According to The Guardian, there was a time when the gaming industry was dominated by speciality companies (Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo). But that is no longer the case, as major tech companies such as Google and Apple move into the market at a rapid pace. Apple has recently redesigned their Apple TV product with more of a focus on gaming. Now, you can download and run games, giving Playstation 4, Xbox One, and the Wii U a run for their money. Google has also been focusing in on this market and is ready to capitalize on the market with their product, Chromecast.
With Chromecast, Google has designed a playing system where you can use your smartphones with your TV. The smartphone serves as the controller and the source of the processing power.
When compared to competitors, Chromecast president responds, “There’s a fundamental difference between the other models out there and what we’re doing. Games require computing power, and the smartphone has superior computing power to any of the popular streaming boxes that are out there.”
He believes that the smartphone is one to two generations ahead with computing power compared to other available products out there. This allows consumers to take advantage of better computing power with better rendered images and not waste time or space downloading games to a streaming box.
When Chromecast was first launched in the summer of 2013, it was a small thumb-sized device that simply plugged into a TV. Since then, google has sold over $17 million of the devices and have acquired thousands of apps to support their product.
Not only is Google focusing on gaming but on sound too. They are continuing to grow Chromecast Audio, which will connect easily to speakers and allow you to play music from partner services including Google Play Music, Pandora, and Spotify.
The vice president of Spotify, Gustav Soderstrom comments on this partnership, ““If you think about last year’s big focus on the internet of things, people kept talking about connected fire alarms and similar devices. But the obvious thing is to get your music playing with those connected features. That’s the most natural entry point to the internet of things.”
As the tech giants continue to make headway in the gaming world, the boxes, stations, and wiis of the world could be on their way to becoming obsolete (like the Dreamcasts, Nintendo 64’s, and Gamecubes). Even so, you will still have your favorite games, and a new, interactive way of playing them.
