Elevating the Cloud Gaming Experience: an Interview with Highscore

We caught up with start-up Highscore, a ground-breaking cloud gaming platform set to redefine the industry. In this interview, we sit down with Ian, the CEO of Highscore, to learn about their innovative approach and ambitious goals.

With features like “Suspend & Resume” and “Virtual Couch,” Highscore aims to create a seamless and social gaming experience. Ian discusses the technology behind Highscore, their plans for future expansion and their commitment to user security (and, of course, his favourite games!).

Here’s what they had to say!

First of all, please introduce both yourself and Highscore, and tell us what Highscore is.

Hi there! 👋 I’m Ian, CEO here at Highscore. Highscore (highscore.com) is the world’s most comprehensive cloud gaming platform. With Highscore, you can stream hundreds of thousands of games to any device you own!

Let’s start with what most people are probably thinking: 100,000 titles is colossal! How can you enable people to access such a vast number of titles given that more established platforms have only a fraction of that amount?

I think the real number is actually just a bit over 200,000! Steam keeps adding games at a rate of ~40 per day!

If you’ve seen an “Install & Play” section in the interface of other cloud gaming services, we operate in essentially the same way. We host installed, per-user copies of games — we don’t cache, clone, or create ‘cloud native’ versions. When you play a game on Highscore, you’re playing your copy of that game.

At a technical level, this is an extremely hard approach to scale, and requires completely rethinking your approach to infrastructure. We’ve been specifically building our service with this use-case in mind, and putting in the work to figure out the scaling challenges!

On that note, would you say that Highscore will be a disruptive force in the cloud gaming world?

Our goal is for Highscore to become a leader in the cloud gaming space — setting the bar for what a great cloud gaming experience can look like and redefining user expectations for what’s possible.

Where we see Highscore truly making an impact is in disrupting gaming PCs. If we’re able to deliver on our vision for Highscore, buying a gaming PC could quickly become a thing of the past.

Aside from the sheer number of games, is there anything else that makes Highscore different to other cloud gaming providers?

Aside from banner features like ‘Suspend & Resume’, ‘Virtual Couch’, and ‘Mod Support’, the experience of using our client will be quite a bit different than folks might be expecting (and from other cloud gaming platforms). I don’t want to completely give away the surprise at this point, but our hope is that folks will be delighted with the playfulness and levity we’ve baked in!

We’ve also got a pretty full slate of other features + surprises we’re planning to reveal post-launch, so stay tuned! 👀

Continuing with the gaming library, how does Highscore curate its game library and how will it address user requests for specific titles?

The great thing about having ‘full Steam support’ is that we don’t need to curate! If a game is on Steam, we’ll support it.

Regarding user requests for specific titles or support for other stores, we’re always actively engaging with our community on Discord (discord.gg/highscore). We love hearing suggestions from the community — it’s where many of our best ideas come from!

You currently only support Steam. Will you expand to more game stores? If so, which ones?

Right now, we’re laser-focused on ensuring that we provide a good user experience just with Steam. Internally, our mantra has been “Steam + Works” (it’s a bit of an inside joke, referring to the Steamworks suite of developer tools). Once we’re confident we’re in a good place with Steam, we’ll start moving on to other stores, with Epic and GoG likely to be the first to follow!

Highscore mentions “high-performance hardware.” Can you elaborate on the specific hardware architecture/infrastructure used at Highscore?

While we’re keeping some things a surprise for our launch, I can tell you that we’re using a mix of components and building our servers in-house. We don’t rely on any cloud providers to deliver our service. When you’re playing on Highscore, the actual hardware used will vary from game-to-game and tier-to-tier, depending on performance requirements!

Suspend and Resume sounds like a cool feature! How does it work?

Suspend & Resume is actually very simple! Think of it like closing the lid of your laptop while a game is running. When you disconnect from a play session on Highscore, we give you the option to ‘freeze’ your session in place until you return. When you come back and decide to resume your session, you can pick up right where you left off!

The term “virtual couch” sounds great but is one that most people probably haven’t heard of. What is it?

Our ‘virtual couch’ feature lets you share a link to your current session with a friend, making it easy to play together over the Internet. It’s incredibly easy to use – your friend doesn’t even need to have a Highscore account to join your session! The ‘virtual couch’ feature is intended to make it simple to play split-screen multiplayer or local-only co-op games with friends via the web.

