This article comes from WeChat public account “East and West Entertainment” (ID: EW-Entertainment), author Chen Xuhui Joshua Chen , Jiang Intermediate, ZG, Gang, Ai Faner released with permission.
In November last year, Google announced that its cloud game service platform Stadia was officially launched, which also caused cloud games to explode again and became the focus of market attention.
As early as 2009, Onlive became the first company to bring cloud games to the market, providing game delivery services based on a paid subscription model. However, its commercialization did not have great success due to the underdeveloped network technology and business model issues. After experiencing bankruptcy, layoffs, and restructuring failures, Onlive was eventually acquired by Sony in 2015.
Ten years later, as a platform lacking game development experience, Google ’s high-profile entry not only means that the maturity of 5G technology has hit the cloud gaming market. The cardiotonic agent further illustrates Google’s interest in disrupting the gaming market.
Compared to “hard-core” players like Sony, Google has chosen a relatively popular route in the field of cloud gaming. Use the low threshold of hardware brought by cloud games to achieve user increase, and try to avoid head-on collisions with rivals such as Sony and Microsoft.
So, Google ’s strategic concept in cloud games is to “out of the circle” and become the real “ninth art.” In this way, we can give full play to our advantages in big data, AI, and cloud computing. Its global cloud infrastructure, large-scale coverage of data centers, and cross-border products such as YouTube will become the biggest change in the game market.
Google ’s layout history in the field of cloud gaming
Streaming technology has changed the way people consume music and video. Now, tech giant Google sees the video game sector as their next goal, which may be so far One of the largest marketsOne.
Streaming technology has changed the way people consume music and video. Now, tech giant Google sees the video game sector as their next goal, which may be so far One of the largest markets. According to Statista’s forecast, the gaming market will generate more than $ 160 billion in market revenue in 2020. This number will grow to 300 billion in 2025, and the cloud gaming market will reach $ 8 billion in 2025.
In 2018, Google announced Stadia’s predecessor, Project Stream, which was born to stream the most difficult entertainment content, namely 3A game works. In the October beta, ProjectStream successfully enabled Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey to run on Google Chrome.
In March 2019, Google officially named Project Stream Stadia. “Stadia is Latin for Stadium,” Majd Bakar, Google ’s vice president of products, said in an interview. “We want consumers in this Stadium to be free to choose from a seated audience, or In personPlayer. Experience different ways of entertainment. “
To this end, Google launched Stadia Games and Entertainment (SG & E) internally in March last year, a division based in Montreal to develop first-party native cloud games for Google. And from the EA corner came Jade Raymond as the department leader. Jade Raymond is a well-known Canadian game producer. He worked at EA and was responsible for the development of “The Sims OL”. He joined Ubisoft in 2004 and was the producer of “Assassin’s Creed.” Executive Producer.
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▲ Jade Raymond, Head of SG & E
Jade said in an interview with the Game industry in October last year that her task at SG & E was to form a number of first-party game studios owned by Google in order to develop Stadia Exclusive games and build a game platform for the work of independent developers or other external partner companies.
On November 19, 2019, Google officially announced that Stadia will be online. Stadia’s charging model is similar to Netflix’s subscription system, except that subscribers need to purchase additional games to experience. Stadia is divided into a free version and a Pro version. The free version can enjoy 1080P image quality, 60 frames and stereo cloud gaming services for free; the Pro version requires a $ 9.99 monthly subscription fee, and can reach 4K image quality, 60 frames, and 5.1 surround sound and mobile device stereo on all platforms. And regularly give away free games and discount coupons.
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▲ Two charging modes for Stadia
Google also offers consumers a $ 129 Founders package, which includes a Stadia controller, Chromecast Ultra and a three-month Stadia Pro, and two can be used to give away Friends of 3 months Stadia Pro.
