Due to the increasing strength and availability of the internet in the modern day, streaming services have been able to take root in the world of entertainment. People don’t need to buy costly hardware or the item itself with streaming available, nor do they need to purchase items with lots of storage space to store all of their downloaded content. Instead, streaming delivers the content to the consumer instantly on almost any device with a screen.

It’s now getting to the point where streaming services are becoming the go-to platforms for television shows and movies, and the gaming industry is set to get rocked by its first streaming service later this year. Streaming is taking over entertainment and is royally shaking up the industry in 2019.

Disney+ to control the future of cinema and streaming

In this video, the Marvel Cinematic Universe – which is owned by Disney – showcases its next slate of content, which includes several series coming to the Disney+ platform which tie into the movies – making the platform a necessity for fans of the MCU.

Netflix has been a dominant force in the world of entertainment streaming for many years. Starting as a standard streaming platform from which people could see old films and series via the internet, Netflix evolved its offering by reinvesting in itself and producing its own content, known as ‘Netflix Originals’. Many great series came from this approach, including House of Cards, BoJak Horseman, Orange is the New Black, the cancelled-far-too-early Marco Polo, Narcos, and Stranger Things from 2013 to 2016, with the volume of new Originals series increasing exponentially year-on-year.

The latest tactic of Netflix, however, is to pick up movies set for a cinematic release which are giving producers cold feet. In the modern world of cinema, big-name franchises rule the roost, so there are many movies which come close to a big-screen release which producers fear will flop in the crowded schedule. This is where Netflix swoops in to lay off risk on projects. We’ve seen in happening with many movies, including Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle, Annihilation, God Particle, and Shaft in non-US markets. The films are then slapped with the ‘Originals’ banner and released on the streaming platform for all subscribers to see.

While Amazon Prime is a streaming service and does compete with Netflix, the fact that its platform comes as part of the Prime subscription which also includes free next-day delivery among other incentives, Prime isn’t often referred to as a direct competitor to the wholly-streaming company. But there is a major competitor set to take the world by storm upon its release on 12 November 2019, Disney+.

Disney+ has already started to show its dominance over today’s entertainment sphere by pulling the rights to make Marvel series like Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and The Punisher from Netflix – which were well received and enjoyed by subscribers. Not only has Disney pulled some of the biggest draws of Netflix, but the goliath media company is also dominating the big screen right now, recently clocking in a record-breaking year at the global box office with $8.08 billion in 2019 so far.

The slate that Disney franchises like Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar, its own live movies, and soon the Fox properties that the company recently acquired, release forces other film studios to try and plan around their schedule. Now, their cinematic slate will be getting bolstered by movies coming to Disney+ and series which intertwine with their movies. Already slated for the streaming platform are Star Wars series The Mandalorian, The Clone Wars, and a Cassian Andor series as well as the MCU’s Loki, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and WandaVision among many other new Disney series and movies.

How Disney decides to release its future content, particularly films, will have an even greater impact on the world of entertainment, with the amount of weight given to the Disney+ streaming platform potentially making the method of consuming content even more powerful.

Gaming about to get a wake-up call from streaming

In this video, the Google Stadia team showcases the ease and accessibility of video gaming through the upcoming Google Stadia streaming platform. In the demo, the user shows that triple-A game can be played on any form of device.

Gaming through one’s browser, mobile phone, or via any of the three leading consoles – Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One – is big business: one which Google Stadia aims to change completely. Game streaming has been tried in the past but to no avail, especially when it comes to triple-A titles, but now, Stadia reckons they’ve cracked it, with an army of Google servers by their side. While its subscription service has been revealed to be less of a ‘Netflix for games’ and more of a standard Xbox Gold Live type of deal, being able to stream games to any type of device is a reality for any gamer with internet speeds in excess of 10 Mbps for 720p streaming.

In the demo video shown above, it is shown that triple-A games once secluded to consoles and PC gamers can now be played via laptops, mobile phones, computers, tablets, and smart televisions. It’s a stark wakeup call for the industry which could have a major impact on more traditional browser-based and mobile app game platforms. Websites like Wink Bingo have resurrected the once-popular pastime through online bingo and boast hundreds of games, but Stadia looks to make triple-A titles easily accessible to those who play browser games and don’t want to buy a console. But as many browser games on the website are lighter than triple-A games, range in buy-in price – which includes many being free – and require less hands-on skill, Stadia shouldn’t impact their audiences too much.

As for mobile gaming, however, Stadia could have a bigger impact. There will still be a big audience for the freemium model, lighter mobile app games which burn time, but the efforts to bring higher-quality gaming to mobiles may be quashed. Apple is set to release Apple Arcade, a game subscription service, which is to provide better, more cost-effective gaming to its users while offering a more supportive platform to developers. However, as Stadia is planning on being compatible with iOS devices, the more ‘hardcore’ gamers may defect from Arcade and simply stream in a triple-A title via Stadia.

Stadia has the all areas of the video game industry a bit worried – less so now that more information is available – and could prove to be a game-changer down the line. Its announcement has even forced long-time rivals Sony and Microsoft to team up to establish their own cloud gaming solution. The main element holding back Google Stadia, which will greatly slow down its uptake in comparison to other early streaming platforms like Netflix, is the internet speed required for top-class gaming being greater than the average speeds in many nations.

Streaming is already a major player in the industry, changing the regular methods of distributing content. With Google Stadia and Disney+ on the way this year, streaming is set to be an even greater force in entertainment.