AT&T is not building a cloud gaming business — but it might be angling for a cut

  • 📰 verge
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 72 sec. here
  • 3 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 32%
  • Publisher: 67%

Business News News

Business Business Latest News,Business Business Headlines

Net neutrality advocates might want to read this, too.

directly from a search resultNo current cloud gaming service offers anything of the sort.

But, after speaking to the man in charge of these AT&T initiatives, we’ve learned that AT&T isn’t planning to create such a thing itself. In fact, the company’s experiments aren’t pointing toward a cloud gaming business at all. “We’re not going to turn it into a business,” says Matthew Wallace, AT&T’s assistant vice president of 5G product and innovation. “Our goal in life is not to provide a gaming app or gaming service; it’s to provide the underlying network capability and then make those capabilities available to the gaming companies and customers.”I ask the question other ways, too, just to be sure I’m understanding correctly.

A poorly understood fact about cloud gaming is that a fast-in-terms-of-download-speed connection isn’t fast enough. Far more important is latency — here, the time it takes for your button press to make its way to a remote server, move your game character, and make its way all the way back to your screen. Wallace says AT&T has learned that both speed and latency have to be consistent for cloud gaming and that consistency has “definitely held back cellular networks.

And there, AT&T might have a thought on how to dramatically improve the consistency, but it’s a potentially controversial one. Wallace says the company’s been testing quality-of-service adjustments that could “ensure resources are allocated to customers who are using a cloud gaming app.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.

Do you know Stadia has time limited free trials (no registration required) for half of the titles in its catalogue, don't you?

We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 94. in BUSİNESS

Business Business Latest News, Business Business Headlines