Be The Cloud With You, Gamer

Gaming anywhere and anytime is what every gamer secretly wished for! Cloud gaming is just the answer to those prayers. Here, we tried to delve in and ask, “What’s up in the cloud of gaming!”

By Sameer Baig

loud gaming is an old

Cbut unique experiences in the world of gaming. Introduced as a concept to the world in 2010 by OnLiv, using a small game “streaming micro” and a special controller, the service has grown exponentially in the last few years. Top gamers worldwide have started betting on cloud gaming as a service, and the story is not very different in India.

According to a report by Facts & Factors, the Cloud Gaming Market was estimated at $ 1,011 million in 2018 and is expected to grow to $ 8,833 Million by 2027. One of the latest reports published by KPMG has projected the growth of the Indian online gaming segment alone to reach Rs. 29,000/- crore, with the number of gamers rising to 65.7 crores by FY 2025.

How does it work up there?

Cloud gaming is a new way of providing high-quality gaming from anywhere and at any time. You don’t play on your systems; you play through your systems. Today, your game looks and runs as good as how your system and processor can make it look and run. Switch to cloud gaming, and your processor will have no impact on your gaming experience.

In simple terms, it is a platform that provides you with an opportunity to experience highend games in a way they are designed to impact your experience without having a high-end processor/console at your end. Imagine if I were to say that you could experience playing GTA 5 at its best on a processor that would never support a game like GTA Vice City. Cloud gaming ends up eliminating the role of your processor in your gaming experience.

From left to right: Xclr8, Pushkraj Kadam ‘ghostlyboi’, Keval “Endeavour” Tembwalker and Sushant Wadhavane ‘googlexgod’

Keval “Endeavour” Tembwalker, the winner of the OnePlus PGAX Chennai and the UIG Championship Series (2019), is a huge fan of cloud gaming for this very reason. “You can play brand new titles on ultra settings on your low-end PCs, laptops, even on your phone and iPads. What more could you ask for?”

What do you get from the clouds?

Remember the times we spent thousands and lacs of rupees assembling or buying a highend processor to play games? Then a few years later, we would pay a similar amount to upgrade these systems to ensure that our systems are up and running to handle the newly launched games that require further enhanced systems. With cloud gaming, this is gone forever. “The cost of assembling a gaming pc in these times is too high. If you have a good internet connection and don’t have the budget to buy a high-end pc, then cloud gaming can help everyone in this scenario. It can pave the way for more talented eSports players all across the globe,” says Xclr8, who played alongside Tembwalkar at the OnePlus PGAX Chennai and was also a top ranker at Legion of Champions (2019).

You pay a subscription amount and enjoy the games at their best on a server without breaking your head on the lag and frame despite investing so much money putting up a system to play these games.

Future of cloud gaming

Cloud gaming is still at its infancy stage. Yet, the technology giants like Shadow (MAC), NVIDIA, Play Station, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and many more have ensured stepping into the space of cloud gaming and making their mark by offering a wide variety of games and unique experiences seeing the growth and potential of this market. This may make it seem like cloud gaming is the next best thing that will command the gaming world; however, it would be too early to comment on that.

The continued investments in cloud computing, infrastructure, and people’s response to the games available on these platforms will direct the future. If the creation, distribution, and consumption patterns of people change and favour the world of cloud gaming, it will be the future, or else it will continue to be one of the initiatives which will remain as a good substitute for video games. However, as an industry, it will grow as there is enormous potential and a larger market, which in time remains untapped.