At the end of 2019, Google acquired Typhoon Studio (representative work: “Wild Planet Journey”) and included it in Stadia’s first studio. The two founders of Typhoon have extensive 3A masterpiece experience. Reid Schneider is the senior producer of Cell Division and the executive producer of Batman: Arkham Knight. Hutchinson has served as the Sims 2 and the The chief designer of Spore, and the creative director of Assassin’s Creed 3 and Far Cry 4.
Last week, news came again that Ben Nicholas, senior designer of the Watchdog team, also left Ubisoft for 3 years and joined GoogleStadia as the first concept designer. Game Industry pointed out that following Google ’s acquisition of Typhoon last year and the recruitment of a large number of former Ubisoft developers, the Stadia development team is now “crowded” with former Ubisoft employees. Today Stadia has built a team of 3A talents.
Google wants to lead the trend of popular games
According to Statista statistics, in 2019, 68% of adults aged 18 to 34 in the United States said they listen to music every day, and 25% would listen 1-3 times a week. Other age groups also showThe same trend. In the same year, 78% of people watched online videos each month, and 55% of people watched videos daily. Mobile video views are growing at a rate of 100% per year. Compared with music and video, games are still a relatively small form of entertainment. The ESA report shows that although 65% of Americans play games in 2019, only about 21% of them will open the game every week, and most of the rest are only played a few times a year or only on certain occasions.
Google wants to turn games into a more popular form of entertainment like listening to music or watching videos. The advent of cloud gaming has made this possible. Breaking through hardware restrictions has lowered the threshold for playing games. The blessing of cloud technology has given Google an innate advantage in the cloud gaming industry. However, Google still needs to face the mass growth difficulties it will face in the process of popularizing the game. At the moment, Google has two core strategies on the road to this goal:
1) YouTube drives Stadia to overcome user mass gaps
The cloud gaming platform itself is also a streaming media service. As an “intruder” in the industry, one of the major advantages that Google can compete with other traditional giants is the channel advantage of YouTube, which brings players a social media-focused, streaming video and e-sports experience.
According to statistics, about 1.9 billion logged-in users visit YouTube every month in 2019, which is about half the number of Internet users. The total length of video playback per day reaches 1 billion hours. Google plans to achieve a seamless transition between video and gaming interfaces, allowing video media and gaming platforms to divert each other. Players can upload YouTube at any time during the game, and share game experiences with friends and even passersby (by sharing, viewers can share the player’s instant archive).
▲ Watch and play on YouTube and vice versa (Source: Reset Era)
Jade Raymond revealed in an interview that she believes that multiplayer games are the future development trend of the game, and YouTube will explain the new multiplayer gameplay in the future . She also said that YouTube will also bring new narrative methods to game documentaries. For example, when you are watching Atari’s documentary, you can touch your screen with your finger, and you will be able to experience Atari’s games in person.
It can be seen that Google ’s strategy is to tie Stadia to YouTube and increase Stadia traffic through live game streaming, ad placement and player community sharing. The Verge commented that Stadia and YouTube create great value for each other. This feature is not yet installed, but this may be the foundation of Stadia in the future. In the heat of the streaming traffic war, Google ’s plan to integrate YouTube and Stadia and its business prospects are worth looking forward to.
2) Multi-platform industry chain support
Apart from YouTube, Stadia ’s interaction with Google ’s other technology products is a feature that other companies in the industry are hard to imitate.
At the 2019 Game Developers Conference, Google showed how the Google Assistant may interact with Stadia. For example, if players encounter difficulties during the game, they can use Google Assistant to get other Players’ ways and latest information about this game.
In addition, Stadia does not rely entirely on the game platform, but can easily and quickly play 3A masterpieces on Google Chrome. At the same time, it will also bring some stability to Stadia through ad placement and other methods. In addition, Google also applies artificial intelligence and other scientific research to Stadia game development. Google executives said in an interview that applying artificial intelligence technology to the NPC modeling of MMO games will make NPCs no longer rigid. “Mission release machine”, but a more flexible existence.
