Remote mobile virtualization , like its counterpart desktop virtualization , is a technology that separates operating systems and applications from the client devices that access them. However, while desktop virtualization allows users to remotely access Windows desktops and applications, remote mobile virtualization offers remote access to mobile operating systems such as Android .
33-453: VMI may refer to: Science and technology [ edit ] Virtual mobile infrastructure , hosting a nominally mobile operating system in a data center or cloud Velocity Map Imaging , a technique in photofragment-ion imaging in chemical physics Virtual machine image , an exact snapshot of a computer disk in a virtual machine Organizations [ edit ] State Tax Inspectorate ,
66-644: A Lithuanian tax authority Virginia Military Institute , America's oldest state-supported and only all-military college, located in Lexington, Virginia United States v. Virginia ("the VMI decision"), a 1996 US Supreme Court case which struck down VMI's male-only admission policy Virginia Mason Institute , part of the Virginia Mason Medical Center hospital system Other uses [ edit ] Vendor-managed inventory , where
99-402: A cloud server, eliminating the need for installation in players' computers and consoles. In 2017, industry analysis firm Digital River estimated that by 2016, 25% of the revenue of games on personal computers resulted from one form or another of GaaS. The firm argued that this reflected on consumers that wanted more out of games that were otherwise offered at full price ( US$ 60 at the time of
132-441: A free-to-play title. Valve carried this principle over to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and to Dota 2 , the latter which was in competition with League of Legends by Riot Games . League of Legends , which had already had a microtransaction model in place, established a constant push of new content on a more frequent basis (in this case, the release of a new hero each week for several years straight) to compete, creating
165-419: A full mobile device. Using secure containers, each user session is isolated from one other and the output of the user session is rendered remotely to the end user. Mobile app virtualization also helps in scaling to large number of users as well as sharing hardware features like GPU and encryption engines across all user sessions as they can be managed by the underlying operating system. Mobile app virtualization
198-534: A game was Anthem , released in 2019, which failed to meet sales expectations, and while long-term plans were made to improve the game, its development was ultimately cancelled by 2021. As more games switched towards live services, competition for players grew, making the prospect of live service games a risky one. A notable example was Concord , a multiplayer game released by Sony Interactive in August 2024 but shuttered for an indeterminate period due to low sales in
231-399: A game's release may be lightweight to be used as a foundation to build upon based on the game's community. This can further shorten the initial development cycle of a game. However, games as a service also increased overall development effort as there are usually two or more concurrent tracks to support a game; one working to support the current available release, and others that are working on
264-406: A gaming company's server are streamed to end users' mobile devices. Traditionally, gaming as a service uses Windows-based VDI or Virtual Network Computing (VNC) technologies and uses PC-based GPUs. With mobile gaming as a service, gaming providers can host Android-based video games on microservers and stream these games over low-bandwidth cellular networks to mobile devices. With mobile gaming as
297-516: A product supplier maintains an inventory of material, typically at the buyer's location Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title VMI . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=VMI&oldid=1073587461 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
330-635: A result, even if a mobile phone is connected to a high speed 4G/LTE network, users may need to limit overall bandwidth usage to avoid expensive phone bills. Most common implementations of VMI host multiple mobile OS virtual machines (VMs) on private or public cloud infrastructure and allow users to access them remotely via options such as Miracast™, the ACE Protocol or custom streaming implementations optimized for 3G/4G networks. Some implementations also allow for Multimedia redirection for better audio and video performance. Mobile operating systems hosted in
363-541: A service . Games as a service are ways to monetize video games either after their initial sale, or to support a free-to-play model. Games released under the GaaS model typically receive a long or indefinite stream of monetized new content over time to encourage players to continue paying to support the game. This often leads to games that work under a GaaS model to be called " living games " or " live games " since they continually change with these updates. The idea of games as
