Cloud gaming has undoubtedly become more popular as far as corporate involvement is concerned. Many goliaths within the tech space are dipping their toe into the space and for a good reason. In 2022, cloud gaming is expected to grow 74 percent year over year and generate over $2 billion.
Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass and Nvidia GeForce Now currently dominate the space alongside other platforms like Amazon Luna (which isn’t available in Canada). The accessibility and pool of revenue available within cloud gaming is only becoming larger as time goes on. According to data published by Newzoo, 2022 may close out with 31.7 million global consumers. Additionally, the market is on track to generate around $2.4 billion USD (roughly $2.7 billion CAD). If accurate, this could mean that the cloud gaming sector is on pace to grow 74 percent year over year.
Of course, this all comes off the heels of the news that Google is shuttering Stadia roughly three years after its launch. However, due to a rocky rollout of features and software support, Stadia servers are being taken down on January 18th, 2023. Despite this news, cloud gaming’s popularity appears relatively unaffected.
Newzoo believes that the closure of Stadia actually has a positive impact on the cloud gaming market. “The positive developments in the cloud gaming market that we analyze in this report, which support a bright future for the technology, do not evaporate due to Stadia’s shutdown,” Newzoo states.
It credits that a portion of the positive impact stems from Google’s readiness to provide refunds to Stadia players. Upon the confirmation that Stadia is closing, Google assures players that hardware and software refunds are on the way before the termination date. In doing so, Google is avoiding the creation of negative feelings towards cloud gaming in a worst-case scenario.
Stadia’s exit also offers more room for Microsoft, Sony, Amazon, Nvidia and platforms to compete. Now, it’s up to these individual companies to leverage their own cloud services to attract former Stadia players as well as attract new adopters.
Newzoo says that cloud gaming is on its way to generating a sizeable sum of $8.5 billion USD ($11.6 billion CAD) by 2025.
Source: GameIndustry.biz/Newzoo