User data security and privacy is paramount. What measures does Highscore have in place to protect user data and ensure a secure gaming environment?

To protect user data and ensure a secure gaming environment, Highscore uses industry-standard best practices. We use encryption on all network communications. We’re continuously working to both minimise the amount of user data we see + store, and to ensure that no credentials for connected accounts are ever saved, stored or seen (even by us). We’re also always looking for opportunities to improve our technology + processes in this regard!

How will you work with developers to ensure they make/get the most out of your platform?

Through our Alpha period, we’ll be keeping most of our efforts focused internally on core platform development. That said, we’re very excited to begin opening the platform to third-party devs once we’re confident our infrastructure is rock-solid. We’re looking forward to working with game-devs to better optimise their games for Highscore, tune performance on our hardware, and really maximise the platform’s potential!

Your long-term goal is to allow users to stream any game on Highscore. What about your short-term goals?

Short term, our goal is really just to deliver an excellent user experience. We want to ensure that our streaming technology is rock-solid, that our infrastructure is robust & reliable, that the feel of using our clients is silky-smooth, and that users are more than happy with how all the pieces fit together.

We want to stay focused on refining our core platform user experience until the most common word we hear to describe it is ‘spectacular’!

When do you plan on launching?

We’ll be launching our Alpha sometime this Fall (’24)! During the Alpha period, servers will be exclusively available from our California data center. Full US rollout will follow, once the Alpha period concludes. We’ll be announcing an exact timeline for the Alpha a bit closer to launch, but keep an ear open – more news will be coming soon!

Random question: what are your favourite games and why?

Personally, I love roguelikes, rougelites, deck-builders, and ‘arcade’-style games. I’ve been a big fan of Slay the Spire for many years, and I’m super excited for the upcoming launch of Slay the Spire 2! Recently, I’ve been getting very into Balatro, and I’ve also been playing a bit of Enter the Gungeon, Velocity Ultra, and Spelunky 2.

I think my two favourite games — or, at least the ones I’ve kept returning to over the years — would have to be The Binding of Isaac and Zuma’s Revenge! There’s something about those early Flash and iPod games that creates a ‘pure fun’ feeling that’s hard to replicate!

Would you like to add any parting words for our audience?

It’s very early days for us at Highscore, but we’re incredibly grateful that folks are excited for what we’re building, and that we have the opportunity to share our story!

While we’re nearing completion of our Alpha, it’s good to note that most of the features we’ve mentioned won’t be available from Day One! Our main goal at this stage is to keep things simple and ensure the baseline service works well. We’re also still actively developing the service, so there’s a good chance many elements of Highscore might change over time!

Otherwise, we’re incredibly excited for what’s to come in the world of cloud gaming, and looking forward to a bright future for the space ahead!

Finally, please tell everybody how they can access Highscore.

We’ll be launching Highscore’s Alpha this Fall (’24) from our data center facility in California — exact dates coming soon! We’ll be launching our 1080p (Premium) tier first, with 4k (Pro) and 720p (Free) tiers soon to follow!

You can join our waitlist for early access to Highscore’s Alpha at highscore.com. There are a number of perks available to folks who refer friends to our waitlist, including lifetime discounts, username reservation, a sticker pack, a profile badge, and an exclusive invite to our upcoming launch party in San Francisco!

We also have a fairly active Discord community (discord.gg/highscore) where we regularly host gaming events and Steam key giveaways. If you have questions about Highscore’s service or just want to chat, we’re always online there!

Otherwise, you can stay tuned for updates on Highscore’s service via our X / Twitter (@highscore), TikTok (playhighscore), and YouTube (@playhighscore) accounts!

That concludes our interview with Highscore! It’s evident that this ground-breaking cloud gaming platform is poised to redefine the industry. With its impressive features, vast game library, and unwavering commitment to innovation, Highscore looks set to offer a cloud gaming experience unlike any other. It appears to have the potential to revolutionise the way we play and interact with games and with features like “Suspend & Resume” and “Virtual Couch,” Highscore caters to both solo and multiplayer gamers, ensuring that there’s something for everyone.

Register your interest at Highscore here and follow us on X for the latest news and cloud gaming updates!

Mus from PapaBear Gaming

By Mus (PapaBear Gaming)

Mus has been playing video games for more decades than he cares to admit. He likes writing about said video games and also tends to refer to himself in the third person.

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