9Recent developments in the world of video gaming and surrounding technologies have opened up more opportunities than ever previously possible. Not only are video games themselves setting new standards in graphics and animation, but the hardware has now started bridging the gap into what was formerly considered science fiction. One of the more visible illustrations of this is the recent popularization of virtual and augmented reality games, though there is another technology which could surpass even these in its popularity and range of use. This is the age of cloud gaming, and with it comes an entirely new way to experience interactive media.
Understanding Cloud Gaming
A simple way to understand cloud gaming is to compare it to other cloud services which have already been making major waves in recent years. Streaming services are, in effect, a form of cloud computing. This comes from the idea that the actual data for a piece of media is stored in an off-site location and then streamed into a household which plays this media. Netflix is perhaps the most commonly experienced expression of this, but while there are some key similarities shared here, there is also a fundamental difference.
Cloud gaming is an attempt to develop the same concept for games – the at-home playing of a game which is hosted and played on a technically different device, and then streamed into another location. The reason this is so important in terms of video games is that, unlike with straight video or audio playback, gaming requires immense computational power. This means that some of the biggest and most popular series in gaming are simply not possible to play on the go, or at any location without direct access to the machine, and cloud gaming looks to revolutionize this idea by removing these barriers to access.
Bridging the Final Gap
The biggest issue standing in the way of cloud gaming is one of latency or lag. Unlike with video or audio, which can be buffered for a slight initial delay but greater more reliable and continuous playback, gaming requires as close to real-time transmission as possible. Any more delay than the absolute minimum renders a great many games effectively unplayable and given that for gaming, this requires not only audio and video, but real-time input transmission, the act is understandably far more complicated.
While there have been efforts to pursue this eventual entertainment inevitability, it is only recently that global internet infrastructure has reached the point where this is becoming reliably possible. With established industry veterans such as Sony and NVidia now chasing this coming revolution at full pace, it is only a matter of time before cloud gaming becomes a reliable reality.
New Possibilities
The advantages of this system are far too great to ignore for any video game enthusiast. Not only will players in the near future be able to stream their games to any other device, allowing such combinations such as PlayStation 4 games on a mobile phone, they will also be able to subscribe to services which allow the playing of games they don’t technically own. The first steps in this direction have already taken place with the likes of the EA Access pass, and with the future more digital than ever before, cloud gaming looks to take its place as a mainstay of future interactive entertai