Cloud-based gaming: An inevitable future?

[TurboDuck]

[headline]Cloud-based gaming: An inevitable future?[/headline]

 

As of August 2016 we find ourselves at a time where the demographics of internet users are quickly being dominated by those that do not remember a time before the internet existed. This age of rapid technological advancement results in a large number of internet users not being old enough to remember a time before music streaming services such as...

 

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[Ryzza5]

As amazing as it is we're still not at a point where one can stream games over their wired Ethernet LAN on titles where latency is crucial. Racing games in particular (steering wheels aren't supported anyway). Same deal with Rocket League, which otherwise would be a perfect casual use case. So I can't see that genre taking off just yet.

 

Streaming older emulated games however sounds more reasonable - if the price is right. Don't charge a premium just because the game WAS popular 15 years ago or is considered 'retro'. I still personally expect relatively 'bargain bin' prices with a tiny amount added on for redistribution costs.

 

I feel like I've discussed this topic before but my google-fu fails me.

[Ozzmcom]

NOPE, there is a limit to the response time of the internet. Even under perfect circumstances, radio waves could only travel at the speed of light (in earth's case much lower speeds because earth is not a vacuum). So cloud based gaming will never catch on with games that require acceptable latency such as fps, racing etc. This idea has been revived just about every other decade and fail miserably because latency is still an issue. Unless the mainframe is literally next door, you will feel the latency.

[Eudemon]

Maybe if quantum entanglement gets to the stage where you could in theory receive the reply to the message you are currently about to send* then yeah, but anytime now or in the near future. Probably not.

 

*Yeah Science!

[Ozzmcom]

Maybe if quantum entanglement gets to the stage where you could in theory receive the reply to the message you are currently about to send* then yeah, but anytime now or in the near future. Probably not.

 

*Yeah Science!

if technology could capitalize and channel the power of quantum field, you would not even need a cloud in the first place. 2 bit memory is all you need.

[TIMELESS]

Please don't start talking about qbits :p

 

I think you've got to remember the internet is getting faster and faster every day, with services now achieving what we'd have thought impossible just a few years ago. You've also got to remember the good old days, the early days of internet and multiplayer when even then games worked seamlessly because they used such simple methods. There is a way to do this, and I don't think it's beyond our technological abilities.

 

The most difficult part of cloud-based gaming has to be the cloud itself, which in reality is just a server/system somewhere running the game for you and streaming it to you. It must take a whole lot of power to run games for so many people at once.

[CarMadMike]

NOPE [...] So cloud based gaming will never catch on with games that require acceptable latency such as fps, racing etc. .

 

Are you referring to multiplayer online gaming in these genres or even single player? Having played GRID, Dirt 3 and Tomb Raider I'd say you could quite easily play racing games and FPS on cloud based streaming.

 

I do understand where you are coming from and if it isn't much use for anything other than single player gaming than it will alienate a lot of gamers until this changes. Which is why I think Ry has a valid point in saying that old retro emulated games would be a great area for these services to target.

[Ozzmcom]

tomb raider is not an fps, but yeah I was talking about multiplayer games.

 

@softie

bandwidth speed and latency are two different things you are confusing. Radio waves cannot travel any faster than the speed they do right now so although the bandwidth speed might go up (download/upload speed) latency will never go down.

[Ryzza5]

Quantum entanglement? Isn't that where you finish playing the game before you start it? Or just start with level 13, then 21, then 4, then 8, then 19, and so on? :)

 

 

/(bad Quantum Leap joke)

[Ozzmcom]

only if there was a dislike button

[TIMELESS]

tomb raider is not an fps, but yeah I was talking about multiplayer games.

 

@softie

bandwidth speed and latency are two different things you are confusing. Radio waves cannot travel any faster than the speed they do right now so although the bandwidth speed might go up (download/upload speed) latency will never go down.

 

True. What I meant was even games 15-20 years ago had ways of counteracting the latency, and I believe it's entirely possible for more improvements here in the future. And of course there's always a possibility that someone (probably Google) will reinvent how internet connections work :p

[CarMadMike]

True. What I meant was even games 15-20 years ago had ways of counteracting the latency, and I believe it's entirely possible for more improvements here in the future. And of course there's always a possibility that someone (probably Google) will reinvent how internet connections work :p

 

True, I don't think we should rule out further technological advancement stopping it being an issue.

 

However, people seem to be ruling it out because of its multiplayer issues, but surely if it's okay for single player games, there is still a future for cloud-based streaming? :shrug:

[TIMELESS]

True, I don't think we should rule out further technological advancement stopping it being an issue.

 

However, people seem to be ruling it out because of its multiplayer issues, but surely if it's okay for single player games, there is still a future for cloud-based streaming? :shrug:

 

Well even in single player there's going to be latency. As you're streaming from place A to place B, and your controller inputs have to go from place B back to place A and then be reflected by the game going back from A to B. If that makes sense. :hmmm:

[CarMadMike]

Well yes, but as someone who is playing on games being streamed from the cloud quite regularly I seriously don't think it's that big an issue. Not something worth ruling out.

[TIMELESS]

Well yes, but as someone who is playing on games being streamed from the cloud quite regularly I seriously don't think it's that big an issue. Not something worth ruling out.

 

I agree, if you don't notice latency, the latency isn't a problem.