The Cloud Gaming Journey

Is cloud gaming really the future? Let’s take a closer look at where it’s come from and where it’s going.

Cloud gaming has been around for years. And it’s always faced serious questions around viability. It’s easy to forget that the OnLive service kickstarted cloud gaming way back in 2009. It promised to enable gamers to play their favorite titles from any device, entirely disconnecting players from the need to own expensive dedicated gaming machines.

Hindsight is 20/20. We know that OnLive ultimately didn’t succeed, and that cloud-based gaming has evolved significantly in the subsequent 10 years.

There are now numerous cloud gaming services on the market, although the ultimate vision of cloud gaming still hasn’t been achieved — at least not in a mass market context. It seems unlikely that we’ll reach the stage where powerful local hardware is no longer required.

Despite this, it’s a mistake to suggest that our cloud-based future is far beyond the horizon in some unreachable place. Actually, it’s not quite so distant, and it’s growing ever-closer thanks to the major investments numerous large tech companies are making in their respective services.