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Cloud-gaming is inevitable - Carmack

Posted May 26, 2011 at 1:43AM EST by Mabie A.

Listed in: News Tags: id Software, John Carmack

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For id Software's co-founder, John Carmack, cloud-based gaming will most certainly be a part of the gaming scene in the future. It's just "inevitable," he says.

He expounds on this thought in a recent interview with Industry Gamers. "Consumers have shown over and over again that convenience can often more than offset more quality issues, and there will be significant conveniens wins possible there over optical media or digital downloads."

id_software_john_carmack

He points to the current trends, with more games going the way of digital distribution, having even smartphones join in on the fray. "Blockbuster games will continue to increase in development cost, but gaming should continue to have a much more vibrant 'low end' than, say, the movie industry."

There is also no denying, he said, that there have been a whole lot of changes in the industry since when he first started out. But always, the changes are good, interesting and exciting. "If anything, I feel almost overwhelmed with the available directions to focus on... Twenty years ago you could look at a platform and consider it as something that could be grapsed nearly in its entirety.

Today, your cell phone's total complexity is beyond anyone's capacity to completely comprehend, to say nothing of your personal computer and the Internet it connects to."

Via [Industry Gamers]

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That way when "They" hack it, we can go without access to our cloud based consoles for 30 or so days.
Or lose access to any games we purchased when they decide to no longer support the format.
Yes, it is convenient, but ultimately an insubstantial purchase, without the ability to have a saved physical copy of any software or media. I am sure they will cripple them with tons of DRM.

# RE: RE: Cloud-gaming is inevitable - Carmack — damonous 2011-05-27 20:37

Quoting Mabie A.:

do you agree with john carmack?

NO.

Carmack is a washed-up D-bag. Rage? Already the -real- release screenshots are looking like run-of-the-mill FPS, and not the extraordinary multi-shaded cinema-quality masterpiece he's been showing the last 4yrs.

Cloud Gaming? I have OnLive. I rarely use it. Bandwidth would have to be a whole lot consistently higher before the 'pulsing' effects go away (honestly, it hurts my eyes way quicker than 3D: I could sit with glasses-on-glasses for 3D for 3-4hrs and feel better than 20mins running an OnLive game.)

This is just Carmack trying to 'engage in the gaming conscience' again, in lead-up to his Rage game. But, his is a comment that you could (at the same time) view as both "No duh" (since Cloud Gaming is ALREADY HERE), and "You're dreaming" (since I'd bet the OnLive userbase is barely enough to sustain the business model right now).

# RE: Cloud-gaming is inevitable - Carmack — bdub 2011-05-26 09:28

Sony is already a pioneer in Cloud gaming, it was the first console to incorporate this into there system years before the competition.

# ... — TheRockness 2011-05-26 11:09

Are you sure you're not confusing Folding At Home with cloud gaming?

# RE: RE: Cloud-gaming is inevitable - Carmack — PS360 Owner1 2011-05-26 14:48

Fanboy, what you said isn't true.

Valve, OnLive, Xbox LIVE, (etc) these are cloud gaming services.

# .... — TheRockness 2011-05-26 17:00

PS360 Owner1,

What you said isn't entirely true either. OnLine would be the only example of cloud gaming you've provided. Neither Steam or Xbox live process anything for you on their end as far as graphics or data processing. They're more like file repositories and dedicated server lookup tools. They may leverage some cloud functions within their environment but those are not extended to the end user as cloud computation.

# RE: RE: Cloud-gaming is inevitable - Carmack — 8675309 2011-05-26 16:26

actually ea had tried this with thier ea sports titles years ago

# ... — TheRockness 2011-05-26 18:05

Please understand that there is a GARGANTUAN difference between "cloud roaming profiles" and cloud gaming.

