2015 Expected to be the Year of Cloud Gaming
In 2012, OnLive launched its take on cloud gaming. Due to intermediary issues such poor broadband quality in some parts of the US, OnLive became embattled and the company was sold to a group who has restructured while focusing on overseas markets that have faster, more reliable broadband connections. The likes of Sony, NVidia and Microsoft have taken notice of the cloud gaming market, and it seems as if 2015 could be the year the cloud gaming goes mainstream.
Strategy Analytics, a technology research firm located in the Boston area, notes that cloud gaming services are poised to take off in 2015. The current players in this market are PlayStation Now and Nvidia’s Grid Game Streaming Service. This market is poised to hit 30 million end users by the end of 2014. Strategy Analytics mentions that this market segment could contain up to 150 million end users by the end of 2015.
One of the biggest reasons for the public’s rapid adaptation of cloud gaming will be the larger base in cloud enabled gaming consoles. Take the PlayStation 4 for example, with the PlayStation now membership users can relive their childhoods and play Crash Bandicoot which was originally released on the PS1. This game would be directly beamed to your screen using the cloud. Users won’t have to worry dusting off their old cases nor will they have to worry about scuffed up DVDs. The backwards compatibility with all of the PlayStation titles of the past along with having gaming content on demand is expected to bolster cloud gaming’s appeal.
The news surrounding the reports say very little about Microsoft’s Xbox One gaming platform, however it should be noted that Microsoft does plan on releasing a cloud gaming service of its own using the Xbox One Network. Microsoft’s cloud gaming endeavors are encouraged by its recent report noting that Microsoft Research believes that it has solved the lag problem that many online games suffer from due to their locality.
