There’s little doubt in anybody’s mind at this point that cloud technology is going to be huge not long from now. While it’s unlikely that cloud gaming will be completely replacing traditional consoles as the primary way of playing games anytime soon, there’s enough evidence to suggest that the next few years will see some of the biggest players in the industry making a huge push for the technology, for future proofing, if nothing else.
The likes of Microsoft, Google, and EA are all investing in the cloud already, while reports have pegged Apple and reportedly even Nintendo (through partnership with Microsoft, of all things) to be looking into it as well, not to mention the fact that Ubisoft and Square Enix have both expressed their confidence in cloud gaming as well. It’s clear, then, that some of the most major players in the industry are putting a great deal of confidence in cloud gaming.
Recently, we conducted an interview with War Thunder developers Gaijin Entertainment, and the studio’s CEO, Anton Yudintsev, is pretty much on the same page. According to Yudintsev, the advent of cloud gaming is going to spell great things for both developers and players, thanks to the industry probably being able to reach wider audiences- though he does think that traditional retail sales of games might suffer as a result.
“I’m almost sure that cloud gaming will be available in the new generation of consoles,” Yudintsev said in conversation with GamingBolt. “In that case we should see cheaper consoles, which will open the world of console gaming for more players, and that’s great for both gamers and game developers. Developers can be adding more hi-tech graphics features to their games as cloud gaming will make it available for a wider audience.”
“At the same time, usual ‘computing power leap’ is inevitable,” he continued. “The ‘end’ of the current generation brought us 4k and 30fps with the PS4 Pro and the Xbox One X, so I expect we will see more of it. Retail part of game distribution is already weak, which brings some challenge to platform holders in the next generation – retail stores were not only getting their margin, but also provided visibility for games and consoles.”
Our full interview with Yudintsev will be going live soon, so stay tuned.