Source: Tencent Technology
On February 26, Beijing time, foreign media reported that as an important development direction in the gaming industry, the cloud gaming industry has begun to take shape. Playcast is a leading global cloud gaming company, and its board member Gadi Tirosh recently gave an interview explaining the operations and profit model of cloud gaming.
Gadi is a partner at JVP (Jerusalem Venture Partners), one of Israel's leading venture capital funds, and also serves on the board of Playcast. Playcast is a pioneer in cloud gaming, having started providing services to players in Paris, Portugal, Singapore, and South Korea last year. JVP is one of Playcast's investors and is regarded as one of the most successful venture capital firms in Israel. Other investors in Playcast include MK Capital, Xenia Venture Capital, and C.Mer Industries.
Recently, Gadi was interviewed to introduce readers to the operations and profit model of Playcast. Below is the original text of the interview:
When will Playcast be launched in France?
Bouygues Telecom launched Playcast for new users of its high-end broadband gateway/set-top box BBox Sensation last July, and has recently made the same service available to its existing users.
What is the penetration rate of Playcast?
Playcast is still in the early stages of development, but initial analysis shows its tremendous potential. At least 1 in every 10 trial users ultimately registered for the Playcast service.
Can you describe how Playcast works?
The operating model is as follows: Games running on a remote server are transmitted in real-time to the user's device via a set-top box, allowing users to interact through a controller. Initially, users can navigate to the game channel using a remote control and try out our games. Once users subscribe to a game, we provide them with a controller. The gaming experience is quite similar to that of traditional TV games. Additionally, scoreboards will be published. The experience of playing games on TV is significant for users.
What games are currently available on Playcast?
Playcast has collaborated with many game publishers, including Capcom, Codemasters, Atari, Disney, Sega, THQ, and Warner Bros. The games we offer include Street Fighter, Sonic Generations, Batman – Arkham City, Homefront, Test Drive Unlimited 2, and Lego Batman.
Who are gamers?
The statistics regarding who uses our services and who frequently uses them are quite interesting—they are not hardcore or professional players. The individuals we serve are referred to as "casual players." In France, our business starts to pick up around four o'clock in the afternoon, as elementary school students return home from school. However, parents are generally not willing to invest in their children's gaming interests, likely due to the high prices.
Will Playcast users try out various games and ultimately choose their favorite one?
We have noticed that users tend to find games they enjoy and then spend most of their time playing those games.
From the perspective of gaming habits, how do players from Singapore, Portugal, and South Korea differ from players in France?
In fact, we see that they have many similarities—of course, their demand for local content differs. At the same time, we found that compared to Korean players, French and Portuguese players prefer violent games. Additionally, Korean players are less familiar with the use of television games and game controllers.
What is Playcast's business model like? Do operators offer Playcast's games as an additional service to users? Or is it considered an upsell and a value-added service?
Bouygues Telecom considers Playcast to be its true competitive advantage. 25% of the company's advertising is related to Playcast. This indirectly demonstrates the speed and stability of its network. Playcast and Bouygues share game sales revenue proportionally.
What impact will the success of cloud gaming have on the future development of the gaming industry?
What we do is release and showcase games to players in an unprecedented way. Movies have been distributed in a "cloud" manner before, but this is the first time for games, and the average "shelf life" of the latter is only three to five weeks.
Additionally, we will remove the barriers to broadcasting television games, which were once extremely popular. With cloud gaming, a team of 5 to 10 players can choose from thousands of games.
According to reports, Playcast will be launching in the United States this year?
We do intend to launch Playcast in the United States and are currently in discussions with several operators.