The status of TV is gradually declining. Can cloud games attract users to return?

"How long has it been since you watched TV?"

That summer 13 years ago, a TV less than 50 inches was the best way for us to watch the Olympics; 13 years later, the size of TVs has already exceeded 50 inches, and the picture quality is getting better and better, but the way we watch the Olympics is more often a small mobile phone with a screen less than 6 inches.

You can say that the popularity of the Olympics is no longer as high as it used to be, and the grand occasion of a family sitting in front of the TV to watch the Olympics is gone forever. But it is undeniable that for young people, the TV, which used to be the center of the living room and the center of family entertainment, is gradually declining in status and is no longer a must-have home appliance.

TV's decline as demand falls and prices rise

The decline in the status of television is reflected in the consumer market, and the most direct manifestation is the decline in TV sales. According to the "Summary of the Development of the Color TV Market in H1 2021" released by Aowei Cloud Network, in the first half of 2021, the cumulative sales of the Chinese color TV market reached 17.81 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 14.7%. It should be noted that in 2016, five years ago, the domestic annual sales had reached 50 million units.

Of course, part of the reason for the sharp drop in TV sales is due to price increases. Since the second half of 2020, TV panels have begun to rise sharply. As of June 2021, the year-on-year increase in the purchase price of small and medium-sized panels of 55 inches and below has been more than 90%, among which 55-inch, 43-inch, and 32-inch panels have increased by 97.3%, 98.6%, and 151.4% year-on-year. Even for large-size panels with relatively mild increases, 75-inch and 65-inch have increased by 36.9% and 64.4%. In addition, the problem of chip shortages has further exacerbated the rise in panel prices. The rise in panels brought the average price of color TVs to 3,332 yuan in the first half of 2021, a year-on-year increase of 34.9%.

It is true that the price increase of televisions has discouraged many consumers who were interested in buying televisions, but this also reflects the fact that television is no longer a necessity as an appliance.

Ultimately, the decline of television is because in this era of diversified entertainment, television has gradually failed to meet our needs. The rise of streaming platforms and the gradual decline in the appeal of television content have led to a gradual decline in the rate of television power-on. Even during the Spring Festival in 2020, when the epidemic was the most serious and people were quarantined at home, the power-on rate of smart TVs was only 45%.

Faced with the dilemma that televisions are gradually unable to meet consumer demand, TV manufacturers are also actively seeking change, whether it is standard Internet functions, introducing mainstream streaming media platforms, making up for the declining attractiveness of TV content, or adding Internet of Things functions to make television a major entrance to the smart home ecosystem, or social TVs that were born in response to the epidemic and gaming TVs that meet the needs of console game players. These are all changes made by televisions to meet consumer demand. The purpose is to make television no longer limited to one function, but to meet the more diverse needs of consumers.

This year, TV manufacturers have turned their attention to another area: cloud gaming.

From being able to play to being fun, cloud gaming is becoming a new trend

The concept of cloud gaming has entered the public eye since Onlive demonstrated games based on its cloud gaming platform in 2009. However, due to poor experience in interaction delay, multimedia quality, and less game content and fees in the early days of cloud gaming, cloud gaming has been lukewarm on the consumer side.

However, for some reason, the endless emergence of various air hardware in the DIY market this year has once again made cloud gaming a hot topic among gamers. In addition, at this year's ChinaJoy, cloud gaming is definitely one of the technology applications that many viewers want to try the most.

After several waves of fee reductions and speed increases, my country's average Internet speed has already ranked among the top in the world. At the same time, the popularization of 5G technology and the emergence of technologies such as WiFi6 have cleared the obstacles to the development of cloud games, so that the Internet is no longer a shackle that restricts cloud games. Today's cloud games are no longer just playable, but are gradually becoming fun. Take Tencent's Start cloud gaming platform as an example. The platform currently covers a number of popular online games including "Genshin Impact", "NBA2K Online", and "League of Legends".

In terms of gaming experience, as long as you have a fiber-optic broadband from one of the three major operators, you can have almost imperceptible delay performance. In addition, Tencent Start cloud gaming can also provide 1080P 120Hz picture output.

In addition to Tencent Start, NetEase, Huya and China Mobile are all actively deploying cloud gaming. The cloud gaming platforms currently launched can also provide very good cloud gaming experience. Looking at the overseas market, in addition to the three giants of Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo that entered the cloud gaming market the earliest, companies such as Google, Amazon, and Nvidia are also building their own cloud gaming camps.

