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Cloud Gaming For Publishers — How Dragonpunk Is Distributing Their ARK Mod With Parsec And AWS

At Parsec we believe that ownership of computers will phase out and be replaced with accessing powerful processing from the cloud. This will eliminate the constant upgrade cycle and replace expensive hardware that you buy with cheaper, lower-powered devices. Nowhere is this need more acute than in gaming. That’s why we believe cloud gaming is inevitable. We’re extremely excited to have found a partner in Dragonpunk to prove the model to other publishers.

Cloud Gaming Is Inevitable

With increasing availability of bandwidth, ubiquitous distribution of low-powered hardware for h.264 and h.265 decoding, and the expanding global reach of cloud data centers with GPUs, we will all play PC games on the cloud.

Game publishers are going to reap many benefits from cloud gaming, and we’re excited to partner with the forward-thinking studio, Dragonpunk, to deliver their ARK mod via AWS GPU machines.

Benefits To Game Studios

Cloud gaming gives game publishers several key benefits and will enable new types of content to be produced and distributed. First and foremost, cloud gaming gives developers ultimate control over their digital rights and a consistent reference machine for all development. Rather than worrying who has access to your game binary or to early versions of your code, everything is safely stored in the cloud. Gamers never have access to these assets.

The DRM implications are huge! I ultimately think that will be the selling point for cloud gaming. — Dan Connery, Founder of DragonPunk

Second, having a consistent reference machine to develop for makes it significantly easier to develop a game. The worries about different versions of DirectX, operating systems, GPUs, and CPUs disappear with cloud gaming. PC publishers will have the same consistency that console publishers have had with the Xbox and Playstation. This also makes it possible to distribute your game to anyone, anywhere, no matter what device they’re using and know for certain what the experience will be like. Games will be immediately available to everyone, without having them upgrade or switch to a new operating system. You’ll be able to distribute your PC game to the whole world with cloud gaming.

Additionally, when a gamer decides to buy your game, they’ll be able to play in minutes. Downloading large binaries can take hours. With cloud gaming, those download times disappear (along with the management of those binaries). If a gamer clicks a link to play your game, they’ll be able to play immediately. This expands the possibilities for advertising and game testing along with lowering the barriers to buying games.

A New Era Of Creativity Unleashed

In all forms of media, new distribution models give content creators and entertainers the freedom to experiment. At first, the content will look very similar, but eventually content creators will adjust to the new distribution technology. This has been repeated throughout entertainment and media history. The first television shows were just broadcasts of radio shows. The first internet sites looked just like newspapers and magazines, now we have social media.

Cloud gaming will be no different. As the distribution model of games changes dramatically, content will slowly adjust and creativity will expand to the new technology. Game streaming will allow publishers to mix content types. For instance, imagine you’re watching the latest Star Wars movie on Netflix (or Disney’s new streaming app). Rather than watching the final scene where the Dark Side is inevitably beat by the Jedi, maybe you get to jump in as Kylo Ren and defeat the menacing insurgency of local radicals from the outer rim ;). It will also allow any publisher direct access to consumers rather than having to rely on distributors, like Steam, Xbox, and Playstation. The ability to reach consumers directly will eliminate exorbitant fees charged and enable greater connection to the consumer.

Cloud gaming is the future. The first publishers to get there will be experimenting with new distribution models that will dramatically impact and expand the $100bn games market.

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