Multi-platform application will bring a large number of mobile terminal users to Stadia. For mobile players who have not experienced the mainframe 3A masterpiece, Stadia will be a cloud game they are willing to try platform. According to statistics, console game players account for less than 40% of the total number of players. According to New Zoo data, the mobile game market size in 2018 reached $ 63.2 billion, far exceeding the console game market’s $ 38.3 billion. The number of smart phone devices is ten times that of the host game device. The development of cloud games will no longer be limited by hardware, bring new user increments, and Google ’s potential user base will increase significantly.
Stadia currently only supports its own Pixel series phones, but recently Google has increased its testing on non-Pixel Android phones, and some users have found that they can already use them on their Android phones. Open Stadia and enter the game.
▲ Stadia On Mobile
In the coming months, Stadia is expected to be officially available on most Android phones, as Phil Harrison, Google ’s vice president, said at the press conference “We want Stadia works on all platforms, “and Google is gradually fulfilling that promise.
Industry Outlook
In the new cloud gaming industry chain, traditional console gaming devices such as Sony PlayStation, Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo Switch will not necessarily maintain the same status as before, with content, channels, Internet giants such as users and cloud technology services such as Amazon, Google, Alibaba will have the opportunity to enter the market to challenge the status of big brothers.
HIS Markit believes that Google has a lot of room for development in cloud gaming. It operates a series of very successful consumer-oriented platforms and services. How many of these platforms and services are there? Less related to games, including YouTube, Google Play, ARCore and Daydream VR, Android (and Android TV), Chromecast and Google Chrome. And in terms of cloud services, Google ’s global influence, GoogleCloud, can help open up the market. These are like tools tailored for the gaming industry.
Phil Harrison, Google ’s vice president of hardware, said that for 20 years, Google has been committed to using data to drive innovation, and he believes that entering the game field is the next step . “The multi-billion dollar cyber empire we built and our understanding and understanding of how the Internet works will help us.”
However, Stadia’s pricing does not prevail when competing with other cloud gaming platforms. Play Station Now has reached $ 9.99 per month after the price drop in October, $ 24.99 every March and $ 59.99 per year, and more importantly, there is no need to spend extra money to purchase games after subscription, while Microsoft’s xCloud is completely free Yes, Stadia’s extra spending on games will drain many potential players.
And the number of games included in Stadia at the beginning of the launch was only 12 (there are now 42 on the official website). In contrast, Games Radar points out that Microsoft xCloud has more than 50 games and directlySupports 3,500 games in the Xbox library. Sony PS Now supports more than 700 games, and many classic PS exclusives.
Analysts believe that Stadia is still in a semi-finished state. At least 15 of the functions promised by Google at the conference are not implemented in Stadia.
Jade Raymond talked about Stadia’s future in the aforementioned Games Industry interview, “Stadia is a long-term layout, from now to first-party games It may take several years for it to come out, but we will have something new every year, and it will be more than one year a year. The first one is mainly a third-party game, and maybe some small changes suitable for the Stadia platform. Then comes second-party games from independent game makers. “
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It can be said that the cloud gaming industry is still in a starting position. For Google, it leads the new gameplay and builds a game subscription platform Stadia and video streaming YouTube. The goal of the perfect system is beautiful and ambitious, but in order to not only add a new member to Google’s “cemetery”, Google will focus on promoting the launch of mobile terminal Stadia in the next few months and open up the blue ocean of mobile device cloud gaming market , To achieve the first step in popularizing the game and achieve its own user increase; solve the technical problems of the Stadia platform, step up the acquisition of studios and the development of first-party exclusive 3A games, and fulfill product promises. Finally, whether the strategy of popularizing the game can be realized depends on whether Google can complete the seamless connection and mass drive of Youtube and Stadia.
According to the commercial timeline of 5G in multiple regional markets around the world, it is certain that 2020 years is destined to become an important year for the future development and market structure of cloud games.