I
frequently hear people talk about how mobile gaming will be the ultimate video
game console killer. I never bought into that theory because the type of gaming
that occurs on one platform is so different from the other. Big blockbuster
console games just do not translate well on the mobile platform, and a lot of
console gamers prefer the TV to the PC, so PC gaming isn’t in the position to
win the war either.
At E3 I
realized we finally have a potential console-killer on the table, and that
killer is cloud gaming. Cloud gaming is simply games being streamed through the
cloud using real-time encoding straight to your TV (or tablet or phone or numerous
other devices).
My
first introduction to cloud gaming came from Gaikai,
the company that is finally bringing gamers what they’ve always wanted: the
ability to try the actual game for free (at home!) before deciding whether or
not to purchase it. The free trial lets gamers play the actual game with
nothing hampering the experience except a built in time limit, finally
introducing sampling to the game market. Gaikai streams trial games on a number of
retailer websites now including Best Buy and Walmart. They don’t handle the
sales of the games, the retailers have to do that, but they provide the
important service of getting a consumer’s hand on the actual game.
Next
came my visit with NVIDIA and their GeForce GRID technology, which is being used to power Gaikai’s service. It is also using
real-time encoding to push games through to any device that has the ability to
stream video. Samsung was the first to announce a service to bring cloud gaming
straight to your TV with their appropriately named Samsung Smart TV Cloud Gaming
app. If you have a Samsung Smart TV you can play games right from the app on
your TV menu, and Samsung will send you a free controller during Beta testing. Samsung
indicated the apps will start appearing on TVs soon, no action necessary.
Curious TV owners will probably click on the gaming app just to see what it’s
all about and end up trying out some free games.
OnLive has also
announced that its games will be available for instant streaming over LG Smart
TVs and Android tablets, but I wasn’t able to try that out at E3. OnLive has
been around for a couple of years streaming games to PCs and TVs (with the help
of its own game console), so it already has a user base that should easily
follow them into this streamlined generation of cloud gaming that promises
smoother gameplay with easier access.
But why
do I think these new services have a chance to eventually dethrone game
consoles? Because they seem to work! The games I played on TVs and tablets at
E3 were smooth as can be without any detectable lag. It felt just like I was
playing on a console. And with cloud gaming, you never have to buy the next
generation of hardware because the graphics upgrades occur in the server
warehouses. And there are server warehouses spread around the world so that you
can connect to the nearest one for the best possible experience.
But
there are always cons, and there are a couple of big ones here. Internet
provider data caps and throttling have been in the news a lot lately as people
stream more video and use significantly more data. Also, rural areas don’t
receive the speed of bandwidth required to provide a good cloud gaming
experience. These services can stream across mobile airspace as well, but those
providers are having the same issue with bandwidth use and throttling heavy
users.
Another
con, I have discovered from talking to gamers, is that it will take a while to
pry the physical discs from some hands. Also important to these consumers is
the ability to sell a game once they’re finished with it, something that cannot
be done with a game living in the cloud. The lack of a resale option could be
tempered by lower game pricing from the start since physical media would no
longer be in the picture. As far as the desire to own a physical disc, we just
have to hope that people get used to their media living in the cloud rather
than in their living room. But if gamers
become comfortable with this new world, cloud gaming may have a chance to take
over the home gaming industry. That is, of course, if internet and mobile
providers can work out bandwidth solutions and play nice with their customers. That’s
a whole other blog post.
