Data Centers focus on latency issues as gaming moves to the cloud

As major gaming services are shifting to a streaming model, network performance will be essential for customer satisfaction.

After the launch of highly anticipated and long-awaited Google Stadia, that allows players to play on a TV without a console or a Chrome browser, the cloud delivery model requires an enormous amount of network and computing resources. Early reviews about Google’s new service are mixed. According to Google, early tests suggest that Stadia can use between 4 GB and 20 GB data per hour for full HD definition.

Geography matters

One of the biggest issues for gaming, especially for competitive games is the latency and it affects customer satisfaction directly. Obviously, these demands will shape the geography of the gaming infrastructure. Google has one of the most powerful data center networks, with 20 huge cloud campuses around the world and thousands of edge nodes. But Stadia users’ demand in the near future can shape the next data centers and edge nodes.

According to data center provider INAP’s survey, made with more gamers and game developers attending GDC 2019, users cited lag issues is the top reason to quit a game. While developers believe that game mechanics was the top priority issue. With cloud gaming services, latency problems will be more problematic for users, because the actual game will be played on cloud and then streamed to users’ devices.

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