For TVs, cloud gaming is either the equivalent of switching from black and white to color, or the beginning of a nightmare of technical support and negative publicity for manufacturers and brands.
So, imagine you’re selling smart TVs, and you want to think outside the box about cloud gaming. First, let’s define cloud gaming as it would apply to TVs. It’s a technology that let’s game players play video games without needing a console or computer. These games need to be the same as the ones they would normally see on their consoles and PC. As a result, the games are hosted in data centers, and streamed to a device over the internet. The experience should be the same whether that device is a smartphone, a browser on a PC, or a smart TV. At least, in theory. So, if you can play your games on any device, and you don’t have to have specialized hardware, what better display is there than a big, high resolution smart TV, just like the one sitting in your den or living room.
So far, so good. It all makes sense, and it’s no skin off your nose to just say, such-and-such cloud gaming app is now available to download because, most of the time, that decision is out of your hands. An app is an app is an app. But, here’s where it gets really tricky because, you, the smart TV seller, don’t have much control over what happens next.
You don’t have any control over the cloud gaming servers, the foundation of cloud gaming. These servers are typically located in data centers that are optimized for low latency and high-bandwidth connections, and they may not be anywhere near your customers. These servers don’t really care, because they are too busy calculating the number of processors required based on factors such as the number of players, the number of concurrent users, and the performance requirements of the game.
Video compression is crucial for streaming high-quality video over the internet, and that’s not in your control. Low-latency networking is essential for cloud gaming to ensure playing games is smooth and seamless, and you have no control over that. Cloud gaming providers use specialized networking technology, such as content delivery networks (CDNs), to reduce latency. So, there are all these layers of services providers that you have no control over.
You do, however, have control over some aspects of input streaming. Game frames get streamed to the player based on streamed input signals from the player’s device to the cloud gaming server. No one ever really talks about the input streaming, maybe because it isn’t a bandwidth hog, but it certainly can have the most impact on the game playing experience. The latency introduced by input streaming can be reduced by using specialized hardware, such as graphics processing units (GPUs) or field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), at the source. That’s your smart TV, unless you push the problem to a set-top box (STB), but at least you have some say in the matter.
And if you want to talk about input streaming, you may want to consider the fact that TV remotes are just about the worst possible input devices for game playing, a bit like using a Subway foot long as a joystick. Maybe you have to factor into the equation the need to support third party input devices or make a deal with someone and offer your own.
Not so simple, is it, assuming you want gamers to play cloud gaming on your TVs the way they play games on their smartphones, not even their consoles. Sure you do. What’s the point, otherwise? You think people are going to huddle around a TV and do Wordle? But, wait, who are you? Who are you to be selling smart TVs? You a manufacturer? Well, unless you have the clout of a Samsung, and a whole bunch of other devices to play cloud games on, you might find this exercise futile? If you’re an ISP, it makes sense, but you don’t sell TVs, and maybe this is an STB thing for you. Android TV? Yeah, that could work. Nothing for you to support. Just blame it all on Google’s software if it all goes south.
The point about all this is that it sounds really great to think about interactivity as being the next frontier for TV, but interactivity comes with every known headaches that a misanthrope can conjure up knowing how people are when things don’t go as they want. In other words, you better be ready to support your product, even if you are not the one creating the problems.
And that is at the heart of all cloud gaming endeavors, nothing ever goes as you plan because there are layers upon layers of tech designed to reduce latency and improve the experience, all dependent on each other, but rarely belonging to each other, and stuff happens. For TV makers, cloud gaming is an opportunity to reshape their business around interactivity, subscription-based services, and differentiation (my TV is smarter than your TV kind of thing). The days of just sitting in front of the TV and waiting for your show to come on are out the window. Interactivity is part of the evolution of the TV into a smarter home hub and entertainment center. We just don’t know the real cost of brining interactivity to TV audiences.
