Streaming portal Rainway is something we've had our eyes on here at Nintendo Life for some time, mainly because from the get-go the company has been keen to stress that, should things ago according to plan, the Nintendo Switch is a big part of the future. The firm has not only shown off the app working on Switch, but also made a point of showcasing Nintendo's handheld in it's 'first look' trailer, which has since been taken offline.
The team behind Rainway have always said that discussions with Nintendo are ongoing, and cite successful negotiations with other platform holders as evidence of the commitment to make things happen. More recently, the firm has been keen to publicise the successful launch of its beta, while distancing itself making too many promises on bringing the platform to Switch.
Keen to learn more about the future of the app and its chances of hitting Nintendo's hybrid, we sat down with Rainway co-founder and CEO Andrew Sampson.
Nintendo Life: Can you tell us where Rainway is in relation to its PC and console builds right now?
Andrew Sampson: We’re currently preparing to launch, and are making incredible progress as we near that milestone. When we entered beta in January 2018, we knew the web was the right choice for our vision. Enabling users to play games instantly from right inside of their browser unlocked new levels of play. We’re actively hiring more engineers to bring Rainway to Android and Xbox One over the next few months to continue our mission of bringing Rainway to as many screens as possible.
What's the reaction been like from the community so far?
Nothing short of amazing. The first week of launch we had so much traffic we struggled to keep the service online. With each passing month, we gain thousands of new users and have seen such a diverse set of games played for thousands of hours. One common misconception for applications like ours is they aren’t good for “real games,” however, we’re seeing people play Fortnite, Overwatch, Monster Hunter: World and much more – not just on their lunch break, but as their go-to method of play. The biggest issue we’ve encountered is with people who don’t understand that we are still in beta. We’ve tried to be as clear about this, but there is some confusion about us not currently being available on every platform. That’s disappointing, but we love having the opportunity to talk to all these people about the exciting things that are coming.
You've noted that the Switch version isn't in active development right now, but how far have you gotten with your testing on that particular platform?
What was shown in our various technical demos was about the extent of the progress we made. Internally, we got the prototypes performing pretty well, but limitations in our method for running them and our quickly evolving streaming protocol made it incompatible with our trajectory.
Are your discussions with Nintendo ongoing at present?
We are in talks with a lot of people regarding the future of Rainway but are only commenting on things that are currently in active development and near implementation. We’ve changed up how we communicate with our fans, and detractors, by focusing more on what’s coming now versus what we have planned for the long term, both confirmed and not. It would seem like Switch is the 'dream' platform for you guys, as it would allow players to access their games even when they're out of the house and use proper physical controls.
Given that there's a chance that the Switch port may never happen, do you think in hindsight it was a good idea to include the Switch in your promotional trailer?
I wouldn’t say we have a dream device. It all comes down to a user's needs and our ability to meet them. I resonate a lot with what the Switch has to offer, and I think the idea of “playing anywhere” fits with our mission quite a bit. I believe we could have done a better job communicating that our “First Look” trailer was a concept for our vision and understand why some people were confused by it.
Say Nintendo says no to Rainway, would it still be possible at some point to make the service compatible with Switch via its 'hidden' browser, or are you focused on getting the app onto the eShop officially?
We prefer an eShop release on the Switch because it allows for deeper integrations and better user experience. We have a very high-quality standard, and the ‘hidden’ browser does not meet it, which is why we blocked it.
How will you turn Rainway into a business which generates revenue? Are there plans to charge a fee to use the service, once its out of beta?
We believe that Rainway at its core should be free forever. No pay-walls that hide cool features, offer better quality streams, or provide early access. Everyone will be treated equally. Our goal is not to build a “game-streaming platform” but rather the best gaming service you use. Meeting all your needs, be it playing remotely, playing with friends, or just managing your vast library of games. We also have no plans ever to sell user data and instead are choosing to monetize our community through social channels that are mostly cosmetic and will encourage users to have more fun playing their games.
Has it been easy to negotiate with the likes of Sony and Microsoft about making Rainway available on their systems?
We love Microsoft. They’ve been nothing but helpful whenever we’ve reached out and are forever grateful to be a part of the fantastic tech and startup community that is Seattle. Sony has also been incredibly responsive to us - the lines of communication are never closed, and that is always appreciated.
What aspect of Rainway are you most proud of?
I’m proud of our team for the leaps and bounds they’ve been making in the development of our tech, and in other cases, personal growth. It’s risky to work at a startup and even more perilous to help build a new technology but they’ve given it their all, and the work speaks for itself. Games are often an escape for people, and the fact our hard work is allowing users to carry their favourite stories with them means the world to me. It is that passion that keeps us all going because we want people to have fun.
We'd like to thank Andrew for his time. You can download Rainway here.
Comments 42
WHAHAHAHA
saw this coming from a mile away!
Wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t come to the switch at all
This is never coming to Switch, Nintendo will never let it go.
But i wish Steam would release a Half Life Collection on Switch (Half Life 1,2 and Episodes etc)
They don't want to blatantly say it, but it's pretty much obvious that stubborn ol' Nintendo is not up for it and has been the direct opposite of helpful in bringing the app to their system. Most of the backlash the Rainway team has been getting should be directed at Nintendo instead.
“We believe that Rainway at its core should be free forever.”
That won’t last long.
I told you this is never coming out.
Forget Switch on this, I'm still not seeing a long future for this at all. It's primary ability is location shifting your own PC, so it's a product for PC gamers exclusively. SteamLink already does that for TV use, and it's a small-ish subset of PC gamers that have an interest in streaming to laptops and such from their PC with their gaming rig on and running, and have the upload bandwidth both at home and remotely to make it work, and have the right networking setup to let it out, and really need to play PC games through a third part app remotely, while PS4 and X1 both already have native, built-in clients to do the exact same thing automatically, and for XBox the client is already built into everyone's PC. Even Enterprise versions of Windows 10 have the XBox app right on the start menu by default for some bizarre reason.
On top of that there's not a meaningful monetization model to keep this running as a business. No subscription, no fees to unlick "Pro" features, but cosmetics....for a streaming app.
And to finish it all off the big platforms are rapidly moving into streaming if not streaming-only, with Microsoft just formally announcing theirs recently, Sony having sold theirs for years (without much success), nVidia getting into the game, etc, to give access to a games library without buying the powerful PC or magical upload bandwidth.
It's a cool app to serve a niche crowd, it's possibly years too late as it will hit the world as a DIY streaming app right about when the big boys start selling whole platforms, and doesn't seem to have a way to fund its own business. At some point, the pay walls have to rise. At which point, why not just buy any of the commercial streaming services popping up rather than rolling your own rig for arguably worse results given your home network is not a datacenter.
These guys seem nice, and their heart is in the right place on this project, it's a shame to watch them pour so much effort into something that seems doomed long before it even launches. I can't help but feel this should have been a cool open source hobby project that lives on SourceForge forever as a neat toy for gaming geeks to stream their own content without trying to build a business on it.
Stop giving these grifters free advertising. They specifically targeted Nintendo fans to help spread the word for this service knowing full well it would never hit the Switch
As much as I’d like to see this happen, it doesn’t surprise me that it probably won’t. I’d love to play my steam games/on switch while sitting around the house. But outside that, I don’t think sitting at a friends, trying to stream a game from my house pc, really just isn’t going to happen with huge lag issues.
I don't want such a service to be honest.
why are you still giving them publicity. they never intended to release it for switch, it was pure marketing from the very beginning, because without switch support, nobody would even take a look at this
It was just pure marketing
Why the hell would you use their software when on PC you have Steam Link and Parsec for local "online" gaming ?
Because these services are not able to get on the Switch of course ... Pathetic to see that they just don't want to admit it
I love the people attacking this company for what is likely Nintendo's problem. Nintendo would never allow this, they won't even pay the licensing fee for us to have Netflix.
Blame Nintendo not the company. Stop being fanboys and use your brain for a moment.
nvidia game streaming is already worlds better than what is available now anyways and is integrated in the x1 chipset, so if Nintendo is not allowing something in their system by default to work why would they do this? lol
@LinkSword The way I see it, they deserve the criticism for promoting it on the Switch before it was a done deal.
"We believe that Rainway at its core should be free forever." he lost all credibility right there.
I can see this coming to the Homebrew/CFW community. You already can play games from external hard drive if you use CFW.
@setezerocinco Fortnite's free forever. It still makes millions. There are other ways to make money than subscriptions.
@Jokerwolf agree, NVIDIA Game Stream is great and I use it on my Shield a lot. It baffles me though that Nintendo wouldn't want this technology available on the Switch. It would open a new market for PC gamers that wouldn't mind being able to play some games in a portable mode from anywhere
Why even bother with the Switch?... Square peg in a round hole.
Make this iOS and MFi compatible. My iPhone is always connected and my mobile data is faster than any shared Cafe nonsense (and 24/7)
The set up works great for streaming PC and PS4 games at home already. Focus on iOS.
@Anri02 Yup, I don't think they should be completely exempt from it, but still, as far as I can tell, this is mainly a Nintendo-side problem. I guess the Rainway folks expected them to be rational (like the others) and jump onboard something such as this. So their main fault would be that they should have known better than expecting Ninty to act logical.
The Rainway people are just crap Blaggers
I’m surprise people still think steaming is viable.
Not in the States anyway. The FCC saw to that.
Even if it never comes to Switch officially, don't worry, the modders/hackers will have a work around. If anything, their trailer practically planted the seed...
