Crytek: Cloud gaming could transform the industry

Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli has said that cloud gaming will potentially completely alter the structure of the videogames industry, providing it can surmount immediate business and scalability obstacles.

Speaking to Gamasutra at E3, Yerli noted: "Gaikai as well as OnLive, they’re pioneers in that [area]. But I also think that [current cloud gaming solutions] can be dangerous in a way, from a business perspective.”

“I have concerns about the way it’s approached, but I think cloud gaming is the future, inevitably,” he said.

Of the two major cloud gaming services, Yerli said that he believed Gaikai’s business model of offering instant game demos through publisher placed online adverts was more sustainable than OnLive’s web based storefront.

He said that new cloud firms "will overcome business issues and scalability issues" with cloud gaming. He added that “those platforms right now, they inherently have scalability issues.”

For the moment, however, Yerli noted that current triple-A titles are not built for the cloud, and going forward they will need to be so for the distribution method to take hold.

"Crysis 2 isn’t built to be scaled on a cloud. Crysis 2 is not a cloud game. Crysis 2 is a client-based game that is running on a cloud. And yes, it has the benefit of that scalability on the client side, but it is inefficient on the server side, because it’s not meant to be on a cloud.,” he said.

"Until this is overcome, and people build proper cloud games, this will always be a business issue.”