EA brought in some interesting concepts during their E3 conference this year. Among others: Origin Access Premier, a streaming, on-demand gaming. The glimpse EA showed during their press conference gave us some hints at what we could expect from an on-demand service.
Fortunately, for us…
The Nintendo Switch has already revolutionized the way the think about video games. They’re already on the go, and we can resume our games from the comfort of our couch when we’re home. Everyone is clamoring for Switch versions of games. And for good reason: few of us are home enough to plow through bigger releases, and even then, we have to make time for it.
Portability and convenience is the next logical step for Big Games Media to take. Phones are massively more powerful than they were even two years ago. Some out there have as much RAM and a better refresh rate than your standard laptop. It’s time to start using that to its fullest potential.
Past Attempts
Everyone’s familiar with emulators running on a phone. Whether it’s so you can play Pokemon and relive your childhood, or so you can catch up on games you missed as a kid, it’s possible and we’ve been doing it for a while. The issue that we run into is the controls.
Imagine. You’re playing Fortnite on your phone, and you’re dual-sticking the controls, running around, trying to have a good time. Your phone starts getting unusually warm. A minute later, your hand’s (essentially) on fire, throwing off your performance, and you can’t quite close out your spot in the top 10. Not a great aftertaste for something you thought you were going to enjoy.
Years ago, there was a solution: the GameKlip. That’s right, the controller clip you could attach to your Dualshock 3 and your Nexus 7. It was a simpler time in 2013. As far as I can remember, the thing never took off. Mobile gaming just wasn’t there yet. And now? Well. The proof is in EA’s press conference.
What to Expect
So far during E3, we’ve seen a lot of focus on Xbox’s Gamepass, EA’s Origin Access Premier, and mobile game releases from Bethesda as well. Nintendo, Ubisoft, and Sony will all likely follow suit and add on-demand services to their repertoire. We’ll get access to first-party games, probably some third-party games, and hopefully console cross-play. The only thing left out of the question here is multiplayer inclusion (in place of Xbox Live and Playstation+) or we’ll need it separately.
We can expect, with a fair amount of certainty, that on-demand gaming will be mainstream by 2019, if not by the end of this year. Streaming is already huge for TV and movies; the next logical step is video games, isn’t it? Services like Netflix and Hulu are optimizing for mobile devices, even going so far as to let you download shows (in Netflix’s case) to watch when you’re offline or don’t want to use data. This is a huge convenience. The only thing I’m not psyched about is the massive amount of data I’ll need to use to play my games.
Something has to give for mobile, on-demand gaming to take off. And it’s not about how many games you offer on your service. Naturally this brings up a load of questions. Is this going to be affected by net neutrality? Because, yeah, that’s still an issue. Do we get the multiplayer experience in with the service as well? I don’t want to pay $10 per month on top of $60 per year just to get online. What about my phone’s battery life? We’re going to need to make some improvements there, too.
Will we be getting Gameklip-esque devices to enhance the experience? If EA’s conference is any indication, from the screenshot above, then we can expect to see a whole slew of first- and third-party accessories, hopefully cross-OS with the help of Bluetooth. Though, what either iOS or Android will allow depends on their own developers. For instance, emulators still don’t fly on the App Store, but have been commonplace on the Play Store for years.
Other Issues
Valve has been making a lot of headway in this field with their Steam Link service and their first-party controller. The convenience of not being able to leave my couch to use my PC is great! If only the Steam Link was able to hold a stream through my wifi network. This presents another issue with on-demand gaming. How fast do cell networks need to be? Are they going to be able to support thousands of people playing games all at once? Is Binge On gonna cover that, T-Mobile? Will I use up my data cap in a matter of hours?
What happens if a stream gets disconnected, or my signal drops momentarily? Where does my progress go? One solution would be to keep a cache of progress on the phone to upload later. Am I going to be able to download my games to play offline? Even just sections? We’d need to re-integrate expandable storage into phones, or make more storage space less of a premium.
Conclusions, and Looking Forward
For one, I’m excited for on-demand gaming to become an industry standard. Mobile games have always seemed like gimmicky, tacky ways for game devs to cash in and retire early. Meanwhile, there are huge releases that I haven’t been able to touch because I’d need to make time for them and it’s not realistic in between being an adult, spending time with my family and my partner, working on side projects, and holding a full-time job.
I’m not saying on-demand gaming would solve the problems I’ve been having. Sometimes I’d prefer to veg out and scroll Twitter for a while, others I’d prefer a book. And while it may seem like I’m dunking on the concept, I actually really love the direction we’re heading in.
Games are expensive, consoles are expensive, and phones are expensive. Somehow, I own all three (several games, even) plus a PC I rarely sit at. There needs to be a way to unite all of those, aside from franchise exclusives, naturally, and take gaming to a new market. One TV and movies have already proven exists, and that consumers will take advantage of.