Playing a video game by streaming it live to your computer or phone may sound like something that only countries in North America and Europe can pull off, but Indian networks can already handle it. At least one startup already serves a few thousand customers through regular home broadband connections.
In the industrialized west, this is a service being offered by the likes of Microsoft’s xCloud and Google’s Stadia. In India, though, a company which seem to be offering on demand PC games is The Gaming Project, a New Delhi–based startup that raised $500,000 in seed funding in June.
The funding round is clearly a long term bet, as India’s internet, while cheap, is not exactly known for being very reliable. According to data by Ookla, the firm behind Speedtest.net, India’s mobile internet is ranked at #118 globally, a curious figure considering the sheer quantity of data Indian mobile internet users consume.
So how does cloud gaming even work in India, let alone attract half a million dollars in funding?