Orange invests in G-cluster Global Corporation and affirms its ambitions in cloud-gaming
Orange has announced that it has acquired a minority stake in the share capital of the Japanese company G-cluster Global Corporation, a specialist in the aggregation and streaming of cloud-based games.
Cloud-gaming represents an important opportunity for Orange to create value through its high speed broadband networks, fibre and 4G, by offering customers an innovative experience of gaming across all screens, TV, PC, tablets and smartphones, the operator claimed.
This investment, which took place as part of a capital increase programme, will reinforce the existing partnership between the two companies. G-cluster already provides the software platform for Orange's cloud-gaming service that is currently available for almost three million customers of Orange TV in France. This evolution of the partnership will provide support for G-cluster as it develops internationally in the years to come, which in turn could enable Orange to introduce cloud-gaming services to other countries.
Thanks to this partnership, Orange will benefit from: the development of a best-in-class games catalogue provided by the gaming market's leading publishers; the accelerated launch of commercial services in France and across Europe; and the leverage of G-cluster's technical expertise in order to optimise traffic generated by cloud-gaming services on Orange's network.
This transaction illustrates Orange's content strategy, which aims to meet customer expectations by establishing itself as an aggregator and distributor of content by building strong partnerships with providers. This approach follows other partnerships already in place with major players in the content industry such as with Deezer for music and Dailymotion for online video.
Élie Girard, executive vice president of group strategy and development at Orange, commented: 'Cloud-gaming is strategic for Orange, as it is a fast growing activity for which access to very high speed broadband networks has become essential. For Orange, the ability to create value through these networks by offering our customers high quality services is a crucial part of our strategy both in France and across our international footprint.'
