Disruptive Innovations in the Gaming Industry?
I came across an article on Windows Live the other day highlighting a couple of potential distruptive innovations in the gaming industry that I thought I would share with you.
The first is OnLive, based in Silicon Valley, which simply put is Video Games On Demand. No downloading, no physical media, just click and play. All you have to do is plug in a sleek mini-console (about as a big as a pack of cigarettes), or load a 1mb plug-in into your PC browser. The company was founded by noted technology entrepreneur Steve Perlman (WebTV, QuickTime). OnLive spent seven years in stealth development before officially unveiling at GDC 2009 for a Winter 2009 Launch - check out the video (53 min):
Zeebo Inc. is the second company attempting to challenge the gaming industry leaders with disruptive innovation. Zeebo Inc.'s "video game console for the next billion" is aimed at countries like India, China and Eastern Europe where a PlayStation 3 might be out of reach. Games will be distributed through cell-phone networks, using Qualcomm technology. Graphics quality isn't leading edge, but Zeebo is wagering that developing markets will think that it is good enough. They have launched it in Brazil so I guess we will find out quickly whether it will succeed with customers.
What do you think?
@innovate
The first is OnLive, based in Silicon Valley, which simply put is Video Games On Demand. No downloading, no physical media, just click and play. All you have to do is plug in a sleek mini-console (about as a big as a pack of cigarettes), or load a 1mb plug-in into your PC browser. The company was founded by noted technology entrepreneur Steve Perlman (WebTV, QuickTime). OnLive spent seven years in stealth development before officially unveiling at GDC 2009 for a Winter 2009 Launch - check out the video (53 min):
Zeebo Inc. is the second company attempting to challenge the gaming industry leaders with disruptive innovation. Zeebo Inc.'s "video game console for the next billion" is aimed at countries like India, China and Eastern Europe where a PlayStation 3 might be out of reach. Games will be distributed through cell-phone networks, using Qualcomm technology. Graphics quality isn't leading edge, but Zeebo is wagering that developing markets will think that it is good enough. They have launched it in Brazil so I guess we will find out quickly whether it will succeed with customers.
What do you think?
@innovate
Labels: Braden Kelley, Video Gaming
posted by Blogging Innovation at 4:36 PM
2 Comments:
As an avid gamer, I think this technology has great potential. The achilles heal will always be the publishers. I think they can address mostly all of the video quality issues in the future. I don't see it as a console killer at the moment but with a few iterations it will be formidable adversary.
no doubt this is going to change the face of the gamin industry as we know it. He is right on this aspect. The thing is that before they can get to "the next billion" they have to hang in there and wait for the global market to catch up with them. Key for this is what he mentioned about latency. Many parts of the world stil don't have 1MB connection into the home. Plus Global distances will require server centers to be set up in each region. That is a good strategy to stick with the North American market, until they gain some traction, work out the kinks of scaling and the rest of the world beefs up their pipes.
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