Wen | Zhang Shule (Columnist of People's Daily And People's Post and Telegraph, Observer of Internet and Game Industry)
Cloud gaming, able to solve the problem of piracy at the survival level of indie games.
Cloud games, however, still cannot let the giants see the dawn of big profits.
Is this a paradox?
Perhaps, this is the truth that cloud games find positioning.
The truth is that in a state where cloud gaming is always infinitely close to achieving the same experience as client games, its best form is precisely a creatively first-class indie game.
"The main difficulties facing cloud gaming today come from the technical level. For cloud gaming, latency is the most critical technical indicator, and it is also the most difficult to improve. Yang Wei, head of Tencent's START cloud game project, which specializes in living rooms and PC terminals, said to the media: Cloud games created or ported based on traditional clients can be regarded as the 1.0 era of cloud games, and the production of cloud game content is the 2.0 era of cloud games.
But the question is, how do native games that focus on cloud gaming formats be set up?
In the eyes of Internet manufacturers, the biggest problem is that small games do not meet their own positioning, and it is difficult for large games to truly cloud gamification, so there is a dilemma similar to Google, Microsoft and so on.
The most typical is that although cloud games can be cross-screen, the experience is actually difficult to cross-screen, and the difference between mouse mode and touch screen mode can directly kill many possibilities.
Even the blockage can be on the system, such as according to the 2021 Apple App Store policy, Google's Stadia, Microsoft's xCloud, Nvidia's GeForce Now and Sony's PS Now and other cloud gaming services are basically out of line with the iOS system.
In order to achieve cross-screen, Microsoft's XCloud uses the most primitive method: web pages. Mobile phone users access the xCloud web version of the service through the Safari browser, and can choose to touch or handle operation. PC users can use Edge or Chrome to play the web version of the service, which supports the use of a gamepad. But even if it is, it is still just an ideal model.
According to media reports, at the end of June 2021, there are about 50 games on the iOS version that support touch operation, but most games still do not support touch operation.
In other words, whether you are an iOS user/PC user, if you want to achieve a full xCloud experience, you must bring your own gamepad.
No use of the client, and no money saving, but with the gamepad, it is equivalent to spending more hardware money, not to mention the choice is still very small. This becomes a blockage.
There are many similar blockages, which is also the sadness of the Internet manufacturers!
But for indie game platforms and indie game creators, this problem happens to be non-existent.
Small and lightweight, it is a major feature of indie games, which is just right for the "zero latency" needs of cloud gaming.
Coupled with the fact that it is mainly a stand-alone game, there are more ways to solve the problem of "delay", such as the asynchronous response mode adopted by card mobile games in the 3G era to avoid delay.
In addition, indie games are also greatly reduced in pressure on cloud servers due to their vertical niche.
As for the cross-screen problem, independent games usually solve a certain type of screen first, after all, small factories, small studios and even individual developers have no time and no capital to "full-screen traffic" in one breath.
But none of that matters.
The key is small, beautiful indie games that fit the native goals needed for cloud gaming, which is built for the cloud.
I don't care that it must be large and complete, super sensory stimulation, and become a kind of existence similar to film and television blockbusters, but focus on personalized gameplay and differentiated experience.
Even the technical indicators of the level of web games, the pixelated game screen, due to the uniqueness and uniqueness of the gameplay, can also make players feel comfortable to the extreme.
This may also be why the platforms on which independent games rely on, such as Steam, Epic and China's TapTap, which are popular around the world, will be the first to enter cloud games and create a variety of social game play with customers in the cloud.
The unique experience may be the positioning of cloud games, rather than the cross-screen technology paradigm that technology houses are talking about, you say!
Published in people's post and telegraph on September 24, 2021, column No. 308 of leyou