Cloud gaming, the streaming of multiplayer online games formerly restricted to specialized consoles, has taken hold. And enterprises could benefit from the trend.
During the recent Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, two companies, in particular, made headlines. Gaikai Inc. unveiled a partnership with Samsung, in which Gaikai's cloud gaming service will be streamed onto Samsung Smart TVs. Another cloud gaming vendor, OnLive, also announced plans to stream games to the LG Smart TV with Google TV (G2 Series).
Cloud gaming provider Gaikai has partnered with Samsung to make video games like these playable through Samsung Smart TV. (Source: Gaikai)
These developments have drawn attention to the future of the
leading cloud gaming companies. It's pretty clear that offering games in the cloud frees players from being tied to specialized hardware and also has implications for delivery of streaming video on a range of devices. Industry attention also has shifted to how cloud gaming could affect the future of enterprise computing.
OnLive, for instance, has been part of a move toward providing desktop cloud services for tablets. While Internet Evolution contributor Alan Reiter says these services have performance drawbacks right now (and OnLive ran into licensing problems with Microsoft after its announcement of OnLive Desktop in January 2012), the momentum has started. As BYOD continues in enterprises, IT could benefit from cloud-service provisioning of desktop apps, as opposed to supporting multiple versions of same.
The new services also point toward progress in graphics chips from companies like Nvidia Corp. (Nasdaq: NVDA), which gleefully portray cloud gaming as a snowballing trend. How and where these chips will turn up next is open to speculation. As the OnLive Desktop service shows, there's no reason that chips enabling cloud gaming services can't also serve as a basis for more enterprise services.
It looks like a new management has taken over OnLive while retaining its service. Interesting. Apparently, the new mgt believes in the market, not OnLive's management.
Most certainly Mary. That will be a big boost because when you are trying something which relates to secuity in the cloud the past expeiances will be bought up during the implementation process. So if they can identify those and analyze properly they will be able to find a good solution for security on the cloud not onl;y for gaming but also for other activities.
It also brings up an issue of spectrum crunch and how it poses a problem for the future of cloud gaming.
If my memory serves me correctly, in a nutshell cloud gaming resolves piracy and platform issues while providing a great deal of convenience to players. The resolution of piracy is what makes this such a big deal to the gaming industry.
Just like Doom was one of the first pieces of software to take advantage of 'extended memory' (remember ... what were they, 640K limits?)... gaming tends to push tech in different experimental ways that benefits the I.T. industry as a whole. For Enterprise, this means other services can be offered via cloud. I'm positive with a little imagination we can think beyond just 'software as a service' and really extend it to 'knowledge as a service'.
Certainly agree, nimantha, that cloud gaming could help to popularize cloud computing further by making it more accessible. And as I've noted, the efforts made to secure big clouds for gaming should help boost standards of security and reliability.
I see a very positive side on this because in a period where cloud is being blackmailed for data beeching and so many security issues cloud gaming is rising among the teenagers mostly. So dont you think this will create a band loyalty and some sort of a trust and likability on cloud by these younge generation which will lead some positive signs for the future ?
Bolingbroke, I think you're right. But for enterprises, even though the term gamification has gone out of style, it seems there is plenty of interest left in the principles the term was coined to represent.
Frankly, I think there's some confusion over what markets are targeted in research. Gaming itself isn't going anywhere but up, albeit perhaps at a slower rate than before, though I'm not sure of that either. The platform(s) for gaming may be shifting, as discussed above.
Is it my imagination but haven't I read that all forms of digital gaming aside from mobile gaming has been taking it on the chin as of late? I certainly can't imagine digital gaming going away so can we assume that the Cloud will be the brave new world wherein gaming will reside for the forseeable future?
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