EA Announces Cloud-Native Gaming Tech "Project Atlas" for More Immersive Experiences

Ahead of its October 2018 earnings call, video game publisher EA made a surprise announcement. The company unveiled its new cloud-native gaming technology, called Project Atlas. According to the publisher, Project Atlas has the power to "change how future games are made" and how they are experienced. Ken Moss, EA's chief technology officer, said that this would allow games to go beyond the "immersive experiences" that they are today, into "games that offer living, breathing worlds that constantly evolve."

Not only will these games offer "deep, meaningful social interactions," explained Moss, but they will also be accessible from any device. "You will be able to play games with your friends anytime, anywhere, and on any device," suggested the executive.

On a certain level, EA's Project Atlas and the way it harnesses the impressive power of the cloud sounds a little like Google's own game streaming platform, which is called Project Stream. While Google's tech is more focused on letting people stream games in its Chrome browser, though, EA's project could shape actual game development and what these games offer.

EA also revealed that more than 1,000 people are working on making Project Atlas happen, making this one incredibly ambitious project. But in truth, the publisher is far from the only company that is working on making games more immersive for players, though many others haven't built an entire technology stack just to make it happen. Instead, other game developers have woven the immersion into the fabric of the game world using tools that they already have access to.



The recently released cowboy adventure game Red Dead Redemption 2 features NPCs who react to the tidiness of player's appearance. You can see events play out over time (such as the building of a house), and animals change by the season too. Even simpler types of games such as slots have begun to include 3D environments, animated backgrounds and music in an effort on the part of specialist providers including SG Gaming, IGT and NetEnt to make players feel right in the thick of the action.

Even simpler online games have begun to include 3D environments, animated backgrounds and music in an effort on the part of specialist providers like SG Gaming, IGT and NetEnt, to make players feel right in the thick of the action. The intense competition in this sector means that such brands are looking to stand out by providing immersive experiences for players, seeking ways to grab their attention when faced with hundreds, if not thousands, of titles. No matter the genre, though, games based on films or TV shows may feature phrases from the characters or scenes in the background from these same pieces of media. While few are going to feel like they are in a mine gathering treasure while playing a browser game nor will they exclusively wear boots with spurs like a real cowboy, it does add to the entertainment value as well as the atmosphere.



We've also seen live services (also known as "games as a service") emerge as a way to keep people playing for longer, becoming invested in these games. Games receive post-launch updates that add new story content, game modes, maps, characters and cosmetics for players to enjoy, reminding them that this is a world with a rich history as well as an evolving lore worth paying attention to. It's true that live services make a lot of money. They're estimated to have brought in $79 billion for EA and Activision, but there's reason to go further: As EA mentioned in the Project Atlas announcement, this sort of living, breathing world can be hugely entertaining for players.

EA's Project Atlas - and the efforts of developers to make more immersive worlds - is a direct reaction to the needs and wants of gamers. As technology has improved to provide us with better, more visually appealing open-worlds, narrative directors have become more skilled at telling engaging stories, and fun games mean we look for more reasons to keep playing, players have asked for all of that to be rolled into one. Not every developer or publisher is going to follow in EA's footsteps by building cloud infrastructure and large teams to make that happen, but in their own ways, plenty of companies are making immersion happen.