From the arrival to the small screens of Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, Netflix considers giving a turn to its productions. In this interactive episode of the dystopian series, the user could choose the destiny of the protagonist. But this is not the first time that Netflix opts for this format. Puss in Boots: Trapped in an epic tale and Buddy Thunderstruck: The maybe pile, are two interactive children’s stories that the American giant took much earlier.
Google, Microsoft, and now Netflix
In this way, we can affirm that the line between television and video games is blurring. And no wonder, since this gaming industry recorded $ 43 billion in US revenue in 2018. In October, Microsoft revealed plans for the xCloud Project. It was considered as a “global game transmission technology” that CEO Satya Nadella compared with Netflix. They have also thought about the developers, and they promise that making games accessible for Project xCloud will not entail the effort of making a port. The whole project will allow players of mobile platforms to have access to new stories and universes.
The future is now
Although this initiative is not presented for the immediate future, the company of Redmond already warns that it will be a trip of several years. The project will have its beginning in 2019. However, what they didn’t make clear from the beginning is that they will focus on giving the players a quality service. They will be maintaining the fluidity of the games as if you were playing on your PC or console.
They are currently testing with an Xbox One control as a control. But they also have their eyes on the touch screens. Although it is still a young project, Microsoft is already looking at the game through the cloud.
Google is testing its cloud services which could broadcast games and present them at the S.Francisco Game Developers Conference. In December, the technology giant offered a free copy of AC Odyssey to those who played the demo on Stream. A report on January 28 indicated that Apple had joined Amazon and Verizon to explore its services.
Subscriptions: the future?
Subscription-based gaming services are not new. Sony and Microsoft offer programs that create titles for users for a monthly fee. According to a recent report by the NPD Group, US spending on such subscriptions increased by 42% in 2018. As the sales of digital games continue to increase, broadcast services that hold exclusive titles and exclusive games could accumulate a portion of sales for themselves. In fact, platforms such as Steam and Epic Games already do.
At the moment we can only wait for the next step that these companies take. Will they end up monopolizing the entire market? If that happens, this could go very south for the gaming industry. So we really hope that the future of this multi-million dollar industry will be universally accepted instead of getting monopolized. What do you think? Leave your opinion in the comments below.