Updated: Chinese gaming conglomerate Tencent is working on a new cloud gaming service, as revealed in a description for an upcoming GDC session spotted by industry analyst Daniel Ahmad Tuesday.
Tencent Instant Play is the name for the new cloud service, which will be detailed in a March 20 session co-presented with Intel, the partner for the service, according to the description.
The service is planned for both mobile devices and PC. It will work similarly to other previously announced services, like Google’s Project Stream and Microsoft’s Project xCloud, according to Ahmad, who shared the news in a tweet on Tuesday.
“In this session, the Tencent WeTest team, Tencent Game Platform team and Intel will share a technical overview of Tencent’s leading cloud gaming solutions for both Windows PC gaming and Android mobile gaming based on Intel’s latest emerging visual cloud technology,” the description reads. “Tencent is embracing this for best high-efficient, dense and cost-effective cloud gaming platforms that are driving gaming at scale for anywhere anytime for next-gen gaming.”
Reached for comment Wednesday, Kim Pallister, Intel’s CTO of Gaming, VR and Esports, said the company couldn’t comment on the Tencent report.
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“At Intel, we’re focused on leading and innovating in both server and client platform computing solutions. We are enthused about the development of cloud gaming offerings that companies are bringing to market. We believe the increased flexibility and innovation in this space will allow the gaming market to grow and reach new gamers, offer games in new ways, and enable entirely new types of gaming over time.
“While we can’t comment on Tencent’s work in the space, we’re excited to collaborate with them. We are also passionate about sharing information with the game developer community at events like the Game Developers Conference, and encourage those interested to attend the session to learn more.”
Tencent is the latest company to turn its attention to cloud gaming. While console gaming is still currently popular, cloud gaming would offer players the chance to play graphics intensive games on any device, meaning a wider audience of players could be reached. The appeal is obvious for gaming companies looking to reach more players.
Microsoft’s gaming head Phil Spencer explained the reasoning in an interview with Variety last summer, noting that there are 2 billion people who play video games worldwide.
“I love the Xbox One team, they did an incredible job with that and we have a long term commitment to the console space,” Spencer said. “But when you think about 2 billion people, we’re not going to sell 2 billion people a game console.”
