The race for the Netflix of games is heating up
We haven’t seen the real Netflix for Games yet, but it’s coming! And the race has been heating up recently.
To be clear, existing game subscription services are not yet on eye-level with a Netflix-model. Some journalists have been mistakenly referring to these as the Netflix for Games. But the true Netflix-DNA is the full-blown mix of originals, exclusives, and non-exclusive third-party content streamed through the cloud to users on any device. No downloads, no strings, just watching or for the case of gaming — everything anywhere. A compelling promise, correct?
However, the reality check has been duller so far. But the spark of cloud gaming is poised to become a fire: a few days ago, Google announced that they are bringing more games to its Google Stadia service. Meaning, they are easing the major pain of Stadia early adopters, which has been the lack of games since its launch (apart from some promised but still non-existent features). PUBG, as well as major EA, hit titles FIFA, Madden, and Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order are on their way to Stadia. In the case of PUBG, including cross-play to consoles. No originals, that’s right. Stadia Studios and the recently acquired Typhoon Studios will still need some time to deliver their debut titles.
In this respect, the competition is miles ahead. Which competitors, you may ask. First and foremost, Xbox, who have been semi-publically pushing forward their Project XCloud. It’s out for public testing on Android devices and rumored to soon arrive on iOS devices as well. Especially with Microsoft’s gamedev studio acquisition bonanza, which added plenty of fresh blood to their roster of existing 1st party teams, originals will be at the core of what Microsoft Xbox Cloud Gaming will have to offer.
Original game content aside, I explained to my first semester students in a lecture last winter that success in cloud gaming is mainly going to be a game of tech (reference to a renowned TV series intended). It will require four main traits to succeed:
- Existing cloud infrastructure
- Content streaming setup
- 1st party access to ad tech
- Ownership of consumer data
So, you immediately grasped that Google, as well as Microsoft tick all the four boxes. Even if you may argue, that Mixer and Microsoft Movies & TV as content streaming platforms are far from the impact of YouTube.
The future looks bright for the co-existence of download to own and cloud gaming.
That said, there’s a third and at this point maybe the most interesting contender for the cloud gaming throne: amazon has recently lifted the curtain on their platform codenamed Project Tempo. Well, the curtain was only lifted a few centimeters, but what we learned is that amazon’s investment in games overall is huge, piling up to hundreds of millions of dollars. This includes two known original games, New World and Crucible — both to release in 2020 still. But let’s consider amazon’s ecosystem for a moment:
- Existing cloud infrastructure? Yes, AWS is a pretty big one.
- Content streaming setup? Prime Video and Twitch are arguably as relevant as it can get.
- 1st Party access to ad tech? Absolutely!
- Owned customer data? YES! YES! YES! It’s amazon!
I have zero doubt that amazon’s existing stack and the push towards gaming will allow them to rival Google’s and Microsoft’s efforts in Cloud Gaming even if they are a bit later to the game. To be fair, there are more open questions than answered ones at the moment: will it also be controller based? How does Project Tempo connect to the overall amazon ecosystem? What’s the pricing model gonna be? What will their Prime users get?
Long story short, it’s going to be an exciting race for the Netflix of games. The shift to digital game consumption has seen a surge in the light of COVID19 lockdowns. And while the known issues of bandwidth and latency are still existing, the future looks at least bright for the co-existence of download to own and cloud gaming. The real question is how much market share Google, Amazon, and Microsoft are going to pick up. Just as a reference, in the general cloud-based solution market, the three together add up to almost 60% of the market. Would it be a surprise if the race for the Netflix of games will be a race of three as well?
