As most PC games enter the mobile gaming market, we are working on some big plans for the future – Suman Saraf, Chief Technology Officer, now.gg

In an interview with The Gaming Reporter, Suman Saraf, Chief Technology Officer at now.gg discusses how now.gg aims to become the world’s leading mobile platform as a service for game creators, enabling gaming communities to play games on any device or OS.

The Gaming Reporter – What sparked the idea of starting a cloud gaming service focused on mobile games?

Suman Saraf – Game developers were reaching out to us to create a cloud-based solution that would allow users to play on mobile without downloading anything. In 2018, when Amazon began deploying ARM servers, the now.gg’s core team recognized a chance to build the mobile cloud with an entirely new tech stack. And this is how now.gg and the now cloud OS (NCOS) manifested.

We aim to become the world’s leading mobile platform-as-a-service for game creators, enabling gaming communities to play games on any device or OS, share games spontaneously on social media, and pay in-game using existing payment methods. The gamers on now.gg are not constrained by geography, device, or attribution and opens the world of consumers to game developers and unlocks entirely new revenue streams.

The Gaming Reporter – What differentiates now.gg from other cloud gaming platforms?

Suman Saraf – now.gg is the world’s first and only global mobile cloud for game developers powered by the first of its kind distributed Android technology, feasible only recently. By leveraging ARM-based servers and high-performance GPUs in the cloud, now.gg platform enables gamers to experience high-quality gaming instantly, without having to download gigabytes worth of data enabling device and OS agnostic access. The other major cloud gaming platforms focus on PC or console games, which combined, are a smaller market than mobile gaming.

Also, some of the mobile gaming platforms are restricted to regions like China because of technology limitations. Now.gg is amongst the very few players outside China, enabling cloud gaming at this scale.

What also makes now.gg distinct is that it offers its solution as a B2B PaaS model instead of a B2C subscription model.

The Gaming Reporter – Who can publish games on your platform? Please take us through the process of how it can be done.

Suman Saraf – Now.gg facilitates game developers to reach the next billion mobile gamers by removing the friction previously associated with mobile gaming and expanding gaming capabilities even to low and mid-tier mobile phones that were once unable to handle these games. Publishing games through the cloud broadly expands the user pool for gaming developers.

With the growing device storage limitation, even power gamers are seeking cloud-based solutions that would allow easy access. Around 50% of our active users come from high ARPU regions like N. America and South Asia.

Game developers who want to publish to the cloud do not have to go through any additional steps. All they need to do is upload their games to the now.gg mobile cloud and share the link on their website. There is no need to modify the app.

Mobile gamers can visit the developer’s website and play the game without downloading or installing the app after it has been hosted. Now.gg also supports cloud payment, wherein game developers can integrate our payment SDK and enable in-app purchases.

The Gaming Reporter – Main advantages of using cloud gaming services include no need for storage space and the ability to run heavy games. Does the company have plans to partner with publishers to bring more mainstream, popular & graphically heavy games to the platform?

Suman Saraf – Now.gg is already receiving strong traction from leading game developers like Perfect World, PerBlue, and Lilith Games among others, across the globe. We already have more than 50 games live on the platform and new ones are added on a daily basis. I believe it will radically transform the way mobile game developers reach new users around the world.

With Now.gg’s being offered as Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), game developers can enhance their reach, potential, and business models by addressing accessibility, shareability, and monetization. It is for the first time that by using a cloud platform, game developers can deliver the same graphics and high-performance interactive play, regardless of the device, OS, or regional constraints.  Their gaming communities can play games on any mobile device or OS, share games instantly on social channels they already use, and make in-game purchases through payment channels they already have.

The Gaming Reporter – What monetization model has been put in place to run the project? Also, does the company charge any fee from the developer/publisher to publish their games on the now.gg platform?

Suman Saraf – Consumers are not charged for using the platform. The services are provided as a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) model to game developers, who can choose the payment option that best suits their needs. Amongst the most popular models is to charge the user per day. Now.gg operates under a platform as a service-based pricing model and has a built-in mechanism to pay for the cloud cost.

The Gaming Reporter – The technology seems a little ahead of its time as in most regions there’s just not enough bandwidth on the consumer side, especially to run graphically heavy PC titles. What are your thoughts on the same?

Suman Saraf – The PC and console markets are minuscule when compared to the $120 billion mobile gaming market. Also, mobile has 2.6 billion gamers in terms of the user-base, more than PC and consoles combined. The number is still modest compared to 5Bn mobile users. We feel there is a large scope to expand the mobile gamers base.

These numbers also reinforce that mobile is the most preferred device for gaming. With now.gg, we can bridge the gap and bring the next billion gamers on mobile.

Bandwidth and latency are improving by the day. We are working with our partners to deploy our servers as close to our users as physically possible, oftentimes even in the same Wavelength zones.

The Gaming Reporter – What according to you is the future of Cloud Gaming?

Suman Saraf – Cloud gaming will be the most efficient and effective way for developers to make their games more accessible, shareable, and monetizable.

The now.gg platform also brings opportunities for developers to provide secure hosting for games and allows for safer beta testing, enables integration with various payment channels instead of limiting those offered by app stores, and saves marketing costs by leveraging social media’s shareability impact. Because the game will be hosted on their website, the now.gg mobile cloud also enables optimisation of iOS installs, even in the post IDFA era (Identifier for Advertisers).

The Gaming Reporter – Does Cloud Gaming have a place in esports? Please share your thoughts.

Suman Saraf – As we see increased adoption of 5G, we can expect cloud gaming taking center stage. The constraint of adapting gaming apps to suit different devices, would in the past as developers can just develop cloud compatible games, accessible across devices & OS.

This is the exact solution that would help democratize the esports industry too. Empowering all esports hosts to select games and platforms, independent of device restrictions. For gamers, gone are the days that required GBs of download and lengthy installation time. Discovering games is easier on social media.

The Gaming Reporter – Right now it looks like mobile games are the focus for now.gg. Can we expect the company to venture into the PC games market in the future?

Suman Saraf – I envision now.gg to take mobile gaming to the next billion. Currently, most mobile devices are not able to handle high-performance games. now.gg’s mobile cloud will radically change the way mobile game developers reach new users worldwide. As most PC games enter the mobile gaming market, we are working on some big plans for the future.

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