The game industry is a secretive one, and with good reason – game mechanics are notoriously easy to clone, and the industry has a long history of copycats rushing to market. The moment there’s some innovation, it gives competitors a head start on replicating it. Before cloud computing came along, setting up a secure development environment was a cumbersome process that could take IT teams weeks to get right. For small indie studios, this was often impossible.

The cloud has changed everything. For consumers, it’s no longer necessary to buy a physical copy of a game. Most of your library is now online, not on a shelf. For game development, the cloud has democratised the development journey. Studios now have access to global talent pools as well as high-powered infrastructure and web-based applications.