Gone are the days when you had to bother about the platform and configuration to play a game on your PC! Heres the entire new world of gaming on your finger tips; just click on the web and see the magic of cloud gaming. Not very new, but the concept was named and realized very late. When you started playing online games without installing them few years back, you yourself were not aware that it may be the next-gen game revolution and bring drastic change in the lives of gaming addicts.
Cloud gaming, also known as Game on Demand is an online gaming service where games are streamed to your end on request directly from the game companys server. With no installation required, you just need a console, PC or handheld and input controls. Log into your game account with the cloud game provider and there you are- enjoying a variety of virtual games to the fullest without any hitch!
First cloud game was demonstrated in year 2000 by G-cluster over WiFi to handheld devices. The very first commercial cloud game was launched on November 18, 2010 by SFR in France on IPTV and the gaming industry was flooded with OnLive, Gaikai, GameTree TV, GameCloud, Spoon.net, Ubitus and many more cloud gaming providers. Cloud gaming provides complete freedom to play games on any video enabled device including notebooks, tablets, smartphones, , mobiles and even TVs.
Cloud game providers upload the games to their data centres globally located and these games are streamed via internet connectivity to the playing devices but it always seems as if you are playing on a local console. Cloud gaming has significantly changed the way gamers what? used to play video games. It cuts down on the hardware resources on the gamers end and frees the gamer from the botheration of game installation and management too. You can even use your TV as the new console for cloud gaming. In addition, multi-platform games are also available on the cloud to enable gamers to choose from a variety of games as per the platform owned. Moreover, cloud gaming is an instant concept. You need not wait for the downloading or even for visiting retail shops to procure the games.
Cloud gaming has also given a new direction to multiplayer online gaming and introduced Massively Multiplayer online gaming (MMO) which enables hundreds or thousands of users to play online games around the globe simultaneously. Widely used game consoles available these days including the Nintendo DS, PSP, PS Vita, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii support internet connectivity and therefore are capable to run massive multiplayer games. Moreover, operating systems as Android, iOS and Windows Phone supported devices are also very popular among people these days which has given significant fame to online multiplayer games. Such online games facilitate game players to compete with other players, keep an eye on every move of co-players in the same game and interact with co-players around the globe irrespective of geographical boundaries.
Gaming has taken a new shape with cloud. Social and mobile gaming is booming and evolving more day by day. Gaming platforms are expected to multiply to a great extent in near future. As the number of gamers is increasing speedily, the game fees and devices may get cheaper. There are few companies that are working to allow customization of their cloud games soon. Not only this, the most highlighting and interesting thing is that there are many companies which are offering APIs and SDKs for cloud game apps. Users keen in game app development can register and download pre-built APIs and SDKs, integrate them with their minimal game code to be made and launch such apps on the fly. Cloud gaming is the new generation gaming experiment, yet to reach its high for which we can saysky is the limit.