Is Cloud Gaming the Future of Entertainment?

With the rapid growth of the cloud computing, not just computing related processes like data collection and information sharing have reached to a higher level, but many other processes are also adopting this information technology revolution. Cloud gaming is one such process.

Cloud gaming is booming quickly and gradually it is replacing the traditional gaming genre. The growth of Cloud gaming is obvious and irresistible because it is an innovative application that is offering new opportunities and new horizons to the existing as well as upcoming games. 

Understanding Cloud Gaming 

 

The huge demand and usage of cloud computing has created a wave of revolution in the gaming industry as well and it has considerably changed the concept of how humans play games. Although, cloud gaming is still an evolving, although rapidly evolving, concept, it is already been highly preferred by users because it offers ‘gaming on demand.’ Gaming on demand is made possible by keeping many distributed computers connected through a synchronous communication network, of course with the aid of Cloud computing.

Under cloud gaming, all the games are stored in the server belonging to the operator or the game company, and on user’s demand the game gets directly streamed from the server onto the users’ devices like computers, smartphones, tablets etc. 

Cloud-based gaming companies like OnLive and Gaikai has recently started providing services and platforms that allow users to play HD video games, which are rendered through remote cloud servers. 

Can Cloud-based Gaming Become the Future of Entertainment?

Cloud gaming has all the potential to become the future of entertainment that is channelized through video games. It has already started showing impact on social and personal aspect by bringing in plenty of benefits such as: 

·         Players can simply play online; need of bulky devices, all a user needs is a high-speed network with large-amount bandwidth

·         Can access variety of games without deploying any new hardware or a game console

·         This saves money and also cuts down the need of upgrading the console because applications and data of the game get stored in the cloud

·         Payment procedure is pretty simple as it can be done over the Internet only

·         Cloud gaming is more feasible and preferred because it includes various cloud services such as data management, easy payment, quick payment collections 

·         This frees gamers from playing high-performance indoor games with the need of bulky devices and thus makes outdoor activities more diverse. 

 Challenges of Cloud Computing

Despite gaming industry has set on an irreversible move with Cloud computing on the pilot seat, but it still requires dealing with some major challenges to actually bloom in the manner it is promising right now. Latency, Security and Packet loss are three main challenges that cloud-based gaming companies have to overcome. 

Packet loss

A game which is streaming directly from the cloud server needs to be free of congestion or packet loss. Games played locally using gaming console are spontaneous and Cloud gaming also has to meet up that spontaneity to sustain in the long run. 

Security 

Anything that moves to the online platform, always require dealing with security concern. In cloud gaming also, security is a potential challenge, especially in regards to data protection and location tracking of the gamer.

Latency 

Latency deals with the quality of gamers’ experience. While playing online, gamer demands quick response, consistency and more stable connection with the cloud server. Latency has always been a vexing challenge in the domain of online games, and cloud computing is also under this trap and it has to mend with as much finesses as possible. 

If the aforementioned challenges can be overcome then Cloud computing has all the potential to be a big hit in the coming future because it will facilitate high-class gaming at a reduced cost. The gamer won’t have to buy expensive consoles and deploy heavy hardware. Moreover, direct access to cloud server will let a gamer access variety of games which will be promptly available on demand through streaming.