THQ CEO Brian Farrell has come out swinging at console manufacturers. Speaking during an interview for the latest episode of Game Industry TV, Farrell said that he is a huge believer in the cloud gaming concept.<\/p>\n
For those unfamiliar with the concept, cloud gaming is a service that delivers a high quality gaming experience over a broadband connection. No expensive hardware will be required on the end user’s side – only a simple set top box which will handle the front end interface and send\/receive commands to and from the cloud servers. <\/p>\n
The gaming experience itself will be rendered at a central bank of computers, which will then serve the player with what is essentially a video and audio feed, delivered over their broadband connection. Network latency is the only real issue hindering such services, but the vision is to have enough server infrastructure spread around to nullify these issues. Even with latency issues, only games requiring the quickest of twitch responses, such as a competitive multiplayer FPS or arcade style combat game, will show a noticeable performance problem.<\/p>\n
A functional example of such a service can be found at OnLive<\/a>, with competitor Gaikai<\/a> set to take off soon.<\/p>\n Continuing the interview, Farrell said: “The concept of lowering the entry barrier to consumers for gamers to get into our games by not having to shell out for the hardware is a tremendous potential opportunity.”<\/p>\n Farrell went on to rhetorically question why consumers should have to pay for US$1 000 consoles, and why they need that sort of computing power in their homes, when cloud based systems cater to the gamer at a fraction of the cost.<\/p>\n These sentiments echo those voiced by Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, EA founder Trip Hawkins and video game design guru Hideo Kojima. <\/p>\n It would make sense for publishers to push for a cloud based distribution system, as they won’t be tied into development license fees for consoles. <\/p>\n The question is, if and when cloud based services become prevalent, will game publishers lower their prices accordingly, or stick to the current pricing standard with the prospect of a fatter bottom line?<\/p>\n The full episode of Game Industry TV interviews a number of other important and influential gaming industry types, who lend their voices to the vision of a cloud gaming future. The interesting 10 minute segment below:<\/p>\n