{"id":4369,"date":"2020-09-29T03:00:40","date_gmt":"2020-09-29T03:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8080\/gaming-is-growing-can-the-technology-keep-up\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T15:02:35","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T06:02:35","slug":"gaming-is-growing-can-the-technology-keep-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.skhynix.com\/en\/gaming-is-growing-can-the-technology-keep-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Gaming Is Growing \u2013 Can the Technology Keep Up?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Only three quarters through 2020, it has already been an incredible year for both gamers and gaming companies. This year, SK hynix is taking a look at the progress of the gaming industry over the past year, and predicting where it might be headed in the next.<\/p>\n

With sensational and creative new games emerging in the market, an upward trajectory of sales and streams in the gaming industry over the past eight months has only continued to climb. According to a recent report from Bloomberg<\/a>*<\/span>, since the beginning of the year, \u201ctime and money spent on games\u2014whether on consoles, computers, phones, or tablets\u2014have soared.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the pandemic, online gaming activity has spiked, with streamers on Twitch gravitating towards titles including \u2018League of Legends,\u2019 \u2018Grand Theft Auto V,\u2019 \u2018Fortnite,\u2019 \u2018Call of Duty: Modern Warfare,\u2019 and \u2018Escape from Tarkov.\u2019 At peak times, SteamDB<\/a>*<\/span> reports nearly 25 million users were gaming on the platform.<\/p>\n

And on gaming consoles such as Nintendo Switch \u2013 which has been sold out across the United States for months\u2013 some of the best-selling games have been \u2018Call of Duty: Modern Warfare,\u2019 \u2018Animal Crossing: New Horizons,\u2019 \u2018Final Fantasy VII Remake,\u2019 and \u2018Ghost of Tsushima.\u2019*<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u25b2 Figure 1. Screenshot from \u2018Animal Crossing: New Horizons\u2019 (Source: Nintendo)<\/p>\n

Among these successful titles, \u2018Animal Crossing: New Horizons\u2019 was certainly a standout in the first half of this year. The game is focused on building your own village and interacting with adorable in-game animal characters; what\u2019s more is that players can communicate with other players and invite them to their own virtual villages. With this feature, the game has become the place where people from different generations communicate<\/a> virtually during the pandemic.*<\/span><\/p>\n

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Gaming Is Booming \u2013 And So Is Demand for Advanced Memory Solution<\/h3>\n
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As the gaming industry continues to grow, its games, platforms, hardwares and technologies are evolving alongside it at a steady clip. This means richer, more detailed games, clearer displays, higher resolutions, faster speeds, and ultimately, greater storage requirements. It seems that every few months, there is another industry-first or record-breaking achievement, with each new game outpacing the next. This is especially true for storage requirements, which have grown steadily with each new game announced.<\/p>\n

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\u25b2 Chart 1. Notable Game Systems Average Game Size. [Source: Hongkiat Blog]*<\/p>\n

For example, the hugely popular \u2018Call of Duty: Modern Warfare\u2019 title set a new storage record when it launched in 2019 \u2013 requiring a whopping 175GB of storage space. As games continue to innovate and improve, they will likely begin to exceed storage requirements of 200GB<\/a>, in turn requiring a storage capacity of 256GB, or even larger.*<\/span><\/p>\n

But the latest video games require more than just larger capacity from advanced storage solutions; gamers have always desired storages with faster load time so that they can immerse themselves in gaming. However, the HDD storage adopted by the current generation gaming consoles couldn\u2019t meet such needs, and some people even chose to customize their device with up-to-date SSD storage<\/a> to fully enjoy the true gaming experience.*<\/span><\/p>\n

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Emerge of Next-gen Gaming Consoles, and SSDs<\/h3>\n
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\u25b2 Figure 2-1. [Source: Sony PlayStation.Blog]<\/p><\/div><\/a>

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\u25b2 Figure 2-2. [Source: Microsoft Xbox Blog]<\/p><\/div><\/a>

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For the first time later this year, the SSDs will come to use in gaming consoles like PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. According to Forbes<\/a>*<\/span>, \u201cthe SSDs in the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 are going to change the console gaming experience for the better.\u201d The faster, more sophisticated SSDs in these consoles will reduce load times, improve asset streaming speed, and potentially allow gamers to instantly resume multiple games the second they quit.*<\/span> There is surely much for gamers to expect in the second half of this year.<\/p>\n

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\u25b2 Chart 2. Sony Developers Excited to See SSDs Coming to the Consoles
\n[Source: Sony PlayStation Blog]*<\/p>\n

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Evolving SSDs in the Consumer Market<\/h3>\n
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\u25b2 Figure 3-1. SK hynix Gold S31 SSD<\/p><\/div><\/a>

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\u25b2 Figure 3-2. SK hynix Gold S31 SSD<\/p><\/div><\/a>

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Of course, there are countless variations of SSD products available in the market these days. Over the past year or so, SK hynix has pivoted into the consumer SSD market, with the launch of the SK hynix Gold S31 SSD<\/a> in 2019, and most recently, the groundbreaking launch of the Gold P31 SSD<\/a> just last month. The world\u2019s first 128-layer NAND Flash-based consumer SSD, P31 is one of the fastest and most innovative consumer SSDs on the market.
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\u25b2 Figure 4-1. SK hynix Gold P31 SSD<\/p><\/div><\/a>

