Many of us grew up playing video games on consoles and personal computers, most of the video games are still sold physically besides the digital versions.
To be able to play with each other over the internet, you must have the same console, but cross-platform games are getting more popular nowadays. Cross-platform gaming enables the possibility to play multiplayer games with people that are using different consoles. For example, someone which is playing on a personal computer can also play with someone which is playing on a PlayStation. PlayStation and Xbox which are the two biggest console producer companies in the world (Marketcap, 2022). The platforms of the consoles were closed until the release of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox one, after opening their platforms gaming companies started with the development of cross-platform gaming.
However, Cloud gaming is currently a rising technology. The biggest benefit of Cloud gaming is that you don’t need a powerful device to run games fluently with high graphical quality compared to the traditional consoles of PlayStation and Microsoft. Cloud gaming services offer a remote gaming platform which is convenient and can be used anywhere and with multiple devices. Even smartphones can be used to stream the Cloud gaming (Henderson, 2022).
This digital disruption in the gaming industry due to this new technology can lead to people owning less consoles and opting more for these gaming-on-demand platforms (Hallahan, 2022). This can be a good thing in my opinion, less gaming consoles and personal computers need to be produced which is a positive effect considering the current chip shortage.
There are some drawbacks when it comes to Cloud gaming services, a user needs a high and stable internet connection to be able to play fluently without big delays to experience a smooth gameplay. The latency also depends on the location of the Cloud servers, if a person is far away from a Cloud server, they may still experience high latency despite having a stable and fast internet connection. I have also tried a few Cloud gaming platforms since I was a bit sceptical about it, surprisingly it worked quite well. I am curious what the mainstream gaming platform will be in the future!
References
Henderson, R. (2022, 7 22). What is Nvidia GeForce Now, is it free and what devices does it work with?Retrieved from Pocket lint: https://www.pocket-lint.com/games/news/nvidia/131715-what-is-nvidia-geforce-now-and-what-are-the-differences-on-shield-tv-pc-and-mac
Hallahan, S. (2022, 5 11). With Xbox Cloud Gaming, Consoles Could Become A Thing Of The Past. Retrieved from The Gamer: https://www.thegamer.com/xbox-cloud-gaming-makes-consoles-unnecessary/
Marketcap, C. (2022, 9 22). Largest video game companies by market cap. Retrieved from Companies Marketcap: https://companiesmarketcap.com/video-games/largest-video-game-companies-by-market-cap/
I think it will take a long time before cloud gaming can actually disrupt the current gaming industry. To really disrupt the market and be the leading console in the world a LOT of barriers still need to be taken, my biggest doubts are in how it will be able to decrease the latency that is currently already experienced on consoles. The low speed internet connections over the whole world are not something I see improving anytime soon, I think this is such a crucial part for these consoles to succes that it will take a long time, if even at all, for these consoles to be THE console everyone wants to own. It will be interesting to see and if a big company like Google would be able to find a workaround and make a succes out of these consoles. Let’s wait and see!