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#1732772183459396-443: A service also impacts the development process for games. When developing a game as a product, there is generally a linear flow of tasks to assure that the product shipped is free of software bugs and other problems that may exist, which can be both time-consuming and costly to test for. If there are critical bugs found post-release, this can also be costly to develop, test and distribute software updates to rectify. In developing games as
429-430: A service began with the introduction of massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) like RuneScape and World of Warcraft , where the game's subscription model approach assured continued revenues to the developer and publisher to create new content. Over time, new forms of offering continued GaaS revenues have come about. A significant impact on the use of GaaS was the expansion of mobile gaming , which often includes
462-434: A service, users can test out or play games without downloading and installing them on their devices. This is especially advantageous for mobile devices with limited disk space, RAM and computing power. Because the game is executed remotely, even mobile devices with older generation GPUs can play mobile games with advanced 3D graphics. Mobile gaming as a service also provides a vehicle for Android application developers to reach
495-417: A service, where consumer expectation is already set to expect continual updates to the game, the rigor on software testing in the early stages of release may be forgone as to get the title out to players faster, accepting that software bugs may be present but will be fixed when the next update is released. Further, games developed as a service are more commonly driven by player feedback, so initial iterations of
528-445: A social element, such as playing or competing with friends, and with players wanting to buy into GaaS to continue to play with friends. Chinese publisher Tencent was one of the first companies to jump onto this around 2007 and 2008, establishing several different ways to monetize their products as a service to Chinese players, who typically play on a phone or at internet cafés rather than on consoles or computers, and since has become
561-575: A variety of smartphones, tablets and computers, including Apple iOS, Mac OS, Blackberry, Windows Phone, Windows desktop, and Firefox OS devices. VMI refers to the method of hosting a mobile operating system on a server in a data center or the cloud. Mobile operating system environments are executed remotely and they are rendered via Mobile Optimized Display protocols through the network. Compared to virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), VMI has to operate in low bandwidth network environments such as cellular networks with fluctuating coverage and metered access. As
594-434: A wider audience, including Windows Phone, Apple iOS, and Firefox OS device owners. Mobile gaming as a service can deliver free, advertising-supported games or subscription-based gaming services. Gaming as a service In the video game industry , games as a service ( GaaS ) (also referred to as a live service game ) represents providing video games or game content on a continuing revenue model, similar to software as
627-403: Is also seen as a developing avenue for indie video games , which frequently have a wider potential install base (across computer, consoles, and mobile devices) that they can draw service revenues from. A study by DFC Intelligence in 2018 found Electronic Arts' value rose from US$ 4 billion to $ 33 billion since 2012, while Activision Blizzard saw its value rise from $ 20 billion to $ 60 billion in
660-410: Is analogous to RDSH and Citrix XenApp on desktops. Compared to VMI, Mobile app virtualization only virtualizes the individual application and the user session rather than the full mobile operating system. Mobile app virtualization can offer higher density than VMI because one instance of the remote OS can serve multiple users, however the user separation is less secure than VMI and there is less context of
693-581: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Virtual mobile infrastructure Remote mobile virtualization encompasses both full operating system virtualization, referred to as virtual mobile infrastructure ( VMI ), and user and application virtualization, termed mobile app virtualization . Remote mobile virtualization allows a user to remotely control an Android virtual machine (VM) or application. Users can access remotely hosted applications with HTML5-enabled web browsers or thin client applications from
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#1732772183459726-454: Is financial, giving them the ability to capture more revenue from the market than with a single release title (otherwise known as "games as a product"). While not all players will be willing to spend additional money to gain new content, there can be enough demand from a smaller population of players to support the service model. For example, for World of Warcraft , it was estimated on the basis of average revenue per user (ARPU), that only 5% of
759-504: Is functionally similar to VMI in that both solutions host individual users’ mobile sessions on remote servers; however, it differs from VMI in several important ways: The analysts at TechTarget published a comparison of desktop RDSH (analogous to MAV) and VDI (analogous to VMI), and many of the same observations hold true in comparisons of the mobile equivalents. Gaming as a service provides on-demand streaming of video games onto mobile devices, game consoles, and computers. Games run on
