September 5, 2023
According to the latest survey result, 65% of participants were aware of cloud games and willing to pay NT$700 for the GaaS subscription. Sony PlayStation Now, Xbox Cloud Gaming, Google Stadia, and NVIDIA GeForce Now lead the market, but the services they provide are varied. How do the players choose their suitable cloud games?
Cloud gaming is a game streaming service to support playing games using remote servers, and it allows players to play games on PC, console, and other devices without install. The first major cloud gaming service was launched in 2010, and the blooming of cloud gaming during the pandemic was led by the short supply of hardware. In fact, cloud gaming has become popular for the past few years because of the global-reaching cloud networks, and a spread of superfast 5G mobile networks increase the usability of game streaming services. As a result, the market size of cloud gaming is estimated at USD 2,056.58 Million in 2021. Have the game players in Taiwan joined in the trend?
According to the latest survey result, 65.1% of participants heard of cloud gaming. There were 81.8% of participants who owned their game console were aware of cloud gaming, and approprexmitely 50% of participants who had no game console knew cloud gaming. The potential consumers who would likely subscribe to a game in the next 12 months were 44.3% and male players were the majority. Over 50% of participants who won't subscribe to a cloud game considered that they already had a video game console, and some people thought that the coverage of 5G network was not enough.
Most participants have heard of Sony PlayStation Now followed by Xbox Cloud Gaming, Google Stadia, and NVIDIA GeForce. When the players purchase cloud gaming service, they consider the smoothness of the game and refer to the price after then. Although the choices of payment and service are varied, 49.2% of consumers tended to buy games that they liked and were willing to pay NT$755 for each game on average. There were 37% of participants likely to subscribe the services and pay NT$ 559 for subscription fee, and 13.8% of players wanted to pay for both game and subscription of platform services with NT$739 and NT$722 respectively.
The services that the most popular cloud gaming platforms provide are varied. Sony PlayStation's subscription membership provides access to a library in the hundreds, and the players choose the games in the streaming catalog. Xbox Cloud Gaming is considered as a heavy contender. On the one hand, Microsoft monthly rolls out updates to the Xbox ecosystem. On the other hand, Microsoft has the greatest commitment to cross-platform play. Since this September, the Xbox console owners have been able to stream their games straight to PC. Predictably, the sales of Xbox Cloud Gaming will be released from the supplement of hardware and equipment.
The players of Google Stadia cannot download or store the games on their devices, so the players do not need to install updates or worry about file sizes or hardware requirements. The players of GeForce Now actually own the game. They can still download and play games which they bought after they cancel their GeForce Now subscription. Furthermore, GeForce Now extensively supports browsers that include windows, Mac, Android TV, Android, Safari, and iOS, with a Chrome browser version currently in beta.
To sum up, Cloud Gaming is considered as Gaming-as-a-Services and there are many choices of payment and services that the players can find their best platform to enjoy the games.
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