# RE: Cloud-gaming is inevitable - Carmack — Uplink 2011-05-26 14:06

As Long as ISP's have or are implementing Bandwidth Limits (like most in the UK and now popping up in the US). This form of gaming will not work. My isp has been sending me msg's "for safety" saying my usage is higher than normal 200 gb a month is apparently higher than normal witch they say is 41 gb all I really do is netflix and online game go figure.

# RE: RE: Cloud-gaming is inevitable - Carmack — yeye 2011-05-26 16:45

Exactly. Unless ISPs are willing to charge reasonable rates for more bandwidth and offer consistent speeds (rather than throttling my connection down to 7mbps from 25mbps for the majority of the month...), cloud-gaming will not go big.

We just can't afford it right now. Maybe for crappy little .99 games...

# Cloud-gaming — TDK 2011-05-26 14:51

i will never buy a game on cloud or do cloud gaming its stupid

# ... — TheRockness 2011-05-26 17:00

Then you will not be gaming in give or take 5-10 years.

# Clarification. — TheRockness 2011-05-26 17:06

You won't be playing NEW games in 5-10 years.

# RE: Clarification. — But Fukir 2011-05-26 17:48

Cloud will suffice for office apps, casual games and possibly MMORPG's.

But dont underestimate people's desire to physically OWN things and collect them.

The booklets, the packaging, etc.

I dont see nebulous tethered access to any sort of expensive/top shelf single player game replacing that very soon.

I dont think human nature is going to change that much in the next 15 years.

Maybe in the next 500?

# ... — TheRockness 2011-05-26 18:02

15 years is way too long.

http://imgur.com/0FyaG

There will surely be backlash from a few, but the masses will adopt.

# RE: Clarification. — John Jason 2011-05-27 03:31

Not true. Hard copies will never be replaced with such a fragile service. Why would I want to rely on my internet connection and their internet connection to play games? Too many things can go wrong with that, take the recent PSN hack as an example. No thanks, I'll stick to my tried and true way of gaming.

# It's here already kinda... — Kreationz 2011-05-28 10:14

Cloud gaming is coming and in some forms is here, so this story is moot to begin with. The question is really, will it replace non-cloud gaming. I say, "No!" It's kinda hard to trade in a used copy of a cloud game or sell it to a friend or even give it away. For less expensive smaller titles where a single sever can serve more than one person (Take a top end gaming PC and the latest 3D beast of a gaming and try running two or three copies on it locally.... you get 1/2 or 1/3 of the FPS in a best case scenario). Cloud doesn't work for gaming for any title that requires the entire power of a single PC to run. The client server model would have to change and they way games are built from the ground up would have to change. Most cloud anything depends on the fact that people aren't using their accounts 24/7 and the server can be dedicated to someone else as soon as someone logs off. This is why ISP didn't have to have 2000 phone lines for 2000 clients. They knew at that time(back in dial-up days) they could work on a 10-15:1 ratio (which did cause issues during peak usage times and would for cloud gaming as well).

For true cloud gaming to work the model has to change, but I have an idea for that and Mr. Carmack will likely hear about it in the near future.

# RE: It's here already kinda... — Kreationz 2011-05-28 10:18

BTW, those peak time issue are even more common where gaming is concerned as gamers tend to gather on-line at the same times.

P.S. Digital downloads, as seen with smart phone games and DLC, nor roaming profiles nor anything that requires anything other than a client for the cloud service is true cloud gaming.

# Dedicated clouds for multiplayer and matchmaking — raffieltiger 2011-07-31 19:40

Cloud gaming will improve matchmaking for consoles, but will definitely not replace the physical element.

If the games work as they do now, all we would need is a cloud to compute the multiplayer. That could work.

But running multiple copies of the actual game on the cloud would severely impact the quality of the game being played.

I can see multiple clouds for different regions, that way they can take the cloud and dedicate it to something else when the game it's being used for becomes discontinued.

Then we wouldn't need dedicated servers for every game, because the console companies could use different size clouds to compute the multiplayer and matchmaking, something far less intensive than computing the whole game.

Otherwise I don't see it working for gaming, just look at Onlive, what a joke.

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