Top Articles: Gaming On Demand Is Finally Here
Week 42, 2018
Cloud-based “gaming on demand” has been talked about for nearly a decade, but the majority of games are still either locally downloaded or use discs/cartridges. Even massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) are tied to specific devices. This is not ideal in the age of media streaming. The purpose of cloud computing is to essentially unbundle content from hardware. This means that users can experience content from their desktop computers, TVs, or phones without a change to the experience. This has the potential to be a great way to play video games as well. Previous attempts to stream video games have failed, but now with the big tech companies moving into the space, gaming on demand seems more and more like the next phase of the gaming industry.
The Next Generation of Streaming Video Games Is on Its Way
By Jessica Conditt from Engadget
The problem with streaming video games is that there is constant action and reaction that doesn’t happen with other media. Music and film/TV are static, complete files, which means that streaming them doesn’t involve much updating during the actual stream. With video games, however, the game must constantly update to respond to a player’s actions. Servers of the past decade just haven’t had enough juice to sustain such continuous actions. However, the big tech companies are putting the force of their cloud networks behind gaming, which means that we could soon be seeing a new era of gameplay.
Google’s Project Stream Is a Working Preview of the Future of Game Streaming
By Stefan Etienne from The Verge
Google beta launched Project Stream the beginning of this month. Essentially, it lets you play video games through the internet using the Chrome browser. This is Google’s first foray into the gaming on demand space and so far, reviews have been great. Since it is only being beta tested right now, Project Stream is only available in the US and only plays Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. The fact that you can play an entire game in a browser is pretty significant. We can access browsers from any device these days, so it’s not a stretch to think that we will soon be able to access games from any device too.
With Project xCloud, Xbox Wants to Bring Gaming Anywhere You Are
By Peter Rubin from Wired
It has been almost a year since Microsoft announced they were working on a way to let users play their Xbox games without an Xbox. It seemed like a lofty promise at the time, but they now have Project xCloud where you can play Halo on a smartphone. Microsoft is even working on a way to install the controller as part of the touchscreen instead of having to hook in a separate device. All of the game files are synchronized across devices which means that you can be playing Halo on your phone and then pause it and continue playing on your TV. The achievement of this work cannot be overstated.
Is Nintendo Creeping Up on Sony in the Cloud Gaming Market?
By Leo Sun from The Motley Fool
Before the Google and Microsoft announcements, Sony was the lead in cloud gaming. Though it wasn’t really gaming on demand in the same sense, it was the best we had. Then the Nintendo Switch came along and suddenly, people really could play the games anywhere they wanted, albeit on the same device. Though cloud-based streaming is starting to make headway, traditional “all you can download” streaming services (if we can call them that) are still the most popular. However, Nintendo’s portable Switch device has cracked the code of how to bridge the gap with true cloud-based streaming. Hopefully, it will pave the way for more hardcore gamers to switch to the new ecosystem.
Google’s Video Game Streaming Service Passes the Starbucks Test
By Matthew Gault from Motherboard
If you have any doubts about the viability of this service, don’t worry! Motherboard did a test to check how the service holds up to public Wi-Fi. This is reasonable because the whole idea of cloud gaming is to play anywhere, public or private. Spoiler alert: the browser-based game held up with only a few hitches, which is a pretty impressive feat.
