Would you call Blade a data company? Tell us about some of the data-centric initiatives that your organization has undertaken.
Data is core to Blade’s business, just as gaming is as a whole. Most people presume gaming is about the hardware—the console, controller, PC, monitor, etc. But that’s an antiquated way of thinking. What’s really important is the data: the game code, networking code, community features and more. At Blade, we focus on that data, and getting it to gamers in the quickest possible way.
What was Blade’s incentive to become a Founding Member of the IEIC? Are you one among the firsts in the industry to make such an effort?
The IEIC is focused on improving the Internet as data grows exponentially. However, few people focus on what this really means. For instance, without highways, cars experience traffic jams. Without air traffic control, planes suffer delays and perhaps worse. Similarly, the Internet without thoughtful expansion and diversity creates bottlenecks, thus limiting innovation and progress.
No group to date is focusing on how new technologies will traverse the globe to deliver their full potential. We wanted to highlight the needs of a robust, ever-growing investment in Internet infrastructure, which can enable advancements in technology without limitations that arise from a lack of focus on the ‘data highway’. These highways allow all future technologies, be it gaming, banking or medical care, to truly change the way we interact with the services and people most important to us. We consider ourselves pioneers in gaming vertical, and the IEIC is an important part of how we will achieve our ultimate goal.
What trends do you foresee? Any current ones on your radar that are impacting your (gaming) business?
At Blade, we see cloud computing as a huge next-generation step in the industry. We’re only scratching the surface when we give gamers access to CPU and GPU power, which they wouldn’t normally get at a low cost. But thinking about how that scales, and the potential possibilities for researchers and scientists with infinite computing power on demand, really excites us.