In the past two years, cloud games have achieved rapid development at home and abroad, and many giants have entered the game. However, an awkward reality is that the current players are focused on getting existing games to the cloud and how to provide more stable cloud services, even for a large player with extensive game development experience, such as Microsoft.
Now, that has changed. Recently, Ubisoft, a well-known French game manufacturer, released Ubisoft Scalar, a game development tool based on cloud technology. According to Ubisoft, the tool uses cloud computing technology, allowing developers to scale up more games and even create entirely new genres.
The best thing for this tool to play is naturally to create a large online game. In general, in online games, the number of players that can accommodate a group of players in the same space at the same time will be limited to 100 people, but Ubisoft Scalar says Ubisoft Scalar can create "native cross-platform, scalable virtual spaces that can accommodate millions of people at the same time."
Patrick Bach, Ubisoft Stockholm's management director, said: "Our mission was to think outside the box when developing the game before, and to use this technology to create something completely new. In general, games are often modified and evolved based on existing titles. And we want to rethink what the game should be like in the future, what it can become, so as to jump out of the framework and make something different. ”
Unlike other manufacturers who have entered the cloud game, what Ubisoft has done is not to find a way to make the game available to players through cloud streaming, but to launch a tool for developers, allowing them to use cloud computing power to have more freedom in creating game worlds.
At present, many of the giants who have entered the cloud game say that their ultimate goal is to launch "cloud-native" games, while Ubisoft has left the concept stage and has actually launched tools that can be developed in the cloud. But it also raises the question of some: Can the cloud-native games that the cloud computing giants have not been able to achieve be implemented by Ubisoft?
In fact, Ubisoft's own cloud computing power is not a problem worth worrying about, or cloud computing is not a problem that Ubisoft needs to solve. Users familiar with Ubisoft know that a few years ago, the company's server stability was not ideal, and it was even ridiculed as "generating electricity from potatoes". But since 2018, Ubisoft and Microsoft have reached a partnership to use the Azure cloud platform offered by the latter to improve the stability of their services. In the case of Ubisoft's well-known multiplayer online shooter Rainbow Six: Siege, players have significantly less complaints about network connections since they connected to Azure' services.
Ubisoft's recently launched Rainbow Six: Xenomorphs also debuted in Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass, and there is news that Ubisoft is also considering adding its own game subscription service Ubisoft+ to XGP, which shows a good cooperation between the two sides. Therefore, there is good reason to believe that in the Ubisoft Scalar project, Ubisoft will also actively cooperate with Microsoft or other giants with excellent cloud computing capabilities to form complementary advantages.
So what are Ubisoft's strengths? Nature is its game development capabilities. Google and Amazon are laymen in the game field, while Microsoft's game lineup is mostly expanded by the acquisition of studios by "money ability", and game development is Ubisoft's core business, and its experience is far richer than these giants.
On the other hand, Ubisoft's game development ideas in recent years have also clearly moved closer to the multiplayer online direction: "Rainbow Six: Siege" with low opening and high walking, the lackluster "Watch Dogs: Legion", and the rushing "Super Hunting City", it can be seen that no matter how the game responds, Ubisoft's thinking in this direction has not wavered. In addition to these online games, even the Ubisoft Watch single-player "Assassin's Creed" series has begun to gradually transform.
Last July, Ubisoft revealed that the latest installment of the Assassin's Creed series, Assassin's Creed: Infinity (codename), was in development, and unlike its predecessors, Infinity would be an "evolving platform." The Ubisoft Scalar unveiled this time has an important feature: it is not a development engine in the strict sense, but a tool that can accelerate real-time development. This also means that Ubisoft Scalar can make real-time adjustments and updates to the game, and the games developed with this tool can be played offline, while the playability and scale will be greatly expanded after connecting to the Internet.
Combining these two pieces of information, it is not difficult to deduce that Ubisoft has probably begun to use Ubisoft Scalar for development, and the work in development is Assassin's Creed: Infinity. At present, the outside world generally has high hopes for cloud games, especially "cloud native" games, but there is still no influential enough work, and the world-class IP of Assassin's Creed can undoubtedly attract many players, which will be of great significance for the promotion of cloud native games.
On the other hand, most players in the Assassin's Creed series prefer single-player games, and the "cloud-ready offline" feature of Ubisoft Scalar also ensures that the series can have a relatively smooth transition period. It must be said that many players still have a certain resistance to cloud games, and this is largely because cloud games will deprive players of the choice between single-player games and online games. From this point of view, a work that can take care of the emotions of single-player game players and allow players to experience the charm of cloud games is undoubtedly what the current cloud game industry needs most.
What may be more important to note is the attitude of mainstream game manufacturers to their own development tools. At present, with the exception of Epic Games, which developed Unreal Engine, most manufacturers do not have the habit of sharing their self-developed engines with other manufacturers, and the same is true of Ubisoft. Both the Anvil and Snowdrop engines are only used to develop Ubisoft's own game IP. Therefore, it is difficult to say whether Ubisoft will change the norm in the era of cloud computing and share Ubisoft Scalar with other manufacturers.
But in any case, the personal fate of A game developer like Ubisoft is an extremely positive signal for the development of cloud games. Ubisoft Scalar bridges the gap between technology and creativity, allowing developers to focus on game design and be more aggressive in innovation. With a cloud-accelerated system, every action of the player in the game world can be reflected instantly, and it has a long-term impact on the world.
The landscape of the cloud gaming industry is far from certain: Google, which has suffered setbacks, is adjusting its stavia positioning, Microsoft is increasing the share of the Azure platform in game development, and Ubisoft is taking a solid step on the cloud-native road. I believe that for the majority of players, the day to get rid of the limitations of local computing device performance and enjoy a new experience of cloud gaming is getting closer and closer.