Why Microsoft's Netflix-like streaming service for video games could be a game-changer
The video game industry has come a long way from its humble beginning in the 1970s. Generating over $100 billion in revenue, it currently stands as an important pillar of the entertainment industry, and one which could become a bigger money spinner than television and cinema combined in the coming days.
But before video games can surpass the reach of cinema and TV, they will need to find solutions to the bottlenecks that currently hamper their appeal. Something that will not be an easy task considering the very nature of modern day video games. As opposed to video content which requires very little in the form of hardware, modern-day video games not only require high-end hardware but are also platform locked.
Essentially, what that means is that not only do you need to buy an expensive gaming machine to enjoy the latest games, but that you also need to deal with the eventuality of your investment still not being able to play several new titles because of certain games being exclusive to a competing platform.
For the last few years, game developers are looking at creating cross-platform games to bring newer audiences into the world of gaming. Microsoft, which owns and operates Xbox and Windows PC platforms, in October 2017 announced the Play Anywhere Program in an attempt to unify its gaming ecosystem. However, because of hardware restrictions and other hurdles, the programme is yet to become a big thing, with only a handful of games currently supported by it.
But all this could change.
Ditching the hardware
Having learnt from its troubles, Microsoft is now looking to take away from the equation the very bottleneck that is holding back the Play Anywhere Program from becoming a success – the dedicated hardware. Now as any gaming enthusiast will tell you, that idea in itself borders on absurdity.
This is because generating interactable graphics on the fly is no mean task. It requires a lot of processing power. And it is the amount of this processing power that determines how life-like a game looks. On a computer dedicated GPUs and CPUs are used, while consoles use integrated units for this task. Smartphones, because of their compact nature pack in the least amount of punch and thus fail to produce the kind of graphics as dedicated consoles and gaming computers do.
For Microsoft to do away with the hardware and ensure console level graphics quality on even the most basic smartphones would require some out of the box thinking. And that's exactly what appears to be happening here.
Moving the streaming way
There have been rumours of Microsoft starting a Netflix-like streaming service for games, but on June 12, Microsoft confirmed that it's indeed working on a streaming service that will take gaming to the cloud. Microsoft’s gaming chief, Phil Spencer revealed the company is working building a streaming game service for any device – Xbox, PCs, or phones.
"Our focus is on bringing console quality games that you see on TV or PC to any device. I want to see the creators that I have relationships with reach all two billion people who play games, and not have to turn their studio into something that makes match-3 games rather than story-driven single player games. Because that’s the only way to reach a bigger platform. That is our goal: to bring high-quality games to every device possible on the planet."
There was no timeline for the launch of the service, however, Spencer has previously teased Xbox game streaming within three years.
How would streaming work for gaming?
Very different from streaming video content. As opposed to a movie, which only has to reproduce already prepared images on screen, video games render interactable visuals in real-time. Though not easy, it is quite possible for a company of the size of Microsoft to handle this complex real-time generation of visuals based on the user's inputs using powerful server farms that it has set up across the globe.
Using the sophisticated hardware at these servers, it could then send as data packets what would be a video of the user's game. But here's where it gets tricky. With gaming, this processing would have to be real-time and it would also need to ensure close to no input lag. The latter being extremely difficult to achieve.
Failed attempts
In the past, attempts have been made to create a stable game streaming service. Sony's tried its hand at it with the Playstation Now service, but its lack of games and the company gradually pulling support for supported platforms is currently seeing Playstation Now move towards a sorry end. Likes of Nvidia have also tried to start a game streaming service of their own, but that too hasn't fared well.
The reason? Latency issues. With the very nature of game streaming latency issues always play spoilsport.
Will Microsoft succeed?
There's a good chance it will. Unlike Sony and Nvidia, Microsoft has to its disposal resources that are required to fix the latency conundrum. The company's Azure-based cloud service is a key advantage that could help Microsoft successfully power game streaming with close to no input lag.
Azure has a pretty vast network of server farms around the globe and since the single biggest factor behind keeping in-game latency down is the distance from the server, Microsoft is arguably one of the only companies that can make the dream of video game streaming a reality.
The biggest thing in gaming
Suffice to say, a functional video game streaming service from Microsoft could be the biggest thing to happen to the gaming industry. Such a service would not only negate the need for expensive consoles and PCs but would also bring high-quality video games to each and everyone by extending the service to even mobile phones.
Add to that the fact that this service will be cross-platform and in the future could even possibly host games from publishers who currently create exclusive games for PlayStation and Nintendo, it is easy to understand why this is massive.