Is Cloud Gaming Worth the Money or Should We Wait a Few More Months?

Gaming as a concept has changed so much over the last few decades, that people who played some of the first computer games back in the 1960s or 70s would not believe how far we have come. Gaming companies are now dishing out games that offer spectacular semblance to reality in many ways, but this kind of high-end software can’t run without the hardware to support it.

PC games especially are at a big disadvantage in this sense, as they need to continually upgrade their machines if they want to stay on pace and play the newest games that are released. For this reason, some of the major companies in the gaming industry like Nvidia are launching novel gaming concepts like cloud gaming platforms that allow players to play games directly on their servers, without even owning the kind of computer that would support the given game.

As you’ve might have already figured out, not everyone will be interested in these platforms. Some people prefer to play competitive games on their phones like PUBG or Call of Duty, while others prefer to try out their luck from time to time and visit an online casino. For Irish folks as an example, a decent portion of people prefers using online-casinos.com in order to find something that they would like.

The one thing to really talk about is whether cloud computing is ready to actually be used by the players just yet. With a few platforms already out there and providing both free and paid services, we went in and had a look at what kind of service is offered and whether these platforms are ready to substitute physical gaming machines at this time. We had a look at two of the best currently available platforms to find out just that.

NVIDIA GeForce Now

One of the simplest cloud gaming services available at this time is the GeForce Now. Owned by the industry giants NVIDIA, the platform allows players to play games they already own on their TVs or computers that may not have the capability of running a certain game at high quality.

The platform currently offers a free subscription and a paid one at $4.99, which puts you at the front of the line to use the service before other players that may be cued up. After all, even NVIDIAs servers have some maximum capacity. The free version, on the other hand, only allows players to play for one hour at a time.

NVIDIA Now gives players access to a virtual gaming machine on the NVIDIA server and allows them to install any games they own, from any source, onto that rig. This means you don’t have to purchase licenses directly through the platform. However, a number of game publishers have, for the time being, blacklisted their games from the platform.

Google Stadia

A cloud gaming service provided by none other than Google, Stadia is offered in a free Base package and a paid Pro package. Paying $9.99 per month will give you access to 4k resolution, free games and special discounts on purchases.

Stadia offers a reasonable framerate of 60 fps and access to some of the top games currently on the market. The big problem with it is that it only allows you to use games you buy through the actual platform and does not allow you to use those licenses on other devices at a later point.

This means some players may be forced to buy two licenses if they want to play in another location, which can be frustrating. Additionally, only 40 different titles are available at the time of writing and the platform forces players to use a particular gaming controller, which may not compare too well with some of the higher quality controllers out there like the Xbox ones.

Project Xcloud

Still in its testing phases, Project Xcloud is another promising cloud gaming service. The service allows Android users to link up their PlayStation or Xbox controllers to their phones and play all the best console games on their mobile phones.

The games run at 60 fps, which would be great if not for the slight latency issues experienced when playing certain games. Yet, the platform is still not even live and it is already showing quite a bit of promise.

The platform currently includes over 100 titles from Xbox Studio and will likely be linkable to TVs and other devices in the future, on top of the current Android version.

So Is It Worth It?

The one thing that is clear about cloud computing is that it is still in its early stage. The services certainly work and can provide a reasonable service to players just looking for cheap access, but hardcore gamers will not yet be switching over to this.

For a casual player just looking to jump into the action and play on their TV without much hassle, a cloud gaming service may just be the perfect solution. With all platforms still in the stage of further development, we expect that within a year or two many players will be looking to these platforms instead of continual upgrades to their machines.