On Friday the new - potentially revolutionary – cloud gaming service On-Live was opened to the public. My interest was piqued firstly as a reformed computer games player myself (it gave me the excuse to get off the wagon so to speak), as well being intrigued as to the dramatic changes that this service could herald not only in the gaming but also across interactive media and cloud computing space as a whole.
On-Live’s proposition is that it delivers computer games instantaneously and dynamically over the cloud - remote servers connected to the user through a standard broadband connection for the jargon uninitiated. The business case is based on three key benefits in comparison to standard gaming devices (PC, Xbox, PS3 etc):-
· The ability for low spec machines to deliver high spec games to consumers
o The result of specialised server infrastructure performing all the 3d heavy lifting. The terminal only needs to handle an app front end
o A simple TV box retailing at £89 has been launched to undercut competition
· The ability for a customer profile of purchased games and saved points to be accessible from any machine instantly.
o Greater flexibility to meet your lifestyle
o Greater sociability – you can log in from a friends location
· This profile to be linked to a dynamically updating selection of games delivered through a monthly subscription
o Currently OnLive have a £6.99 per month package which gives the consumer access to dozens of different games (although only a few of these are high profile)
o This list can be updated with new titles.
o Much like a mobile or utility contract this can be used to build ‘stickiness’ to customers and guarantee revenue flow.
It is the first of these benefits which really strikes me the key to the success of the product. As cloud computing can remove the need for bulky, expensive and rapidly obsolete hardware the potential commercial advantage for On-Live is huge. However in my initial experience there seemed to be a problem with this. I logged on using a feeble Samsung Netbook (outstanding for web browsing and word processing with a brilliant keyboard – but very light in the processor area) across a 5Mb connection. These are modest specs but quite indicative of a large swathe of the market who do not have high end computers who are presumably a key target for OnLive executives.
Unfortunately the result was unplayable. Lag on the games – waiting from pressing a key to the action being translated within the game clocked in at around three or four seconds. The GUI informed me that there were network connectivity problem, although when I used a broadband speed checker I was managing a consistent 4Mb/s connection.
However, while it is of course early days, it seems to me certain that cloud technology will dominate gaming in medium term if implemented and supported successfully. This opinion is founded on three separate elements-
· Economies of scale reducing costs resulting from massed site server locations. Component, logistical, marketing prices will be significantly cheaper than those of stand alone system retailed to consumers. These savings can be passed on.
· Efficient utilisation of capacity (ie. you don’t have all those unused playstation threes with idle processorts kicking around) – this again bringing down cost versus stand alone systems. Effectively less processors, memory, other components etc will be required to serve the same set of customers.
· The dynamically updating specification of system allowing consistently cutting edge game play – it will be possible to make your gaming offering ‘obsolete-proof’ without the expensive cycle of releasing a new stand alone system into the market.
The barriers to this business model are (as ever) mainly technical and logistical - and On-Live will be hoping that they will be able to ability to shape and dominate this new market before competitors with greater resources lumber in. Surely it can only be a matter of time before Microsoft and Sony venture forth. The key considerations seem to me –
· Quality and consistency of service
o Interruption of service/Poor service – a real concern for anything so bandwidth heavy in a time of ever more severe contention on the web – could be devastating to reputation and credibility of the technology
· True accessibility from minimal spec machines to drive penetraition into mobile devices, tablets and other devices
o On a technical level this will be driven by the ‘back loading’ of processing and memory requirements onto the cloud server as much as possible, and the ‘slimming’ of the on device app.
· A first rate offering of games
o Without the games you cannot attract the customers. On-Live’s profile is tiny and poor compared to that of Sony, Xbox etc. This will need to be aggressively and rapidly expanded.
o This is the area where On-live are most exposed to the big players who have huge portfolios of existing games, and extremely strog relationships with development houses, to call upon.
It will be interesting to see how this one will pan out.
No comments:
Post a Comment