It can be said that today's cloud games have begun to show strong development potential. According to the "2021 China Cloud Game Market Trend Report" jointly released by authoritative organizations in March 2021, the global cloud game market size in 2020 was US$630 million, and the global cloud game market size in 2023 is expected to reach US$5.135 billion.

Image source: "2021 China Cloud Gaming Market Trend Report"

Can cloud gaming, which is now in vogue, bring users back to TV?

Obviously, TV manufacturers choose to introduce cloud games, on the one hand, because they see the development potential of cloud games, and on the other hand, because TV may be the best terminal carrier for cloud games. Limited by the operation logic and screen size, the experience of playing cloud games on mobile phones is not particularly good. As for computers, with the increasingly powerful hardware performance, mainstream PCs can already meet the running requirements of most mainstream online games and even some 3A masterpieces, unless the computer you use is not running the Windows platform or the performance is too weak.

The TV has a larger screen and stronger entertainment attributes, making it almost the best carrier for cloud gaming. Moreover, the TV does not have a fixed control device. It can be played with an external handle or an external keyboard and mouse, and even with the camera on the TV, it can achieve somatosensory gameplay. Such advantages are obviously unmatched by PCs and mobile phones. In addition, the sense of immersion brought by the large screen is also unmatched by other devices.

So, can cloud gaming, which is now in vogue, make users return to TV from their mobile phones? My answer is no. It is undeniable that cloud gaming does provide a new usage scenario for TV, but for now it is just a plus point, a selling point to attract consumers, and it will not be a hot spot to bring users back from mobile phones to TV.

The reason is cloud gaming itself. Limited by network bandwidth, most cloud games can only provide 1080P images. Now that dessert-level hardware can already reach 2K resolution, the game images provided by cloud gaming naturally cannot meet the needs of some serious game enthusiasts. This means that the target audience of cloud gaming will not be PC users who pursue the highest game quality.

At the game level, the game content provided by cloud games at this stage is mainly concentrated in some popular online games and 3A games on PC. For console users who value the game lineup, cloud game platforms cannot provide game resources exclusive to game consoles, nor do they have exclusive game content that is attractive enough. This also means that cloud games will not become the choice of console users.

At present, the audience of cloud games is mostly casual gamers. For these players, games are a form of entertainment to relax and a social activity. They do not have too strict requirements on the game graphics. They only need to have a complete gaming experience to satisfy their leisure time or to have fun with friends. So from the perspective of these casual gamers, cloud games can indeed provide a new entertainment option, but it is just one more option.

Of course, in addition to cloud gaming itself, the properties of the TV itself also determine that it cannot provide the same fragmented entertainment experience as mobile devices. The reason why mobile phones can become our main entertainment device is that they are portable and can provide us with entertainment in fragmented time. The most common scenario is that on the bus or subway on the way home from get off work, we turn on a movie and when we get home, whether we are lying in bed, squatting on the toilet, or cooking in the kitchen, we will choose to continue watching the movie on our mobile phones instead of turning on the TV.

As the pace of life continues to accelerate, every day is filled with work and life, and we can only use these fragmented time for entertainment. As a large household appliance, the entertainment provided by TV is scenario-based, such as friends coming to watch movies at home, etc. Cloud games provide another scenario-based entertainment method.

Of course, TVs with cloud gaming functions will inevitably invest more in hardware to match the gaming functions, such as Wi-Fi 6, high refresh screens, etc., which will greatly improve the viewing experience even if you don’t play cloud games. The hardware improvement plus the new gameplay brought by cloud gaming do make cloud gaming TVs more competitive and more attractive to consumers than traditional TVs.

Summarize

In an era of diversified and fragmented entertainment, the decline of television may be inevitable. Whether it is cloud gaming, social functions, or smart home portals, although these functions may not allow us to return to television from mobile devices, each function is designed to allow television to break away from the single entertainment attribute, so that television can meet more of our consumers' needs and make television more integrated into our lives.

Perhaps traditional televisions are declining, but consumers' demand for large screens will not change. With the development of technologies such as 5G, cloud computing, and AI, the functions of televisions will surely become more diversified, and it may only be a matter of time before they return to the center of the family.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.