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Enabled by heavily stacked memory chips, the P31 allows for even better performance and longer endurance. It is also our first-ever PCIe based consumer drive on the market, with innovative features like its in-house controller and top-tier NAND Flash memory.<\/p>\n

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\u2026 and towards the Next Era of Gaming<\/h3>\n
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Paired with the proliferation of the 5G network, these growing storage requirements are a big reason for the popularization of cloud gaming<\/a> \u2013 which allows users to game from any internet-connected device, no installation or storage needed. All gamers need is a high-speed internet connection and a display screen, as the game\u2019s data is stored on a central server, rather than on individual devices.<\/p>\n

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\u25b2 Figure 5. Global Cloud Gaming Market Size (Source: IHS Markit)*<\/p>\n

Intriguingly, the semiconductor memory will play equally important roles in the era of cloud gaming. As people expect to get rid of high-end hardwares and play their games anytime, anywhere they want, the larger-than-ever-before data generated by latest video games has to be stored and exchanged in \u201csomewhere\u201d. This means that the needs for data center will continue to surge, as well as the needs for the state-of-the-art storage solutions with latest SSDs and DRAMs.<\/p>\n

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\u25b2 Figure 6. Image of General Data Center Server Room<\/p>\n

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Gamers at SK hynix<\/h3>\n
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As the members of one of the leading companies among global ICT industry, employees at SK hynix have never forgotten to play and enjoy in this ICT playground. We spoke with some of our employees across the network to hear which games are their favorite of all time, and why.<\/p>\n

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\u25b2 Figure 7. Quotes from Passionate Gamers at SK hynix<\/p>\n

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\u25b2 Figure 8-1. Stacy Xu Playing Super Mario Bros.<\/p>\n

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\u25b2 Figure 8-2. Yun Playing Death Stranding<\/p>\n

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\u25b2 Figure 8-3. Screenshot from Death Stranding (Source: Kojima Productions)*<\/p>\n

With the 4th Industrial Revolution progresses, our society and daily lives are chaging in the phase that is faster than ever before, and so will our future gaming experience. It seems that there is much to expect at the brisk dawn of new era.<\/p>\n


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Sehyun Kim<\/p>\n

Technical Leader(TL) of Solution Development at SK hynix Inc.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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*Mark Glassman, \u201cVideo Game Numbers Show an Industry\u2019s All-Out Growth\u201d, Bloomberg. (2020)
\n*xPaw and Marlamin, \u201cSteam Database\u201d, SteamDB. (2020)
\n*Ben Gilbert, \u201cNintendo\u2019s Switch remains sold out everywhere as the pandemic stretches on \u2014 and there\u2019s no end in sight\u201d, Business Insider. (2020)
\n*Emma Kent, \u201cAnimal Crossing Grandma reacts to character named after her in New Horizons\u201d, Eurogamer. (2020)
\n*Michael Poh, \u201cEvolution of Home Video Game Consoles: 1967 \u2013 2011\u201d, Hongkiat.com. (2020)
\n*Bryan Lawver, \u201cModern Warfare 200GB File Size May Make It the Biggest Video Game Ever\u201d, Screen Rant. (2020)
\n*Thomas Morgan, \u201cWe upgraded PS4 Pro with an 8TB SSD: can we make a better console?\u201d, Eurogamer. (2020)
\n*Kevin Murnane, \u201cThe Xbox Series X Has A Good Solution When Its SSD Gets Full, The PS5 Doesn\u2019t\u201d, Forbes. (2020)
\n*Extreme Taco, \u201cMonster Hunter World PS4 Slim SSD VS HDD Load Times\u201d, YouTube. (2018)
\n*Mary Yee, \u201cDevs speak: How PS5 console\u2019s ultra-high speed SSD and Tempest 3D AudioTech engine will enhance the future of gaming\u201d, PlayStation.Blog. (2020)
\n*Steve Bailey, \u201cNext-Generation Cloud Gaming Report \u2013 2019\u201d, IHS Markit. (2019)
\n*Igor Bonifacic, \u201c\u2018Death Stranding\u2019 should run just fine on your older PC\u201d, Engadget. (2020)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Only three quarters through 2020, it has already been an incredible year for both gamers and gaming companies. This year, SK hynix is taking a look at the progress of the gaming industry over the past year, and predicting where it might be headed in the next. With sensational and creative new games emerging in [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":4352,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_migrated_source_id":5616,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1230,1229,1231,64,1228],"class_list":["post-4369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-and-ai","tag-consoles","tag-gaming","tag-memory-solutions","tag-nand-flash","tag-ssds"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.skhynix.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.skhynix.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.skhynix.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.skhynix.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.skhynix.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4369"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/news.skhynix.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11949,"href":"https:\/\/news.skhynix.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4369\/revisions\/11949"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.skhynix.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.skhynix.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.skhynix.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.skhynix.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}