792-412: The first-sale doctrine , which allows them to resell or trade these games, and which can subsequently affect sales revenue to publishers. The industry has generally considered that physical games are a service, enforced through end-user license agreements (EULAs) to try to limit post-sale activities, but these have generally not been enforceable since they affect consumers' rights, leading to confusion in
825-450: The area. Instead, by transitioning to games as a service, where there is a clear service being offered, publishers and developers can clearly establish their works as services rather than goods. This further gives publishers more control over the use of the software and what actions users can do through an enforceable EULA, such as preventing class action lawsuits . GaaS can reduce unauthorized copying . Certain games can also be hosted in
858-579: The cloud are not limited to Android. Other operating systems like Firefox OS and Ubuntu Mobile can also be used as VM instances depending on uses. Microservers based on existing mobile processors can also used to host Mobile VMs as they provide full GPU access for feature-rich user interfaces. To achieve higher density, VMI implementations can use customized versions of Android that minimize memory requirements and speed up boot times. Mobile app virtualization technology separates mobile applications from their underlying operating system using secure containers, and
891-596: The concept of lifestyle games such as Destiny and Tom Clancy's The Division . Some examples include: Games may combine one or more of these forms. A common example are lifestyle games, which provide rotating daily content, which frequently reward the player with in-game currency to buy new equipment (otherwise purchasable with real-world funds), and extended by updates to the overall game. Examples of such lifestyle games include Destiny , Destiny 2 and many MMORPGs like World of Warcraft . The principal reason that many developers and publishers have adopted GaaS
924-460: The future content that will be added to the game. While the games as a service model is aimed to extend revenues, the model also aimed to eliminate legal issues related to software licenses , specifically the concept of software ownership versus license. Case law for video games remains unclear whether retail and physical game products qualify as goods or services. If treated as goods, the purchaser gains several rights, in particular those related to
957-604: The game's population paid 20 times more than the baseline ARPU, sufficient to continue ongoing development of the game. GaaS further represents a means by which games can improve their reputation to critics and players by continued improvements over time, using revenues earned from GaaS monetization to support the continued development and to draw in new sales for the product. Titles like Diablo III and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege are examples of games offering GaaS which initially launched with lukewarm reception but have been improved with continued service improvements. Games as
990-428: The game. Due to this cost, live service games ultimately are shuttered by their developers and publishers for various reasons, such as waning player interest, shifting costs on the business, or moving away from aging technology. However, in the 2020s, the question of the sustainability of live service games was raised as many live-service games were terminated well ahead of anticipated lifecycles. An early example of such
1023-417: The report) or looking for discounts, thus making the market ripe for post-release monetization. Several major publishers, including Square Enix , Ubisoft and Electronic Arts identified GaaS as a significant focus of their product lines in 2017, while others like Activision Blizzard and Take-Two Interactive recognized the importance of post-release support of a game to their financial bottom lines. GaaS
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1056-443: The same period, with both increases attributed in part to the use of the GaaS model in their games catalog. Electronic Arts had earned $ 2 billion from GaaS transactions in 2018. Developing for live service games can change the culture of video game development, since rather than developing towards a single release and moving on to the next game, developers have to plan for continued content beyond release as well as ongoing support for
1089-589: The world's largest video game publisher in terms of revenue. Another influential game establishing games as a service was Team Fortress 2 . To fight against a shrinking player-base, Valve released the first of several free updates in 2008, the "Gold Rush Update" which featured new weapons and cosmetic skins that could be unlocked through in-game achievements. Further updates added similar weapons which began to include monetization options, such as buying virtual keys to open in-game loot boxes. Valve began earning enough from these revenues to transition Team Fortress 2 to
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