According to experts, the volume of the Russian video game market will grow to $ 2.7 billion in three years. But this is if we talk about the market in general. Cloud games, which I sometimes write about, are closer to me, so I'm interested in them. So, it is cloud services for games that will grow most actively. And last but not least, this growth is provided by telecom operators. Why and how? If interested, let's discuss.
A little more about growth
If we talk only about cloud gaming, then just a year ago, this market share was about 0.2-0.5% of the global video game market. In three years, this figure is likely to rise to 3.5%. It seems a little, but this is only in the Russian Federation, in the world there will be even more.
So far, everything is fine in Russia. For example, the country has such services as Playkey, Loudplay, Megadrom, Power Cloud Game, Drova, Beeline Gaming, PlayCloud, PlayInCloud. And with the onset of the pandemic, their business, unlike many other business sectors, went uphill, although everything was already fine.
In the same PlayKey, the growth wasas much as 300%, the number of new clients in the Russian Federation has grown by half. A little later, he slowed down a little, but still - the situation is just rosy. The reasons are clear - self-isolation has led to the fact that many users began to spend time in games, and since not everyone has gaming PCs, alternatives were used, where one of the best options is cloud services.
Now they continue to grow rapidly, including through partnerships with telecom operators. What for? Well, getting a new audience, profits, launching new services and all that jazz.
Which operator supports cloud gaming?
In Russia
As for the Russian Federation, everything is on the surface - almost all major operators are engaged in cloud games. Moreover, no one launches their own services, since it is difficult, expensive and time-consuming. Most companies use existing services as a base.
Megafon , for example, involved Loudplay in the case. Now the operator offers tariffs that are even below market value. If in Loudplay itself the cost of the game is 145 rubles for 3 hours. Then the operator offers the same time for 130 rubles. The company has already said that during the period of the pandemic, the number of users increased by 250%.
Beelineentered into partnership agreements first with Playkey, and then with GFN. The operator launched its service back in 2019, at the Igromir exhibition. During the testing period, everything was not very interesting and worked only if the company's equipment was used, which cost money, plus you also had to pay for a subscription. Then everything became easier - you can play through the client program.
MTS generally has a wide choice for clients - you can choose one of four platforms for the game: Playkey, Loudplay, Drova.io or GFN.ru. And as in the case of Megafon, the cost of playing time is lower than that of the services themselves. So, 5 hours of playing with Playkey cost 360 rubles, but with MTS it's already only 320 rubles.
Rostelecomdecided to choose GFN.ru as his partner. The company has launched a service that can be used subject to payment of the "Game" tariff. In this case, the service costs only 490 rubles per month. If you choose a different tariff, then the fee is twice as high - 990 rubles. By the way, not so long ago Rostelecom announced a 30% increase in gaming traffic since the beginning of the transfer of employees to remote work.
Tele2so far only testing the possibility of connecting players via 5G to cloud games. This telecom operator has entered into a partnership agreement with the gaming service GFN.ru and Playkey. Interestingly, Tele2 plans to develop a 5G-based gaming service - its representatives said that they see fifth-generation networks as an incentive for the development of a large number of cloud services, including cloudgaming. In February on Tverskaya, in Moscow, I was able to test the work of 5G in conjunction with Playkey . Unfortunately, GFN was not available at the time.
On the other hand, TTK entered into an agreement with Playkey, providing its subscribers with the opportunity to play modern games. There are two tariff options - 5 hours of playing time for 700 rubles per month and 2 hours of playing time for 100 rubles per month.
In the world
First, an interesting figure - according to the analytical agency Analysys Mason, by 2024, the volume of the global cloud gaming segment will reach $ 14.5 billion by 2024.
But this is on condition that cloud gaming services are friends with operators. Now this friendship, like in Russia, is becoming closer and closer. Below are examples of companies that cooperate with each other and prices ( source ).
But why do operators need all this?
Backlog for the future. Even if cloud gaming is not the most profitable direction for them now, these companies are even ready to pay extra. But it’s the perfect way to grow your customer base. The market for mobile and Internet communications has long been divided. But the new services that the operator include in the package give an advantage - someone can take and change the company in order to get inexpensive access to cloud games.
In the near future, they will also play when connected to a mobile network - according to experts, after the launch of fifth generation networks, the volume of gaming sessions via the mobile Internet will increase by 10%. True, in the Russian Federation 5G is questionable, but nevertheless. In the future, games thanks to 5G will be able to bring a large traffic flow for operators - up to 25% of the entire mobile Internet load. Fifth-generation networks reduce the latency that is critical for gaming. So, for casual games, the latency indicator should not be higher than 100 ms, for racing and action games - 50-60 ms, but for games that seek to immerse us in the virtual world, the latency should be 20-25 ms, not above. And 5G technology is quite capable of coping with this task.
And by 2024, cloud gaming on a regular basis will be 4-5 million players from Russia, so the market volume will be about 20 billion rubles. And it is clear that it is better to stake out a plot on this field now.