Tencent Holdings Ltd. i Sony Corp. strengthens its commitment to cloud gaming by joining the latest round of fundraising from Japanese company Ubitus KK
Ubitus, specializing in cloud gaming services and technology, said Wednesday that it completed a round with investments from Tencent, Sony Innovation Fund by IGV and Square Enix Holdings Co., without disclosing the amount collected. Investors spent about $ 45 million on a valuation of less than $ 400 million, said a person familiar with the matter, who asked that they not be identified because the details are not public.
Tencent has stepped up its efforts to encourage gaming in the cloud, allowing consumers to enjoy high-end games without having expensive hardware, such as consoles or computers. Just like Netflix streams movies, cloud gaming services offer games from servers over the Internet to TVs, smartphones, and other users ’screens. Tencent said Monday it was helping OOParts, a Japanese cloud gaming platform, capitalize on the technology.
Still, cloud games have faced challenges, even as wireless connections improve, most enthusiasts adhere to titles that use players ’own hardware. Emotion caused by Google Alphabet Inc. it didn’t last long as its Stadia service faced challenges with communication latency and plan pricing. Stadia has reduced much of her ambitions and Jade Raymond, a veteran of the gaming industry she hired for Stadia and who recently left, has set up a studio to work on a PlayStation game.
“Long-term cloud gaming will ease the development burden of cross-platform game creation, expand gaming to new geographies, and generate more subscription revenue, but it is still a long way from being a major platform,” say Matthew Kanterman, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst.
Despite skepticism, many video game platform owners see potential in technology and predict that it may coexist with console-based business models. Sony offers PlayStation Now and Microsoft Corp. has Project xCloud, both provide streaming games to subscribers.
Ubitus, founded in Taiwan in 2007 and now headquartered in Tokyo, is a leading provider of cloud gaming solutions. Among its partners are Nintendo Co., which offers cloud-based versions Resident Evil and Capcom Co. Assassin’s Creed on the Switch by Ubisoft Entertainment SA. Square Enix uses startup technology to run its popular Dragon Quest X online multiplayer role-playing game. Ubitus cloud gaming patents are often praised for their low latency.