Massive US Telecomms Giant to Release Cloud Gaming Platform

It seems like in the short space of a couple of years, we’ve gone from the Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo dominance of the gaming space to a free-for-all where anyone can compete.

This massive shift in the gaming industry has primarily come due to the exceptional growth in mobile gaming and cloud-based gaming platforms. The necessity for a sophisticated and powerful console may be an idea of the past, supported by the fact that cloud technology is being invested in by a number of companies.

The latest in a series of cloud-based gaming projects comes from American telecommunications company Verizon, called Verizon Gaming and is currently undergoing alpha testing.

There are three important factors that make their platform noteworthy;

• The first is that it currently runs on the Nvidia Shield set-top box, and the plan is that it will run on Android as well.
• Secondly – it can be paired with an Xbox controller whether it’s being run on Android or the Shield.
• But mostly importantly, it will feature some platform exclusives.

Initial images show PS4 exclusives God of War and Detroit: Become Human, along with console-only smash-hit Red Dead Redemption 2 in the library – which would set a precedent for a gaming platform. It’s still speculated that these may be placeholders, which is admitted by a Verizon employee on a feedback forum.

Verizon Gaming also potentially provides them with an outlet to showcase the performance of 5G network connectivity. 5G will have very low latency and high connection speeds, so it could be perfectly suited to gaming.

Whether Verizon Gaming actually transforms into an industry-dominating platform in the future is up for debate and conjecture – but judging by how many big players are getting into cloud-based services, it’s clearly going to change the face of gaming shortly.

Of course, we’re never sure if South Africans will have access to such a service when it eventually launches, but with web access and borders slowly dissipating due to the rapid push of technology, it wouldn’t be crazy to think South Africans could be playing on Verizon Gaming.