@saintayu yeah I'll believe that when this releases on anything - because right now it hasn't. Until then, I'm not gonna go with your cute narrative
@saintayu Not sure why anyone would expect Nintendo to allow this on their system. Aside the fact it could create yet another hacking exploit they'd rather avoid, the app itself would be in direct competition with their bottom line, especially considering the eShop has and is becoming a Steam Greatest Hits of sorts. If you were streaming games from your Steam library which are already available on the eShop, that is lost revenue for Nintendo. Nothing fanboy about it. From a business standpoint, it makes no sense. As for the games the Switch can't run, such as Vermentide or Black Ops 4, ah well. You'll just have to play them on a different platform.
@Bunkerneath Throw in the Portal series with Splatoon style motion controls and you have a license to print money.
@saintayu they are to be blamed for using the Nintendo brand to advertise their product when it was always clear that they have no agreement for it
Nintendo make money when you buy games; streaming games you already own generates zero income and means you’ll buy less Switch games. So I doubt Nintendo would want this anywhere near their beautiful little revenue generator.
As a few others have said, I see no real future in this. There is already a way to play Steam games on your TV and most PC gamers are going to be using hi refresh monitors anyway so why would they want to stream it to another device? PS4 has more than enough games of its own for it to be next to useless there whilst Xbox and PlayStation have ways to play on a PC.
Whilst for me, I'm not paying a lot of money for a 4K HDR tv just to play games on a bloody mobile phone screen
Stop giving them free publicity. They showed the Switch to get people`s attention. Shady company at best.
They will be bought and integrated into MS
@Bizzyb Their biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to Microsoft's own. Resistance is futile.
I have to laugh at the people blaming Nintendo/jumping on Nintendo for not allowing this. Why would they?? It would hurt Nintendo, but more importantly third parties on Switch in the long run. Why would people buy a third party title on Switch when they can just buy it on PC and stream it on the Switch?
Anyone here use game streaming? How well does it work?
@MeloMan Well, Moonlight already exist for Android and a lot of other devices, and now it's being developed for the Switch
So yea, we will get this, but you'll need to hack :/
not even remotely interested in this.
@Grez Baffling?? It’s fairly logical from an economical standpoint. Game hardware companies (including Nintendo) generally either make a loss, zero or very little money on console hardware, especially near launch... They are not interested so much in selling the hardware for profit, but instead they want more hardware sales so that they can then sell more games, where the profit is primarily made
It’s not a huge benefit for them to sell more hardware with this app, if those same people (and existing owners) buy less games than they currently do once they own that hardware.
@onex How does it create a hacking exploit? As I understand it, it's just streaming video to your device from your PC.
Competing with their store I can kind of see. But that's not the stated reason why they're not releasing it for the Switch. But then again, their stated reason for not releasing it on the Switch is pretty vague and smells a bit like BS anyways.
I am kinda hoping that Nintendo will be a bit more helpful in the future with streaming services. I personally am disappointed that Hulu is the only video streaming service officially available. Yes I know it is a gaming centric platform, but the Wii had YouTube and Netflix (if I remember correctly). I'm not sure what the holdup is with the Switch - using the "hidden" browser reveals that the Switch is already perfectly capable of playing YouTube videos.
@Agramonte In my opinion, iOS is even more of a square peg than the Switch. Cell phones aren't really built for gaming.
Sure, the convenience of cell phone networks is great, but you're gonna hit the data cap (whether advertised or hidden under the fine print of an "unlimited" plan) pretty quickly. I've done my share of watching video on my data plan to know it doesn't take much to hit the caps. WiFi is not always that great, but it doesn't count against your plan. Also I've actually seen some pretty good WiFi at Starbucks and worst case scenario I can (and have) tethered my Switch to my cell phone (although that does carry the caveat that it counts against my data cap).
Also, you are talking carrying a third party controller everywhere, as well as usually a smaller screen. Am I going to carry an Xbox style controller with me to a coffee shop? Probably not. But since the JoyCons on the Switch slide onto the system and don't adversely affect its form factor, they're much more portable than most MFi controllers I've seen.
Maybe you see things differently, but in my opinion I'd love to be able to just pull out my Switch and play, or stand it on a table and play, and not squint at my iPhone's screen.
@CobraA1 I'm really not that knowledgeable on the ins and outs of hacking exploits, but I don't see a streaming app as completely harmless. Yeah, it's only streaming a feed to the Switch, however it does so by allowing an outside source into the device. Does that not sound like a trojan? Maybe not a malicious backdoor, but it has the same potential. That may not even be the reason Nintendo isn't so keen on the app, but it could be a factor since we certainly haven't a real clue other than the BS PR as you pointed out.
@gortsi what narrative? The one where my Switch still can't stream from much else than Hulu?
What exactly do you think the reason for that is?
@saintayu I don't know man, you tell me.
Soo, Is It Not Coming To The Switch?
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