The future of mobile gaming is in the cloud
E3 2018 is just getting started, and the annual gaming industry event has already given us plenty to be excited about. In addition to the announcement of some new mobile titles, a trend is solidifying that will change gaming forever. Smartphones may be growing more powerful every year, but almost all the companies in the video game industry agree that the future of gaming is in the cloud.
Streaming console quality games on your smartphone
Smartphone gaming is becoming a serious business, as evidenced by the recent trend of smartphone manufacturers making devices dedicated to gaming, and even more recently by companies, like EA Games, Microsoft and Bethesda showing off their new mobile titles at E3. Furthermore, EA Games and Microsoft have announced they are working on streaming services that will bring the best titles on the market to all devices, including smartphones.
The world of mobile gaming is about to become extremely exciting
We don't have any details on price and release date yet, but sometime in the future, this service will work by allowing users to stream EA's games library, likely using the cloud gaming technology and expert personnel acquired in May from GameFly.
This will mean not only being able to play high-quality games with low-quality hardware (for example, with a laptop or an old PC), but it also means top quality console games are coming to mobile platforms like smartphones and tablets.
This idea is not entirely new, and you can experience it already thanks to platforms launched by Valve and Nvidia. Valve has recently launched its Steam Link application on the Google Play Store, and despite some negative feedback at the very beginning, it has gotten largely positive reviews so far. Nvidia has its Game Stream service, which allows you to enjoy games running on your PC, with Nvidia GPU, on home products like the Shield TV.
In the near future, it will no longer be necessary to have a latest-generation console or PC. It will be possible to access our favorite games through the cloud by paying a subscription, just like we already do with music and video on Spotify and Netflix. Game streaming may even make the emerging trend of smartphones dedicated to gaming, like the Razer Phone or Xiaomi Black Shark, unnecessary.
Will these solutions succeed in improving the smartphone gaming market once and for all? I think so, but I'm curious to see your thoughts in the comments!
There is so much to look forward to, the industry is growing very quickly.
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I don't care about games, but do care about the improving ability to locate intensive processing efficiently in the cloud on small, resource efficient apps or quick-loading browser pages (without continual stupid, lengthy, software updates). Downloading gigantic, resource intensive software and generating caches in local storage is increasingly useless and forces up the cost of device hardware in processing power, storage and battery use. Go to it, cloud gaming because you are goosing technology in a good direction.
I find myself more interested in self contained games. Those that have a complete single player off line experience. That require more thinking than twitch reflex and battery sucking effects. There are lots more types of games than described in this article.
Sure streaming games have a market. But I'm not interested in it much. I hope it's not the only future of games.
Unless you are on wi-fi, won't that jack up your data rate?
That is the whole purpose of doing it. That and also the cloud storage you have to buy when you run out of the little so called "FREE" they provide. Just one more way to get money out of you. Mobile gaming does not need cloud storage because your phone goes with you anyway. It will only serve a purpose if you want to play your game on someone else's phone.