Mobile or Host: Where cloud games run is important.
Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “ Smart Relativity ” (ID: aixdlun ), The author programming prodigal son.
After Google released Stadia on November 19th, Microsoft immediately announced that its XGP-based cloud gaming platform xCloud plans to conduct a preview test in early December. After the basic prototype was proposed by G-cluster of Finland 20 years ago, Cloud games appear more and more times in our field of vision. The storms of overseas manufacturers have not subsided, and domestic manufacturers are also actively making arrangements.
Huawei officially released the cloud game management service platform on June 17th at the Global Game Conference. On November 26, 2019, the first internal test of the “5G Sesame” cloud game platform under Chengdu Leadworld Network Technology Co., Ltd.
In addition, many domestic game companies such as Tencent and Netease are actively deploying cloud games. For a while, cloud games seemed to be the next hot market outlet, and the grand occasion of “everyone is a cloud player” seems to be at hand.
We can’t help wondering how to play cloud games in the first year of 5G?
Cloud games and their ambiguous play experience
The original starting point of cloud games is to reduce the player ’s hardware investment by only feeding the game screen through cloud streaming on the game. “Junk hardware can also experience top-notch masterpieces” is the goal of a cloud game vendor. For example, the general manager of the domestic manufacturer Shanghai Dalong Information Technology mentioned in the interview that “cloud games allow users to play terminal games on mobile phones, which can help users save money.”
But from this point of view, cloud games still have a long way to go. 80% of the gaming experience in Stadia can be close to normal, and the remaining 20% of the time there is a frame freeze, which is a fatal point for the game. Many other castrations in order to adapt to the network situation, such as fake 4k screens, insufficient game content, etc., are due to the limitations of small water pipes.
According to the Accenture Network Readiness Survey Report, less than 40% of respondents have overall network capabilities (36%) and bandwidth (38%)”Very satisfied”. Half or less of respondents were “very satisfied” with their network performance (43%), security (50%), and reliability (50%).
Many manufacturers regard 5G as an opportunity for cloud games to break through bandwidth barriers. But even with the advent of the 5G era, bandwidth is still a scarce resource in the short term. This is the main reason why cloud games have to fly for a while. The non-cloud games are still not high in network use satisfaction, and the game ’s demand for network bandwidth is more rigid.
From the perspective of network penetration, with the increase in the number of Internet users, the penetration rate of Internet users in China has increased from 28.9% in 2009 to 58.5% in 2018. If you refer to the US penetration rate of 76.8%, China ’s Internet penetration rate is still 18.3% can be improved. In the future, the growth of Chinese netizens will mainly come from three groups: the new population, remote areas, and the elderly. In terms of market value, this part of the population has the potential for further harvesting, and cloud games are more like a concept to them than daily reality.
Mobile or host: Where does cloud gaming really matter?
The cloud game market will not directly impact the existing game market structure. The second key reason is that the core users’ playing habits are highly stable.
For console and PC gamers, although there is still a large gap between the experience of using cloud games and the experience of traditional game hardware, writing about game types can also attract the attention of some hardcore players. For example, Sony’s PSNOW, a streaming game subscription platform, allows players to experience the games of the PS3 generation that have passed away on the PC, satisfying the nostalgia of some hardcore players.
But fundamentally, Heavyweight works and mobile mobile games on the host and PC The two different tracks currently on the road, not only do players have a chain of contempt, from < strong> There are big differences in gameplay and ecology, and the habits of different groups of players have very high stability.
Mobile gameplay is mainly fragmented, lightweight, and non-heavy. Mobile users are not inclined to pursue hard-core gamers’ image quality and gameplay details. Social, topical, and casual herding effects are very typical in this group of players. And for lightweight players on the mobile end, the host and heavy PC are often rejected by these players due to higher learning costs.
The cloud game market will not directly impact the existing game market structure. The second key reason is that the core users’ playing habits are highly stable.
For console and PC gamers, although there is still a large gap between the experience of using cloud games and the experience of traditional game hardware, writing about game types can also attract the attention of some hardcore players. For example, Sony’s PSNOW, a streaming game subscription platform, allows players to experience the games of the PS3 generation that have passed away on the PC, satisfying the nostalgia of some hardcore players.
But fundamentally, Heavyweight works and mobile mobile games on the host and PC The two different tracks currently on the road, not only do players have a chain of contempt, from < strong> There are big differences in gameplay and ecology, and the habits of different groups of players have very high stability.
Mobile gameplay is mainly fragmented, lightweight, and non-heavy. Mobile users are not inclined to pursue hard-core gamers’ image quality and gameplay details. Social, topical, and casual herding effects are very typical in this group of players. And for lightweight players on the mobile end, the host and heavy PC are often rejected by these players due to higher learning costs.