作者：Kris Graft

GDC Online期间德克萨斯州奥斯汀市某个讨论会上，专家研究了云游戏将来的发展及其将如何改变游戏和游戏开发。

近些年来，云游戏成了游戏行业中的热门话题，云游戏公司储存游戏并将游戏数据从远程服务器处传送到用户的硬件设备上。这使得用户无需下载大型客户端程序，也无需用户去购买最新且极为昂贵的CPU和显卡。

云游戏公司Gaikai首席执行官David Perry说道：“云游戏应当完全不让用户意识到它的存在。”对他来说，可接入性是云游戏最大的优势之一。

Perry说道：“玩家不需要知道云游戏的工作原理。我们的目标是让其具有完全不可见性。但是今天的情况并不是如此。游戏与用户之间有着巨大的摩擦，我们不断在人们面前添加障碍。”

Perry说他曾扪心自问：“如何才能让视频游戏像电影和音乐那样普及呢？如果我们不提升游戏的可接入性的话，我们就永远不可能实现这个目标。”

他表示云游戏仍然处在发展过程中，但是所朝的方向是正确的。他说道：“构建全球化的服务器网络简直是个噩梦，但是我们发现有人愿意出资赞助此事。能否实现已经不是个问题，只是需要大量的工作而已。”

游戏零售巨头GameStop近期收购的云游戏公司Spawn Labs首脑David Wilson说道：“云游戏有存在的理由，但是同样也存在不使用这项技术的原因。”

onlive from thetechnopath.com

他声称，OnLive（游戏邦注：这家公司并未出席这次的讨论会）上富有竞争力的流媒体游戏服务并未获得消费者的积极反响，因为他认为公司将该系统视为可以替代主机的产品。

Wilson说道：“我认为OnLive仅仅证实了这项技术可以实现而已。”他承认云游戏仍然面临着许多挑战，比如带宽限制、维持可以为消费者接受的视频质量以及减少等待时间等。

当被问及是否认为下代主机将会添加云游戏功能时，Perry回答道：“主机肯定会添加这项功能的。”他还提了近期的某次云游戏大会，与会人员中有许多来自微软、索尼和任天堂的人，他认为这可以表明这些公司对云游戏有一定的兴趣。

过去的主机有着良好的可接入性，玩家插上电源打开开关就可以开始玩游戏了。但是Perry认为在发展过程中，主机逐渐失去了这种可接入性。他说道：“从根本上来说，我们需要回到当年的想法上，也就是如何将玩游戏变得简单。”

但是这种探索需要花费些许时间。Wilson批评了OnLive的夸大宣传，有些人认为它有可能将传统的游戏传播服务挤出市场。流媒体技术正在发展中，但是Wilson说道：“云游戏被过分地夸大和宣传。不可能出现短时间内便获得成功的情况，我们不可能在6个月的时间内就改变整个游戏行业。”

他补充道，现阶段游戏开发商还无需因为希望游戏能够使用云技术而对游戏做出大量改变。但是将来，开发商就会想要让他们的游戏利用这种本质上无限的运算能力。

他说道：“未来将会有更多要考虑的事情，因为人们需要以云技术来构建产品。但是现在开发商还不需要进行改变。”

Perry还强调，云游戏使得PC游戏开发变得比以往更为重要。他说道：“不架构PC产品的人简直就是傻子。”如果你不这么做的话，就会失去很多金钱。Gaikai的服务目前可以让用户直接从网页广告上跳转到PC游戏演示中。“相信我，云游戏时代已经来临。我们获得了资金支持。云游戏即将面世。OnLive已经朝这个方向迈进了一步。你需要为此做好准备。”（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

GDC Online: Cloud Gaming’s Fast-Approaching Future

Kris Graft

At a panel during GDC Online in Austin, TX, experts addressed the future of the cloud gaming, and how it can change gaming and game development.

Cloud gaming has been a hot topic in the games industry in recent years — cloud gaming companies host games and stream the game data from remote servers to users’ hardware. It eliminates the need for large client downloads and doesn’t require users to have the latest and most expensive CPUs and graphics cards.

“Cloud gaming should be totally invisible to the user,” said David Perry, CEO of cloud gaming company Gaikai (pictured). To him, accessibility is one of the biggest advantages of cloud gaming.

“[Players] don’t need to know [how cloud gaming works]. Our goal is to be completely invisible,” Perry said. “Today, that’s not the way it is. Games are incredibly high friction… We keep putting barriers in front of people.”

Perry said he asks himself, “What would it take to make video games as accessible as movies or music?… We’ll never get there if we don’t make [games] accessible.”

He said cloud gaming is still a work in progress, but it’s going in the right direction. “It’s a nightmare to build a global server network… but we’ve found people willing to fund this. It’s not a question of can it be done, it’s just a lot of work,” he said.

“There are good reasons to use the cloud, but there are reasons not to use the cloud,” said David Wilson, head of cloud gaming firm Spawn Labs, which major retailer GameStop recently acquired.

He claimed the competing streaming game service from OnLive (which was conspicuously absent from the panel) didn’t resonate with consumers because he believes that the company pitched the system as something that could replace consoles.

“I don’t think OnLive has proven anything yet, except that the technology works,” said Wilson. He admitted that there are still challenges to cloud gaming such as bandwidth caps, maintaining acceptable video quality, and reducing latency.

When asked if he believed whether the next generation of consoles would implement cloud gaming capabilities, Perry replied, “They would be insane not to. You don’t want to be a console that doesn’t.” He added that at a recent cloud gaming convention, there were over a dozen people from Microsoft, a handful from Sony, and one from Nintendo, which he speculated probably represents the level of interest from those companies.

In the past, consoles were all about accessibility — plug in a cartridge, turn on a switch, and start playing. But Perry said somewhere along the way, consoles lost that accessibility. “Fundamentally, we have to get back to that — how easy can we make [gaming],” he said.

But that’s going to take time. Wilson criticized the hype that surrounded OnLive, which some people said would marginalize traditional kinds of delivery services. Streaming technology is on course, however. “Cloud gaming got over-hyped… but it’s happening. There’s no overnight success, you don’t overturn an industry in six months,” said Wilson.

He added that at this stage, game developers don’t need to do much different on their end to have their games work on the cloud. But in the future, developers will want to fine tune their games to take advantage of what is essentially unlimited computing power.

“Long term, there will be more considerations, because people will be building for the cloud. Right now [developers] don’t really need to do anything,” he said.

Perry also stressed that cloud gaming makes PC game development as important as ever. “You would be nuts [not to have a PC build],” he said. If you’re not, you’re “just throwing money away.” Gaikai’s service currently lets users jump right into a PC game demo from a web ad. “This future is coming, trust me. We’re well-funded. This is going to happen. OnLive is already making it happen. You need to be prepared for that.” (Source: Gamasutra)