A Change in the Video Game Industry

Gaming has changed drastically over the last 20 years of development. However, during these last couple of decades, the business model has stayed relatively the same. Where companies design new consoles every few years that drastically improve the gaming experience verses older consoles. With this, owners must purchase a new console or upgrade PCs to run and purchase new games. However, as connectivity and cloud platforms become more popular and powerful the gaming industry may drastically change.

The Idea:

Googles new system Stadia no longer focuses on providing customers with hardware powerful enough to run games themselves. Instead they focus on creating a streaming platform for gamers that will utilize their current network infrastructure and databases. With this Stadia, will get rid of the need for installing, patching, and updating games by providing instant access to almost any device with an internet connection.  

Stadia Demo:

Concerns:

However, concerns with the streaming platform highlight the lack of ability to run games at high graphics, high frame rates, and at high resolutions. Currently, the Stadia service produces visuals at 1080p at 60fps, well below many consoles like the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X which can run some games at max 4K resolution at 60fps. Additionally, many PC enthusiasts are easily able to hit these maxes with their current builds and top of line PCs can run Ultra setting at 8K with 60fps. Nevertheless, Google addresses this issues by planning to optimize severs to produce visual output of up to 4K at 60fps and 8K at 120 fps in the future. Lastly, Google plans to have more computing power than both the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X combined.

Stadia has the potential to become just as impactful on the gaming industry as Netflix did on the cable industry. It will get rid of the need for hardware and replace it with streaming service that will be significantly more powerful and cheaper.

Questions:

1. Would you opt to purchase a monthly subscription for a game streaming service instead of purchasing a console or high end PC?

2. Do you think the service has a chance to compete with companies like Microsoft and Sony?

3. Do you think Google will have many issues maintaining potentially large amounts of user traffic with their current infrastructure?