the future of gaming.

If cloud gaming heavily catches on, will this suggest that the market for AAA titles is vanishing? Will there be less money in the market when players are unlikely to buy consoles and gaming PCs because so many are content with under average streaming experiences?

Will games like Red Dead Redemption 2 continue to receive the massive budgets which they have been receiving?

These are important questions, which I don’t yet necessarily have the answers to.

What I do know is everybody wants convenience at affordable prices.

Cloud gaming, and constant advancements in internet services are slowly providing this in the video game industry, and this is unlikely to go away.

What do you think? Do you think cloud gaming is the future? Do you think AAA titles will become obsolete? Do you think this is all trash? Share your comments with me over Twitter, or email, or on this article!