With the world stuck indoors during the initial wave of Covid, more people have been getting into gaming. Recent research from Statista shows that the global gaming market will amount to an estimated 268.8 billion U.S. dollars annually in 2025, up from 178 billion U.S. dollars in 2021, indicating that the interest in the gaming industry still shows no signs of slowing down.
Today, where developers may begin with obsolete software, as their businesses and projects expand it quickly becomes clear they need to take a quantum leap with the infrastructure that supports their players. Even short periods of downtime can mean loss of player progress, loss of interest and the potential for a huge impact on a game’s player base, and low latency connectivity is fundamental in delivering the best player experience. Custodian’s dedicated Dark Fibre ring offers low latency connectivity, making it the perfect partner for the gaming industry, accommodating for large streams of online gaming traffic with its agile, mission-critical facilities.
Underpinning the sector is a complex digital ecosystem, combining data centres, networks and in some instances, peer-to-peer connected gaming. For most gaming providers, moving to a partner with the technical capabilities to support these components is not only vital for business growth but allows the players to fully immerse themselves into the gameplay without any interruptions. Resilient power and uptime are critical to maintaining seamless gaming experiences across multiple devices, which is why so many big and emerging players are reliant on data centres, like Custodian, to provide unrivalled service.
Since many official servers may have limited connectivity, be insecure or operated from facilities which encounter long periods of downtime, gaming performance can be frequently impacted. It’s clear that for any gaming platform low latency network connectivity, security and accessibility are key for keeping players from moving over to competitor software. So as a developer, a dynamic gaming experience, or consistent gameplay, needs to remain a key priority when exploring data and server options.
What’s next for the gaming world?
Data centres are helping to shape the future of gaming, and by using mission-critical infrastructure, gaming professionals have limitless possibilities for developing new tech and reaching gamers globally.
As the gaming market develops, so does the need for additional power and network connectivity. The latest games, which feature VR and AI technology, process an incredible amount of data. For businesses like Microsoft and Nintendo, data centre partnerships are incredibly important to support end-user demand. Collaborating with suppliers that have scalable facilities for growth, dedicated dark fibre connectivity and a passion for the latest gaming developments, allows application developers to benefit from secure, reliable infrastructure and a technical support team that can deliver a great gaming experience time and time again.
While VR remains quite expensive, it’s only going to get cheaper and become more accessible for the everyday player, so the data demands to go alongside this are only going to increase. The global VR gaming and entertainment market size exhibits a 40.1% compound annual growth rate[1], as the demands for data storage and strong, reliable connectivity, only continue to advance. With technologies within the gaming industry constantly evolving, it’s integral to keep up to date with the latest innovation to keep new and existing players interested. Cloud Gaming is currently the hot topic for gamers worldwide, being able to play games without the need of a disk or downloading the data of a game. Cloud streaming services such as Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, Nvidia GeForce Now and Shadow.tech have never been more popular.
Times have evolved, and the market has quickly moved with it. Cloud gaming has made great advancements, advancements of which have only been possible within recent years due to the gigantic step up in internet speeds and technology advances. However, with these advancements, gaming companies need to consider strong connectivity, large amounts of data being transferred and a resilient power source – which is where Custodian can help.
[1] Fortune Business Insights
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