Over the last decade, we’ve seen how cloud has reshaped the gaming community. Some might remember LAN parties or internet cafes that have now been replaced by high powered servers capable of hosting hundreds of players.
Recently, cloud gaming made its next big step, Gaming as a Service.
What is Cloud Gaming
Not unlike media streaming services such as Netflix or Hulu, Gaming as a Service allows users to “stream” programs directly to their PCs.
This is groundbreaking given that the majority of gamers have always been limited by hardware constraints. Only those able to afford higher priced components could enjoy playing their games in full 60fps bliss and beyond. With the introduction of 4k gaming as well, this list has only grown smaller. Cloud gaming, of course, changes this.
Who Uses Cloud Gaming
While Gaming as a Service may go by several names at its early stage, such as gaming on demand or GaaS, the basic idea is the same. The service allows gamers to essentially use their PC as the gateway to a high-end server. The games are then run off the server and streamed directly to the user’s desktop. The only requirements are a high-speed dependable internet connection and a basic desktop setup.
While this is not an entirely new concept to the community, it’s still revolutionary to the PC gaming industry in particular. Next generation consoles have been using a similar model for many of their games. In this case, a portion of the software would be downloaded to the user’s device before allowing them to play.
Another good example of this would be mobile gaming platforms such as Crowdstar that use bare-metal cloud servers to support their application. In both cases, however, cloud is used to provide a highly scalable service whereby, through big data analysis, large amounts of data are stored and streamed directly to an end user.
Why You Need to Pay Attention to Cloud Gaming
Unless you’re an avid gamer, it’s unlikely that much of this will excite you. While still in very early (and even alpha) stages, companies won’t be releasing their final products for some time. However, there are a few businesses who are standing out in this field.
For one, Nvidia is currently developing a game streaming service, GEFORCE NOW, for its device called the GRID. Small startups, such as Snoost or Vortex, are also trying to get in on the action.
The flexibility that cloud gaming creates will certainly rattle the industry, and many see this as a conceivably new industry frontier. No more updating hardware, complicated installation or configurations, game installations or software patches. This will all be done and managed by cloud gaming providers allowing gamers to just enjoy games.
Just as the service is groundbreaking, so too should be the infrastructure supporting it. Cloud technology has reached the point where this is now possible. To effectively support this growing trend, providers should be able to offer high-performance scalable cloud backed by low latency IP. INAP can provide this exact type of solution made to custom fit your specific business needs.
Hi-Rez Studios, which is highly engaged in both mobile and MMO gaming communities, fully understand this need. The studio utilizes our Cloud, Colocation and Performance IP. We provide many of our gaming customers with this type of support enabling them to push past industry limits to achieve new heights and even revolutionize their industry.
If you would like to learn more, please let us know and one of our product experts will be in touch.
