It’s very rare to find a household nowadays without Netflix or something similar. Families or partners will sit down after a long hard day to watch the latest movie or binge watch a TV series to pass some time and to wind down.
What if instead of sitting down to watch TV you could have an enjoyable interactive experience playing a video game instead? I’d like to introduce you to Jump, a new software platform that allows you to jump (as the name suggests) straight into playing a new video game without the unapproachability of the current home video game industry.
Similar to what Apple has tried to do by including game apps on the new Apple TV, Jump is looking to bring home video games to an easily accessible platform so more people can experience the joys of gaming.
In essence, it allows you to stream video games through their new HyperJump game delivery technology that “provides players with the same latency-free, high-quality experience as a game that is fully installed onto their device, but without long download times and without requiring large amounts of disk space.”
I’m sure there are many people out there who would consider playing with their family if there weren’t so many limitations. First you have to pick a game making sure you have the correct console or computer to run it, then you have to acquire the game somehow, you’ll then have to download the game, when the game finally finishes downloading you need to install it and if you’re lucky you’re ready to go without any additional setup. All of these steps may seem common practice to people who play video games on a regular basis but they are pure agony for anyone else.
Jump works to solve many of these problems.
First, is choosing a game. Jump contains only games curated by their in-house team so you know what you’re playing is going to be a well-crafted experience. This is usually one of the biggest roadblocks. Outside of doing your own research, the only way people normally latch onto a new game is if someone recommends it to them. So you’ve picked your game – what’s next? That’s actually it! Much like Netflix all you need to do from here is press the play button and you’re straight into the game. Crazy right? Jump pretty much removes the need to download and install video games saving you time and storage space on your device.
“Most games will load in under 60 seconds on a 15mbps connection.”
Many of you may be thinking “great, but where’s the catch?”
At this stage, Jump doesn’t seem to have a catch. Much like any other streaming service it just has a monthly subscription fee ($9.99 USD) with a 14-day free trial. With this, you’re not committed to paying for any specific game and have access to their complete game library. On launch, Jump will have over 60 games to play and they plan on adding 6-10 new games each month. This removes any commitment you have to an individual game so you’ll be able to try them all without having to pay for each one.
This is an awesome model that allows people who don’t really know what they’re looking for to try them all and very much reminds me of the old 100 game collection CDs for windows 95. This model is also very beneficial for the game market as the game developers will only get paid based on the time a user spends playing their game.
One potential obstacle for new users is that you currently require a computer to install Jump onto. Fortunately, most households still have a desktop or laptop computer lying around somewhere. Fortunately how old the computer is shouldn’t matter a great deal (as long as it works) as many indie games require much lower specifications to AAA titles.
Jump’s target audience seems to be existing gamers who enjoy indie game experiences but I really think this type of technology will thrive outside the realm of existing gamers. It brings an accessible platform that may just be what people need to get back into games or pick up a game for the first time.
With technology that makes it this easy will you give video games a chance?
