{"id":615967,"date":"2023-03-09T08:49:12","date_gmt":"2023-03-09T14:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/09\/after-stadia-google-unveils-google-cloud-for-live-games-strategy\/"},"modified":"2023-03-09T08:49:12","modified_gmt":"2023-03-09T14:49:12","slug":"after-stadia-google-unveils-google-cloud-for-live-games-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/09\/after-stadia-google-unveils-google-cloud-for-live-games-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"After Stadia, Google unveils Google Cloud for Live Games strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Google Cloud<\/a> is unveiling its new games strategy dubbed Google Cloud for Live Games<\/a>. It means it will use its global infrastructure to enable game companies to become more agile.<\/p>\n

And it recognizes that, despite the failure of Google\u2019s own Stadia cloud gaming service, the cloud is critical to the operation of all modern game companies, including the \u201clive service\u201d games (from Fortnite to Warzone to Genshin Impact) that are taking over much of the industry. <\/p>\n

It makes sense that Google Cloud\u2019s live service technology, which has powered the likes of YouTube and Google Search, can enable game companies to pull off flawless launches and scale up to millions of users without skipping a beat, said Jack Buser, director of game industry solutions at Google Cloud, in an interview with GamesBeat.<\/p>\n

If you recognize the name, Buser was the head of PlayStation Home virtual world back in the day. And he joined the Google Stadia effort early on in 2016. But he switched over to Google Cloud a couple of years ago to help Google take the tech for its Stadia service and bring it to all game companies. <\/p>\n

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\u201cThe Google Cloud leadership decided that they wanted to have a global games organization. And they tapped me to come on over and lead it,\u201d Buser said. \u201cIt\u2019s been a wild ride.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was about the time when games started shifting from single-player game launches once every five years or so to online gaming experiences that players could return to every day and always find new content.<\/p>\n

And as computing demands grew, big gaming companies went to Google for help. The rise of mobile games multiplied the value of live services games. Mobile gaming star Supercell generated $1.9 billion in revenue last year on revenue from five live services games \u2014 the newest of which was four years old.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe top games are all live service games, all of them,\u201d Buser said. \u201cSo whether it be a massively multiplayer online (MMO) game, or whether it be a live service mobile game, or whether it be a battle royale,\u201d Buser said. \u201cThe common thread is that these games are being updated over the long term based on player behavior and wants and desires. You have to understand your players. You got to be able to not just attract them into the game, but retain them for long periods of time. It\u2019s very different from the old cartridge and optical disk days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stadia\u2019s demise<\/h2>\n
\"Google
Google Stadia Premium.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As for Stadia, Buser said it didn\u2019t necessarily meet Google\u2019s expectations in terms of user adoption. He added, \u201cI don\u2019t think anybody can argue with the technology. I mean, the technology was pretty incredible. What we specifically realized internally, as we were making that tough decision to wind down Stadia, is that we are much better at building platforms so other people can build their platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n

It takes a lot of Google Cloud employees to pull all of this technology together.<\/p>\n

So the strategy is to take the best of the Google Cloud, including Google Kubernetes engine, Spanner, Big Query, analytics and then give all of that to game developers so they don\u2019t have to worry about those things. <\/p>\n

Three strategic areas<\/h2>\n
\"Google<\/figure>\n

Buser said Google Cloud is focused on three strategic areas that are critical for powering live games:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Serve players everywhere: Google Cloud helps developers connect players with game servers built on the world\u2019s largest, most secure network.<\/li>\n
  • Collect and organize game data: Live games can\u2019t forget player progress. Easily store critical game and player data at massive scale with extremely low latency necessary.<\/li>\n
  • Unlock player and game insights: Google Cloud helps developers understand what\u2019s working to find and retail players with Google\u2019s analytics and AI.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Buser believes live-service games, which some players don\u2019t like as overly focused on monetization, are taking over. In 2022, the top 10 most-played games were all live services, continuously delighting players with new content, features, and gameplay. <\/p>\n

    Today, the model is prevalent across the industry, among all platforms and genres. And with a projected 3.6 billion players by 2024, the opportunity for live games has never been larger.<\/p>\n

    Game companies always push technology the hardest. And some of the earlier custom technology is becoming outdated and the tech is now here to run things on a global scale, Buser said.<\/p>\n

    Buser hopes that the technology filters out beyond the biggest game developers and publishes to help the small game developers who have hit games that can also reach millions of players in a short time.<\/p>\n

    Live service games<\/h2>\n
    \"The
    The various Assassin\u2019s Creed games in the works. Don\u2019t be surprised if it\u2019s all a live service at some point.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    Google is no stranger to this model, operating some of the world\u2019s largest live services like Google Search and YouTube to billions of users around the world. Likewise, Google Cloud is committed to bringing the best of Google to game developers who are delivering live game experiences to players everywhere, Buser said.<\/p>\n

    \u201cThis is a very opinionated strategy to effectively solve what we strongly believe is the future of this industry,\u201d said Buser. \u201cI play a lot of games. Nothing breaks my heart more than when I\u2019m playing one of my favorite games and I see these issues manifest themselves. It doesn\u2019t have to be that way. These problems are solved problems at Google.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Google\u2019s mission is to put secure servers in place to connect players with the games they want to play. The server infrastructure should be adaptive, or able to serve games to players whether a launch draws 1,000 players of millions. No game should ever have to become unavailable or go lock out players because too many players are trying to connect at once, Buser said.<\/p>\n

    \"Ubisoft's
    Ubisoft\u2019s Uplay+ titles.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    \u201cThis is a solved problem,\u201d Buser said. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to worry about that stuff. You can focus on making a great game.\u201d<\/p>\n

    The games require hyperscale technology, with super low-latency live service platforms, Buser said. <\/p>\n

    \u201cCompanies are coming to us because Google is at our core a live service company,\u201d Buser said. \u201cIt\u2019s who we are in our DNA. The tons of security has to be bullet proof. And games go from zero to millions of players seemingly overnight.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Success shouldn\u2019t worry a game developer. To that end, one of the most important capabilities Google Cloud can provide is scale. Kubernetes is recognized as one of the best ways to handle computing scale. The Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) gives game developers the capability and confidence to scale to serve even the largest player audiences. It\u2019s the most scalable and automated managed Kubernetes service, capable of running 15,000-plus node clusters, outscaling other cloud providers by as much as 10 times, Buser said.<\/p>\n

    While GKE works for a range of compute tasks, game workloads are unique. Ubisoft used Google to create Agones, an open-source game server orchestrator for Kubernetes. Using Agones with GKE enables developers to focus on player experience instead of infrastructure.<\/p>\n

    \u201cAt Ubisoft we needed a centralized, standard solution for game servers. We partnered with Google Cloud to develop Agones as a result, maximizing players\u2019 engagement and trust over time.\u201d \u2013 Pierre Romagn\u00e9, vice president of engineering and platform at Ubisoft, in a statement.<\/p>\n

    \u201cAgones, which is also open source, teaches Kubernetes how to handle a game server. So we\u2019re able to actually take these legacy monolithic virtual machines running on premises and actually get them up and running on Kubernetes,\u201d Buser said.<\/p>\n

    Collect and organize game data<\/h2>\n
    \n

    \n