Crytek Forecasts Cloud For 2013 News

Crytek's CEO Cevat Yerli has spoken candidly about the future of game streaming services such as OnLive, suggesting that he doesn't believe they will be workable on a mass market scale until 2013.

The Crysis developer has been looking into the commercial benefits of a cloud computing service for streaming videogames to users since 2005 but, until the cost of internet bandwidth goes down, the juice isn't worth the squeeze according to Yerli:

"We had our research in 2005 on this subject but we stopped around 2007 because we had doubts about economics of scale. But that was at a time when bandwidth was more expensive," he told gi.biz.

"We saw that by 2013 - 2015 with the development of bandwidths and household connections worldwide that it might become more viable then," Yerli continued.

While some commentators have suggested that video rendering is a significant technical barrier for streaming games, Yerli disagrees, reiterating the point that internet connection speeds for the average user are the biggest stumbling block.

"It doesn't take a lot to make a video-based renderer, but what you need is the right infrastructure that is beyond the technology we have, it's more like cable net providers and communication networks.

"They have to provide fast bandwidths and connectivity in order to allow such technology to excel. So as it was dependent on somebody else, we decided to wait," Yerli said of Crytek's decision to hold fire on a streaming service for the time being.