Success factors of cloud-gaming services

Abstract

In 2010 OnLive launched the world’s first commercial cloud-gaming-service. Ever since, cloud-gaming is considered as the “future” of gaming by many players in the multi-billion dollar industry of gaming. This study aims to research possible success factors of the innovative business model and reveal the research questions, namely which drivers increase or hinder the utilization of cloud-gaming. By conducting qualitative (10 interviews) and quantitative research (203 viable answers) among a broad sample across German gaming communities’ meaning fulinsights were exposed. It was found that the service, at current state, is, due to underlying technology, not suitable for all gaming genres, mainly because of its dependency on latency. Service that goes beyond consumers’ expectations eventually causes great interest in the service, especially in form of access to ‘AAA’-titles. With cloud-gaming-services, commonly in form of a digital product, consumers are concerned with not physically owning a device. Nonetheless, CEOs of the largest enterprises in different industries are optimistic that cloud-gaming will, with progress in technology, soon be more appreciated within the communities and become the future of gaming.

Date of Award	31 Jan 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Miguel Rita (Supervisor)