TERA Partners with Happy Cloud to Enable On Demand Access
Happy Cloud, Inc., the leading provider of cloud-based on demand gaming, announces today that it has been selected to partner with En Masse Entertainment to enable on demand access for TERA: Rising, its premier subscription-free action-oriented MMORPG. Happy Cloud’s innovative “data streaming” technology now allows gamers to jump into TERA’s immersive world with no need to sit through a download and installation process.
Happy Cloud’s patent-pending data streaming technology works by delivering the game’s content files—images, video, sound, and game logic—to the end user’s computer as they play, in the order they are needed. Gamers no longer need to sit through many hours of waiting to download the 22 GB necessary to install TERA: Rising. Happy Cloud data streaming eliminates over 90% of the initial download and the entire installation process, enabling a seamless on demand user experience.
“Improving our user onboarding process for TERA: Rising is a priority for us, and using Happy Cloud’s system is an easy way for us to get more players into TERA’s immersive, 3D world,” said Soo Min Park, COO at En Masse Entertainment. “Taking a graphically rich, fast-paced game such as TERA: Rising, which contains hundreds of hours of gameplay, and delivering the bytes in the order they’re needed is no small task, but we’re confident this will provide an even better experience for our fast growing legion of fans.”
TERA: Rising is the subscription-free version of En Masse Entertainment’s inaugural title. The game made the transition from subscription-only in early 2013, and since then has seen tremendous growth, more than doubling its registered player accounts, which has fueled heightened player activity. With demand on the rise, the integration of Happy Cloud will allow gamers improved ease of access to the world of TERA.
“Happy Cloud helps publishers and gamers by breaking down barriers to getting in-game,” said Eric Gastfriend, VP and GM of Happy Cloud. “A 22 GB download and installation can take days. We’ve cut the initial download by over 90% and eliminated the installation process entirely, all without making any changes to the game’s source code.”
Happy Cloud data streaming technology is wrapped around the compiled game executable by the Happy Cloud team with little to no effort or code changes required from the game developers. It includes full support for frequent patches and updates. Happy Cloud uses intelligent branching and caching algorithms to deliver the game content from the cloud as it is played. Eventually, the user is left with a full installation of the game on their computer, and has the exact same gameplay experience as through a traditional download.
The Happy Cloud on demand experience is now publicly available for new users to try out after completing the registration process at tera.enmasse.com.
About Happy Cloud
Happy Cloud has developed a patent-pending, cloud-based, on demand solution for digital distribution of video games. This data streaming technology delivers game data from the cloud as it is needed, eliminating the burdensome download and installation typically associated with high-end PC games. Little to no effort from the game developers is required to enable Happy Cloud’s on demand solution. The Happy Cloud flagship store opened to the public on July 18, 2011 at www.thehappycloud.com.
