Square Enix Claims Cloud-Based 'Supercomputers' Will Power the Future of Gaming (VIDEO)
A Square Enix subsidiary claims their cloud gaming platform technology will power the games of the future.
Shinra Technologies, Japanese game publisher Square Enix's subsidiary has pitched what it describes as a "supercomputer-powered cloud gaming platform" that will propel the future of gaming.
One of this week's Los Angeles E3 highlights included bringing gamers new worlds that have never existed before, given the limitation of current gaming technology.
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Shinra Technologies CEO Yoichi Wada, formerly a president at Square Enix, announced that the next evolution of gaming will harness the power of a cloud supercomputer to create new gaming experiences.
"We believe we need to change the rules," Wada explained at an E3 roundtable event Wednesday, "and in order to change the rules we need to create a new platform."
The concept behind cloud gaming involves offloading the process via cloud, and streaming the gameplay to consoles and screens. This means the local hardware involved doesn't need to be powerful to be able to stream high resolution games, or games that require current gen consoles to work.
Unlike other cloud service like OnLive and PlayStation Now, Shinra aims to take the technology a step further by leveraging computational muscle to go beyond what gamers' personal hardware allow. Games will be built natively to run on its servers to enable games that run only in the cloud.
At the E3 event, Shinra communications chief, James Mielke ran a "Living World" demo showcasing a 32 x 32-kilometer living space with a million trees and over 15,000 AI dragons, which would normally be impossible for a networked multiplayer to synchronize.
The demo was powered by two servers. With both render and memory handled by each server cluster, the platform would be enabled to adapt and evolve.
While Shinra's technology hasn't reached mainstream level as of present, it's an idea gamers would do well to keep an eye on as more and more computing activities make its way to the cloud, rendering hardware less important for creating new experiences.
