User Preferences for Video Game Delivery - A Case Study of Cloud Gaming

In the recent years there have been a number of video game streaming platforms emerging on the market. Cloud gaming services like OnLive and PlayStation Now may ultimately prove successful in tapping the Internet to deliver instant streaming video games. However, there has been a limited research on these platforms, especially focusing on the end user preferences. In this thesis, preferences of different gamer groups (hardcore and casual) are studied in order to identify possible development directions for such services. A test has been designed and performed with users from the different groups. The commercial PC-based service OnLive has been used for testing the user experience and user acceptance of cloud gaming. A custom public game test has been conducted as well. Observation, user surveys and interviews have been used for data collection. The experiments done focuses on the users perception and response towards such a systems in terms of fidelity, usability, comparison to traditional game delivery and likelihood of buying into such a model. The thesis takes a holistic approach were not only the games themselves are tested, but the total experience in using the game service. At large, the results indicate that casual gamers are more positive to the cloud gaming service model than hardcore gamers. The findings suggest that one of the reasons are that casual gamers choose convenience over high fidelity in their game preferences