2020: Cloud Gaming Revolution?
This year is seen as a turning point for gaming industry with the battle to win the market of cloud gaming. Started in 2019, more fighters will join this year… Does it mean that consoles will soon disappear? What impact has this change over the creative process?
Games’ streaming already exists for a decade but lately the GAFA enter the battleground on top of traditional competitors. In September 2019, Apple launched its arcade with around hundred games you can play on all the brand’s devices with no special controller! Since its release, several games were launched for the Arcade. In November, Google Stadia was released with a lot of promises (an incredible wireless controller and YouTube exclusive connection…), but it didn’t reach the success expected. Nevertheless, Google started quickly to make updates and want to launch a free version of Stadia in 2020. In Montreal, the company is creating a studio and acquired Typhoon studios, both to develop games for Stadia. Facebook bought the Spanish streaming platform PlayGiga to grow a strong army in the coming years. Square Enix is also searching for its position in the battle, its president Yosuke Matsuda said: “We believe that new gaming experiences that would have been impossible on traditional game consoles will be a major driver of cloud gaming adoption.“ Next fall, the giant Amazon, who already bought Twitch, also wants to develop its own cloud gaming service. At the same period, Microsoft should release its Xcloud to stream on your mobile devices with an Xbox controller in order to complete X Box Pass, its best weapon according to players.
Not far away, another combat is going on. We read about Xbox Series X coming out for the holiday season which will include streaming. According to Microsoft, hardware is complementary with cloud there is no competition between them. For Sony, 2020 will be more about next-generation console than streaming, having PlayStation Now already fighting. Indeed, in a conference in November 2019 Sony announced the aim of PlayStation 5: reaching hardcore gamers with a powerful hardware and AAAA exclusive games if possible. Sony and Microsoft seem to follow the same strategy separating hardware and streaming. Several amazing games have been announced for each console (like new titles Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 on Xbox series X and Godfall on PS5), what makes people really looking forward to having a next-gen hardware at home. Nintendo won’t attack in 2020 and prefers to keep working on its consoles (at least for now) as Shuntaro Furukawa explained in an interview for the Japanese newspaper Nikkei.
“Content is king, and will continue to be king whatever technology you build.”
It is good to make even more people play together at the same time… but is there something more about cloud gaming? On the one hand, Patrice Désilet from Panache Digital Games says distribution methods switched to digital is the real revolution for the indie developers. Buying a game without going to the store allowed indie to gain visibility. Streaming doesn’t change how artists draw and is not restrictive for developers. On the other hand, Ken Moss CTO at EA Games, describes cloud gaming as new possibilities to create even more realistic games with larger maps... With these opposite points of view and so many opponents, it is too early to say who’ll win the battle of cloud gaming and one day win the war of the most popular way to play video games!