Why can AI+ cloud computing become the "most solid backing" of the game industry?

On August 2006, 8, at the SES San Jose 9 conference, Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, proposed the concept of "cloud computing".

Today, cloud computing is not a new concept and has a profound impact on all walks of life.

Enterprises such as finance and the Internet migrate their core business to the cloud, and use the powerful computing power of cloud computing to reduce costs and increase efficiency. The boss of the commissary uses SaaS management software to digitally analyze his transaction process and transaction data...

In addition to the above use cases, cloud computing also plays a very important role in the gaming industry. Industry insiders believe that the game industry has become an "important position" in the field of cloud computing.

The 2023 China Game Industry Annual Conference released the "12 China Game Industry Report" on December 15. According to the report, the actual sales revenue of the domestic game market in 2023 will be 2023.3029 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 64.13%, and it will also break through the 95 billion yuan mark for the first time. The number of gaming users reached an all-time high of 3000 million.

Zhang Xiantao, vice president of Alibaba Cloud and head of the elastic computing product line, said in an interview with China News Service at the 2023 China Game Industry Annual Conference that as the game industry continues to develop, the game cloud business is showing a rapid growth trend.

At present, AI technology is stimulating innovation in all aspects of the game industry, and Alibaba Cloud hopes to build the underlying capabilities that support AI infrastructure for the future with the overall technical advantages of "AI + cloud computing", and be the "most solid backing" for the game industry.

How does cloud computing feed back the gaming industry?

According to the latest report "China's Overall Market Share of Game Cloud (Excluding CDN) 2022" released by IDC, the overall market size of China's game cloud (excluding CDN) reached 97.38 billion yuan, with Alibaba Cloud accounting for 5.<>% of the market share.

Zhang Xiantao said that in the past 10 years, Alibaba Cloud has provided services for many game enterprise customers. For example, miHoYo, NetEase, Lilith, Perfect World, Sanqi Mutual Entertainment, etc. These game publishers have released many successful and popular games over the past few years, and their excellent gaming experience is not only limited to the games themselves, but also to the strong infrastructure capabilities.

In modern game development, the combination of cloud services and AI technology has become the key to driving innovation in the industry. Zhang Xiantao said that the scale, elasticity and security of cloud services are critical to the success of games at different stages such as game publishing, development and cybersecurity.

During the launch phase of a game, especially at launch, the demand for access from players around the world increases rapidly. In order to meet the ultra-high requirements for low latency and stability, stable computing power support is indispensable. The hyperscale clustering and elasticity of cloud services are key to ensuring that the game can respond to global player access on day one.

In the game development stage, making full use of the various capabilities of AI technology can significantly improve the overall development efficiency. For example, a designer can traditionally produce 2 to 3 character concept sketches a week, but by using AI, 20 characters can be produced in the same amount of time. This not only speeds up the development process, but also improves the quality and creativity of the design.

Zhang Xiantao introduced that in the past two years, Alibaba Cloud has launched Tongyi Wanxiang and Tongyi Stardust for the game industry by giving full play to the capabilities of AI large models. Played a huge role in game art and character creation, able to quickly build character-oriented, personalized characters. This allows players to communicate with the characters as if they were meeting old friends, chatting easily and naturally, adding more creativity and fun to the game itself.

At the same time, network security and cloud service platform protection capabilities are also the cornerstone of game operations. The security protection capability of the cloud service platform is particularly critical. Alibaba Cloud has terabyte-level DDoS attack resistance and can filter and clean online peak traffic, ensuring the smooth operation of game services and providing a secure online environment for players.

Enhance the player experience

When asked how cloud computing can better improve the game experience, Zhang Xiantao said that a successful game not only requires excellent game themes and content gameplay, but also requires a lot of cloud computing power and AI technology.

At present, some excellent games have introduced some AI elements, such as the creation of intelligent NPC characters through AI technology, and also allows players to "pinch their faces" with AI, and even create Tang poems and Song lyrics through AI.

Zhang Xiantao believes that due to the powerful capabilities of cloud computing and AI, game companies can provide new experiences to game customers by making good use of these technologies. This not only makes the gaming experience richer, but also greatly improves the overall freedom of the game.

What are the new opportunities and challenges in the future of cloud computing?

It is not difficult to see that with the continuous development of cloud computing technology, it will continue to bring new opportunities and possibilities to all walks of life.

Zhang Xiantao expects that in the future, more industry customers will make full use of cloud computing and AI technology to improve business efficiency and promote the continuous improvement of enterprise operation efficiency.

Cloud computing should be considered a "digital revolution" in the information technology industry, which is significantly different from the traditional IT industry. In traditional IT, enterprises mainly sell software, hardware, or chips as their main business, and cloud computing transforms these capabilities into a service, providing enterprises with more room for business development.

At the same time, in the process of serving game customers, Alibaba Cloud found that the demand for high-performance cloud servers from game manufacturers has gradually become prominent, and the ultimate goal of the cloud platform should ensure that players can enjoy a smooth experience without lag and disconnection when playing games, which also requires high-performance server support.

Alibaba Cloud has served 22,400 Chinese enterprises going overseas and provided cloud services to more than 70 million customers around the world. In the future, Alibaba Cloud is expected to invest <> billion yuan in three years to build an international ecosystem and strengthen overseas local service capabilities.

"Alibaba Cloud is committed to sharing its brand beyond stability and performance with all customers to provide an excellent service experience for end users. At present, Alibaba Cloud is developing its own ultra-high-performance cloud servers to provide smoother deployment for the game business and improve the gaming experience of end users. Zhang Xiantao said. (Text/Chen Haoxing, Hou Yutong Drawing)