Cloud-Streaming Services Still Face Financial, Technical Hurdles, Says Jolt CEO

Jolt Online Gaming CEO Dylan Collins spoke out on the issues facing cloud-based gaming services in an op-ed for Business Insider, explaining why it could take years for these companies to make their money back. Collins noted that while companies like OnLive and Gaikai have raised impressive funds from high profile investors, network latency and bandwidth caps could prevent the services from becoming an industry standard. "The problem for the cloud-gaming companies is that they receive the game after it’s developed. Meaning that they can’t add any of their own technical wizardry into the game. These guys are going to need middleware teams," he said in his op-ed piece. Considering that companies like OnLive only charge $9.99 per month for their services, Collins argued these companies will not be able to make back their money any time in the near future. "I suspect the actual ROI [Return On Investment] is years out at this point," Collins said. Collins' company Jolt Online Gaming is owned by GameStop, and develops and publishes a number of free-to-play titles, including Playboy Manager and Legends of Zork.