By Chris Cheng, manager, business development, Leaseweb USA and Peter Siler, manager, inside-sales, Leaseweb USA
The video game industry is constantly on the rise. In 2021, the gaming industry generated approximately $180.3 billion in global revenue, up 1.4% from 2020. By 2025, reports predict that the industry will generate at least $260 billion in revenue. With no signs of slowing down, video games will continue to be one of the most heavily consumed media. In March, we had the privilege to attend the Gaming Developers Conference where we learned a few things about the industry and how the relationship between developers and the cloud can provide benefits to development companies.
Video game development has become one of the toughest jobs in the world as developers are constantly trying to meet the demands of consumers. One poor-quality game can ruin the reputation of a company. Knowing this, development teams are scrambling to find the right infrastructure to handle their data and overall expectations.
Different needs of different companies
One thing is certain, what is important to one gaming company is not important to a different gaming company. Their goals are based on their journey and on where they are at the moment. For example, a long-standing game like Roblox has massive amounts of data from its users, and they are able to gauge the size of their infrastructure and the bandwidth they require. Games with longevity have an easier time communicating their needs with infrastructure and cloud providers.
Smaller companies, such as startups, without the luxury of having a big selling game, have to be more tactful when planning out their infrastructure. They have to consider their budget, as overspending is a hole that many fall into. When it comes to infrastructure partners, smaller video game companies and startups overall are often short-sighted. Long-term strategies are sometimes neglected in favor of what is best for the organization right now. Small companies tend to be blinded by the success of larger companies that try to follow in the same footsteps.
Choosing the right infrastructure
Unfortunately, once a company begins rolling out software services with a large public cloud platform, it can soon become prohibitively expensive to transfer without jeopardizing the integrity of existing services. Large public cloud platforms such as AWS and Microsoft Azure attract developers because of their ease of use and startup credits. However, the same on-platform easy-to-use tools that large-cloud providers offer also contribute to vendor lock-in. For those smaller organizations, capacity planning and scalability look to be a challenge, and committing to a hyperscaler might hinder future video game development.
Latency has to be consistent for a game to be successful. Every gaming company out there is trying to find a way to cut costs without sacrificing the game’s performance level. Whether you are a startup, mid-level, or an enterprise gaming company, sacrificing latency for cost is frowned upon in the gaming community. As a company, you want an option that cuts costs as you scale. This is why IaaS (infrastructure-as-a-service) is seen as a valuable option. Iaas solutions offer freedom at a fair price point, allowing enterprises to select the best alternatives for their budget. With no lock-in, organizations may examine multiple suppliers and acquire the best possible pricing depending on unique demands, which is common for gaming companies.
Looking ahead to gaming
The future of gaming appears to be as promising as ever. The hardware in particular is continuing to evolve at an exponential rate. Xbox recently introduced a new SSD in its drives, and this is just one example of these companies’ hardware changes. With today’s SSD technologies, we’ll be able to play games without having to wait for them to load. On the infrastructure side of things, we are seeing a wide range of increases in CPU core counts to keep up with newer advancements. As gaming companies continue to expand on graphic-heavy games, requests for more NVMe SSDs will increase. Demands for CPU, more RAM, more storage, and more high-performance SSD drives will also see a rise.
It’s an exciting moment to be working in the gaming industry, whether you’re in the hardware, software, or creative areas. One thing for sure is that it will remain a highly competitive market as long as companies keep ahead of the curve by constantly learning. One thing is clear: companies that focus on their long-term plan and put passion and effort into their infrastructure have the potential to become the next big game.
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