Next Level: Cloud Gaming & Future Of Interactive Entertainment

The fast emergence of cloud gaming platforms has only made it easier for developers to produce new games for a wider market.

Cloud gaming is projected to grow into a billion-dollar market in India.

Source : Getty

By Rama Krishna Sreepada

Cloud gaming, also known as game streaming, is one of the most popular and trending phenomena that has come to the forefront, leveraging Cloud computing technology with the rapid evolution of the interactive entertainment landscape. It is also known as Gaming-on-demand, which enables gamers to play video games without the need for high-end hardware or game download space. Instead, the games can be played or run over powerful servers created in data centres, which are further streamed to users' devices, making it an immersive and seamless gaming experience.

According to a recent study from Global Cloud Gaming Report, a whopping 31.7 million paying users of cloud gaming services spent a combined $2.4 billion on cloud gaming services and games streamed via the cloud.

The fast emergence of cloud gaming platforms has only made it easier for developers to produce new games for a wider market.

Application of 5G on Cloud Gaming

India is a country where almost 41 per cent of mobile users are connected to the internet, out of which 80 per cent are connected using Mobile data (mostly 4G), which becomes the major bottleneck for cloud gaming service, as while mobile data provides a vast geographical coverage but provides poor latency, speed & connection stability. Streaming games need the capability of rendering at 1080p at 60 frames/second on a mobile device to function smoothly.

This is where 5G technology comes to the rescue, as it helps to combat major issues. Wide-scale adoption of 5G assists with providing streaming quality at the optimum level from 60FPS to even 120FPS at low latency, which not only opens up services to a bigger user base but also with a smoother adoption of the service.

Benefits of Cloud Gaming

Looking at the high surge of Cloud Gaming, India has started incubating a lot of new & happening Cloud gaming startups & tech behemoths that have their own cloud gaming services, mostly operated from regions like Europe & North America, for  the following benefits  provided:-

•       Flexibility & Convenience-Cloud gaming offers unparalleled flexibility by allowing players to initiate a game on one device and smoothly continue on another seamlessly. This flexibility caters to the modern lifestyle, where individuals are constantly on the move and switch between different devices.
•       Instant Play- As waiting for the game download could irritating and cumbersome, Cloud Gaming eliminates the need for long downloads & installation processes, and players can instantly enjoy the gameplay without waiting for patches & updates, thus enabling a better user-friendly experience as Cloud gaming platform automatically update games ensuring players have access to the latest versions and updates for making it a silky gameplay.
•       Cost effectiveness-Cloud gaming also cuts the need for expensive gaming hardware, where players can just subscribe to cloud gaming service for a fraction of the cost of purchasing high-end gaming equipment, making it cost-effective.
•       Cross-platform Gameplay- It also breaks down the platform barrier, which enables the player to play across different devices seamlessly. Players can start the game on a PC and continue with the same game on their smartphones or vice-versa, enabling a smooth, interconnected experience.
•       High Quality or HD Graphics- Due to the high reliance on powerful servers for rending games at a higher graphical configuration & resolution by Cloud gaming, it aids in providing a superior visual experience on devices.

Challenges & its limitations

•       Latency & Connectivity­- Despite significant modern technological advances, latency remains the major challenge in Cloud Gaming.  Thus, improving cloud networking infrastructure and optimising streaming technologies is both critical and pivotal to providing a lag-free gaming experience
•       Game Library & Licensing- The foundational success of cloud gaming hinges on the accessibility of the gaming library. Negotiating licensing agreements & partnerships could be a major bottleneck, resulting in gaming studios and developers perpetually having to combat to provide smooth gameplay
•       Data Usage- For the smooth functioning of Cloud gaming, a significant amount of data is used, which could be a major concern for players with limited data or in regions with limited internet access.

Key Players & Market Trends

When we talk about key players, it is important to fragment into two demographics, including closed & open platforms.

Closed platform:  These are Cloud Gaming services that provide only certain selected games and applications that can only be accessed after its partnership or collaboration with certain game publishers.

In this space, “The Gaming Project” & “NVIDIA” are leading the space and the market leaders in closed-platform cloud gaming services.

Open platform: As the name suggests, these gaming cloud services provide an open environment or entire Windows desktop machines where the users/players can have the flexibility of doing whatever they want, including surfing the web, editing videos, and training AI & ML Models.

Ant Play is one such name, which is an India-based IAAS startup offering Open Platform Cloud Gaming services with minimal latency, remarkable performance, and affordable prices.

Market Trends and Future Landscape

Cloud gaming is projected to grow into a billion-dollar market in India, looking at the supersonic speed the industry is growing. It is also forecasted that by 2025, it will reach 86.9 million paying cloud gamers with an estimated spend of $8.2 billion in the global market.

Undoubtedly, Cloud Gaming has the potential to dominate the interactive entertainment industry as game publishers & streamers have realised how beneficial cloud gaming monetisation could be to earn massive revenues. Also, to cite their dominance in the market, Xbox recently announced that over 10 million people have used Xbox Cloud gaming.

The mass adoption of technology like 5G, high-speed broadband, and cloud computing will act as key enablers and catapult the industry's growth.

(The author is the Co-founder & Architect at [x]cube Labs)

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