Graphics Card Manufacturers Foresee the Future of Gaming In the Cloud
Although development news involving OnLive and Gaikai, two pioneer cloud gaming service providers, has not been prominent lately, cloud gaming is still these powerhouses are considered by most experts to be the future of this industry. This is because they solve the main issues that have plagued PC gaming since its beginnings: Software piracy and the high cost of hardware and upgrades on the user end.
The technology for cloud gaming is already here but the potential for the future is still far from being realized. With a few tweaks to their business model, cloud gaming service providers can make gains in this market. Hardware manufacturers and developers have started to bet on cloud gaming, creating exciting new products for 2013. This is especially true for graphics card manufacturers, particularly Nvidia who have pushed the envelope in developing graphics cards specifically towards cloud gaming servers.
What makes cloud gaming services attractive?
Only a few years ago, the idea of computing games at a data center and allowing users to log in from any location started to gain traction. When cloud service providers started to adapt their technology to gaming, this spurred more interest on the part of graphics card companies.
Graphics card manufacturers now have the potential to influence television gaming directly. The union of big screen gaming and high-end PC processing and cloud computing sets a clear path for the future. While these companies have supported television gaming by manufacturing components for consoles, this more direct approach allows more freedom to innovate.
High-end graphics card used in both domestic and public clouds
This kind of cloud gaming mostly involves high-end graphics cards located in data centers streaming to end users’ televisions or terminals. Many graphics card manufacturers are also looking at creating home-server based graphics cards that allow users to rely on their own gaming computer system for streaming different screens within a single home.
This market is particularly attractive for graphics card manufacturers because it solves their main problem of achieving cross-platform compatibility. Graphics cards are notorious for having multiple releases and versions dealing with idiosyncrasies of specific platforms, oft making debugging, installation and customer support a nightmare. However, by using the cloud gaming model, companies can now create graphics cards specifically for a particular hardware setup and platform which is then streamed to a variety of platforms (including mobile phones and tablets).
Coming up with possible financing models for the future of cloud gaming
It is possible that, in future, new, more efficient models for organizing the cloud gaming industry could arise. On one level, IaaS providers may operate data centers and be charged with providing the capacity for high-end GPUs without actually providing this kind of hardware. Graphics card manufacturers may start providing graphics processing power on an HaaS basis that could be layered on top of that. Finally, companies looking to distribute games using the cloud would use these two services in order to provide their own SaaS packages.
This model may provide companies with a clear business model for financing such systems. The main problem that needs to be solved is one of finding financing models – the technology exists already.
Graphics cards manufacturers like Nvidia and AMD are putting considerable resources into developing cloud-focused strategies. While, initially, some graphics cards companies balked at the idea of reducing their direct sales to gamers, now they are starting to realize that there is a positive tradeoff by selling their products to data centers. This expands the number of gamers and attracts new consumers in unprecedented numbers. PC gaming has always had a high entry barrier. However, with PC gamers now having access to games from any device, a huge untapped market has opened up.
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About the Guest Author:
Nida Rasheed is a freelance writer and owner of an outsourcing company, Nida often finds herself wanting to write about the subjects that are closest to her heart. She lives in Islamabad, Pakistan and can be found on Twitter @nidarasheed.
