Cloud Gaming - How will it Affect the Hardware Industry if the Dream Comes True?

Cloud gaming has been a new trend for years now. It is much common in watching live streams, movies, and games. Its server administers a game and gives the gameplay to you for streaming. The goal of cloud gaming is that we’ll no longer need gaming computers or consoles with high specifications. Because of this, a lot of analysts say the cloud is the future of the gaming industry.

Let’s say you have MSI GS65 Stealth Thin which is a gaming Ultrabook that has an Intel Core i7 processor with 16GB DDR4 RAM enforced with GeForce GTX 1060 (6GB) for its graphics performance. This laptop has the lowest price of $1,399.00 in Amazon. This will cost you much just to play your desired game. If you buy your own PC, you will need high specs to enjoy the best games you want.

But these are different in cloud gaming, paying an affordable monthly subscription will give you access to a list of high end, real life-like graphics, and enticing games.

You can play in any device you use without needing powerful graphics hardware. All you need is a stable internet connection, and your good to go. With many affordable data plans and the launch of 5G, high rated games will be accessible making a new step in gaming history. 

Cloud saves your data and progress, so instead of saving them into your system, all information is stored remotely. This means all your devices (console, mobile phone, or computer) is not relying on its internal hardware to run games. So games that are incapable of running locally can be played using cloud gaming.

According to Matt Ball, a venture investor, and writer, Cloud gaming will further expand access, remove friction, augment processing power and reduce cost barriers — finally making it possible for even the most gamers who occasionally play games to access the best the division has to offer.

The expected outcome is a new batch of gamers playing more hardcore games, and also more people playing games than ever before.

How could game-streaming work?

Game streaming a type of online gaming where it allows direct and on-demand video streaming of games into your phone or computer through the use of the thin client. The actual game is stored and executed on a remote server or the company’s server.

After that, the video results are sent to your computer by using the internet. The functions pressed from the users’ device are carried directly to the server and then the server sends back the game’s response to the input controls.

To further understand how it really works, let’s use the latest online mobile game called Call of Duty Mobile. This game was released during the year 2019 and this game is an example of cloud gaming. In this extreme mobile game, you will have your avatar compete against other players globally.

The controls are shown on the side of your phone to give you a clear view of what your avatar could see. Now, each time you press one of the controls, the signal is sent to a remote server or the company’s server, after that the server sends back the signal to your device. This allows your avatar to fire a weapon or to move around the map. All of this happens faster than a blink of an eye.

Sooner or later, companies like Microsoft, Valve, and Amazon would sell streaming boxes that will over time not only conquer the console market but could also make gaming PCs a part of history.

The future of hardware gaming

Since Cloud gaming is becoming widespread, disturbance should be expected for hardware manufacturers, such as console and PC brands, who will have to rethink the role and benefits of cutting-edge hardware ownership.

According to Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, Video game consoles don’t appear to be dying in 2018, with the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One combining to sell more than 100 million software and the Switch quickly obtaining a nice user-base of its own. However, dedicated game consoles may soon be part of history.

“I think we will see another generation, but there is a good chance that step-by-step we will see less and less hardware,” he then continued. “With time, I think streaming will become more accessible to many players and make it not necessary to have big hardware at home.”

Now, this development disrupted the gaming community much. This is because if you want to play modern games, you will need a large amount of computing and hardware effort. However, we are close to the day where both the internet speed and dependability, as well as virtual cloud, has enough ability to support online streaming games.

In the latest report of Jon Peddie Research, he stated that there are approximately 20 million PC gamers who could leave to TV gaming platforms in between 2019 and 2022. These people are those with PC and TV gaming platforms with low specs.

However, improvements in these devices, as well as consoles exclusive games, means that high-end and mid-range gamers may leave, too.

Conclusion

Sometimes analysts get their calculations wrong. Games industry analyst Michael Pachter once said that console gaming will be dead by 2020. Sony then confirmed the successful release of PS5, destroying that theory. Analysts have also said that in 2019 mobile gaming would end of both PC and console gaming, and is still proven wrong.

However, it would be naive to think that game streaming services and exclusive games won’t affect how people will buy and access games in the future. If that would be the case, then companies wouldn’t invest their time and money into development.

At the end of the day, we will have to wait and see what the future holds for the console and computer hardware industry.

If you want to know more about the modern Gaming PC, check out our other tech-focused content over at NetBookNews.