Will Game Plus (Yahoo! Games) put an end to the struggles of cloud gaming?

Hello, this is Nakauchi from the Technical Sales Department

On July 18th, Yahoo!Yahoo! Games Game Pluslaunched its

You can enjoy two types of games: HTML5-based games and cloud games

Rakuten recently launched an HTML5 game service, and BXD (a new company jointly funded by Bandai Namco and Drecom) has announced a service

• Rakuten:Rakuten Games
• BXD: Service start date undecided (as of July 23, 2017)

So I thought that browser games might be making a comeback (I wrote about this in a previous blog post), but at first I was like, "Cloud gaming? Huh?"

But, thinking about it, I'll write about this later

First of all, what is cloud gaming?

What is cloud gaming?

Here's the explanation from Wikipedia

Information such as the user's controller operations and voice from the microphone is transmitted via the internet or cable television network, and all calculations, processing, and communication based on this information are performed on a server (cloud), with the calculation results being streamed to the user as simple video and audio4[^]. Therefore,a thin client, it can be widely supported without being dependent on the device's performance.

Cloud gaming - Wikipedia

Simply put, the game runs on a server and is sent to the device as a video, so even if your device doesn't have high specs, you can play the game with incredibly beautiful graphics

Cloud gaming is a wonderful service, but the providers are struggling

Square Enix

2015/8/14 Streaming serviceDIVE INends service

January 6, 2016 Shinra Technology disbands

Shinra Technology was a subsidiary of Square Enix Holdings that aimed to launch a cloud gaming platform, but was dissolved after just a year and a half

G-cluster

On May 23, 2016, the provider, G-Cluster Global Co., Ltd., went bankrupt, and the business was taken over by Broadmedia GC Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Broadmedia Corporation

G-cluster official website

PlayStation Now

There are a lot of opinions that it is too expensive

If you search for "psnow expensive" on Twitter, you'll get quite a few hits

It's certainly expensive..

At this price, there won't be any dormant users

There's a reason why it's difficult and expensive!!

Of course

I think there are two biggest weaknesses of cloud gaming

1. Game Delay
2. Server costs

These are the two

Firstissueof game lag, this is a problem that affects the user.

Due to the structure of the game, where processing is performed on the server and video is sent to the client device, delays are unavoidable. This may be possible in RPGs, but it would be difficult in fighting games and shooters, where time can vary by fractions of a second

The further away you are from the server, the longer the latency will be

There is a certain segment of users who dislike this issue

Andpoint 2is a problem on the part of the providing company.

Due to the structure of cloud gaming, server costs are quite high

The server has to be available whether players show up or not

It would be more accurate to say that the PS Now usage fee has been kept to 2,315 yen per month as a result of corporate efforts

So, why do I think Game Plus might be a good option?

Because Yahoo! has a subsidiary called IDC Frontier!

IDC Frontieris a server company. They also own massivedata centers, and are still expanding.

Furthermore, we have the backbone to provide users with servers equipped with NVIDIA's high-performance GPUs

Reference page:IDC Frontier to offer NVIDIA's high-performance GPUs on an hourly billing basis, the first of its kind in Japan.

Other game companies will likely have to either build new server infrastructure or rent it from a server company, but either way, the cost will likely be significantly higher than what Yahoo is paying to use IDC Frontier

This issue will be a major advantage in continuing the service

With this, we will have a solid lineup of titles, and if we can attract a user base that doesn't mind delays, I think we have a chance of success

By the way, I played FF13 with Game Plus and I hardly noticed any lag

Finally, please refrain from pointing out that Sony has So-net