INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Image copyrightPAul KammaImage caption
Paul Kamma has turned to cloud gaming
Paul Kamma used to lead an
As a video games enthusiast, he'd while away his time playing first-person shooters and other high-octane games.Then he got married and
started a family."When you come home, you play with your kids… You don't have much time to play big games like GTA [Grand Theft Auto]," he
says."But I still wanted to do this because I loved it."As well as not being able to spend as long at his computer as he once did, Mr Kamma
also didn't have free reign over the household TV like before.So, he turned to cloud gaming, which allowed him to stream video games to a
Anywhere he went, he could still have access to his favourite games
Mr Kamma lives in Germany
The streaming service he chose, Shadow, allowed him to set up a remote PC on a server somewhere in The Netherlands.He could install games on
the server and connect to it via his computer, which displayed the game screen and allowed him to control his character."I can play it
everywhere, I can play it at work if I have free time there," he says.Image copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption
Google
launches its games service Stadia in November
That's what cloud gaming is - your game runs on a powerful computer somewhere
else and you just connect to it.It means players can access big, processor-hungry games on simple devices - cheap tablet computers, even
While such a set-up has been possible for some time, cloud gaming will soon be available from Google, and Microsoft as well.This month
Google will launch its Stadia service in the US, UK, Europe and Canada, and Microsoft has just begun previewing its Project xCloud.Nvidia is
also preparing its GeForce Now streaming product
And Sony already supplies games on-demand via PlayStation Now to PS4 consoles and PC's.Some of these services involve monthly subscription
costs, and in Stadia's case, gamers are being encouraged to buy a new controller (£59.99 each).Image copyrightGoogleImage caption
Google will sell a controller to go along with its Stadia games service
It connects directly via wifi to the game
you're playing, rather than being plugged into a device in your home that then sends the controller data over the internet.But the key
element with all these services is that fundamental shift away from running games on hardware in your home, to running them on a beefed-up
server somewhere else instead
By offering this flexible, play-anywhere option, some think it could mean the death of the home video games console."I pre-ordered Stadia
because I really liked the idea as a console replacement," says Mr Kamma
The first home video games console that could connect to a TV was the Magnavox Odyssey, released in 1972.Today, the market for consoles is
If you add up all the PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch devices that have been sold, you get roughly 180 million units
"The interesting thing is that the number of people around the world who buy devices like this isn't really growing - and it hasn't been for
some time," says Piers Harding-Rolls, a games industry analyst at IHS Markit."It's been at that level for 15, 20 years," he says.Cloud
gaming, he suggests, is really an attempt to make video games more accessible, potentially opening them up to a wider audience
It may also appeal to people like Mr Kamma, who already enjoy games but who might be spending less and less time on them because of other
commitments.More Technology of BusinessClaire Thomas, a gamer and software engineer at tech firm Improbable, says she thinks streaming could
have a democratising effect
"I've grown up with some friends in different areas of the world, and I'm still able to go home after work and I'm still able to play with
While some of her pals don't have the latest hardware, they can still join in thanks to streaming
Mr Harding-Rolls points out that cloud gaming of this type has already been attempted, 10 years ago, with a service called OnLive.It was
reasonably successful, perhaps even ahead of its time, but it went the way of the dodo
Partly because back then internet infrastructure was not as robust as it is today, and connection speeds were slower."It cost them too much
to stream the content, and that left them with very little room to manoeuvre in terms of acquiring content," says Mr Harding-Rolls.And that
content, is make or break.Image copyrightImprobableImage caption
Claire Thomas does not see the death of the console
Services like Stadia and xCloud will be vying to have exclusive rights to the biggest games
Currently, few exclusives have been announced for Stadia, for example, which has not gone unnoticed
As with Netflix or Amazon Prime Video, these rights deals could mean everything in terms of popularity with the target audience
Consoles also rely on exclusivity to some extent - these tie-ups are already de rigueur in the industry
Cloud services may find themselves competing for exclusivity not just with each other but with the traditional console market too.There are
When playing most video games, it's essential to have constant, uninterrupted control, and clear video output of the game world
A dodgy internet connection means your killer move at the key point in a battle might not transmit in time - costing you your virtual
life.It's a problem known as input lag
Google's wi-fi controller is an attempt to conquer it by transmitting commands directly to the game server.Ms Thomas argues that having a
good internet connection will soon be the only barrier to gaming - but your bandwidth might depend on how close you happen to live to the
nearest cloud gaming data centre
Image copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption
Fast connections can mean life or death in a game
Gamers who
have been testing early versions of the latest game-streaming services have had promising though not flawless experiences
Thomas Wilde, writing for tech site GeekWire, notes that his connection to the beta version of Project xCloud was reasonably good
However, he writes: "You end up transmitting and receiving a lot of data when you play games via xCloud, and it can easily overwhelm a wi-fi
connection."Even if everything does run smoothly, neither Ms Thomas nor Mr Kamma see cloud gaming as spelling the death of the console just
Mr Kamma points out that the next generation of consoles may offer ultra high-resolution gaming
It will be hard to stream games at such quality, and he thinks there will continue to be a market of gamers keen to have the best systems at
home.Image copyrightEPIC GAMESImage caption
Experts say game streaming could mean developers have to sell more character
outfits
How will game developers take advantage of cloud gaming? Jamie Woodcock, a digital economy researcher, points out
that some publishers may find themselves offering games for free via subscription services."If you're no longer selling it independently but
putting it on a streaming platform, is the publisher going to make the same money?"I think it would be safe to say that they would make
less."That might mean that developers feel ever more inclined to offer in-game purchases - new virtual weapons or costumes, for instance -
to "upsell" the experience
It's already common in some games, including Fortnite, but cloud gaming could make it all the more attractive for publishers
Cloud gaming certainly feels like an exciting new paradigm
We'll soon find out whether gamers take to it or not, but consoles - those reliable, trusty boxes you own yourself - aren't going anywhere
