It's all in the cloud. That's what they tell us these days.
But let's try to put some numbers to the increasingly airy-fairy concept.
As argued in a keynote at Mobile Games Forum a couple of week ago - by Microsoft's CTO for cloud services, Rob Fraser - it seems the impact of the cloud can be over-exaggerated, especially by us journalists.
Slice of life
If we look at this graph of the size of the entire games industry from 1995 to predicted 2017 - as created by market analyst Nick Parker - the green slice due directly from cloud services such as streaming games is not large.
It's not until 2014 that cloud gaming is generating sizeable revenue.
Of course, both boxed games and online/mobile will be impacted by cloud services, in terms of synced game states and downloaded content, but that's not the cutting-edge of the cloud.
Still, as OnLive has demonstrated, going 100 percent cloud is much harder than its fluffy exterior suggests.
Chart of the Week
Contributing Editor
A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.
Related Articles
as
Chart of the Week
Aug 18th, 2016
How changing one screen led Games2Win to increase Parking Frenzy 2.0's retention by 5%
Chart of the Week
Jul 22nd, 2016
20% of the 106 million US mobile gamers account for 62% of time spent playing
Top Stories
News
6 hours, 45 minutes ago
Subway Surfers Classic update set to take players back to the game's origins
News
6 hours, 45 minutes ago
A third of developers implementing new payment options in face of Digital Markets Act’s $18 billion opportunity
News
7 hours, 15 minutes ago
More Xbox cutbacks hit ZeniMax with only Microsoft’s mobile ventures now unscathed
News
8 hours, 45 minutes ago
Chinese publisher iDreamSky opens office in Riyadh for first international expansion
News
6 hours, 45 minutes ago
A third of developers implementing new payment options in face of Digital Markets Act’s $18 billion opportunity
Feature
May 7th, 2024
Mobile Mavens: The industry has its say on Squad Busters ability to draw in “untapped audiences” with its “influence from a range of genres”
Feature
May 7th, 2024
Hot Five: Supercell’s Squad Busters supremacy, Brawl Stars bounces back, and a games industry journey at King
Events
Valencia Indie Summit 2024 | Europe | May 16th |
Digital Dragons | Europe | May 19th |
Mobidictum Meetup Tallinn May 2024 | Europe | May 21st |
Israel Mobile Summit 2024 | Middle East | Jun 6th |
Future Games Show 2024 | Jun 8th | |
PC Gaming Show 2024 | Jun 9th | |
WN Conference Istanbul 2024 | Jun 11th | |
DevGAMM Vilnius 2024 | Europe | Jun 14th |