What is a cloud game platform and how do you choose what suits you?
Video games have evolved tremendously in recent years, and have completely changed the way they started in the 1970s. This is where the user has moved from playing on arcade devices to playing in his living room to playing online with people thousands of kilometers away, and the situation will change even more with cloud play.
And the current picture of the video game industry is excellent. The user can access games that are very powerful in terms of graphics, story, or gaming experience. But there are always obstacles, the most important of which is the platform used.
Cloud gaming is currently seen as the new generation of video games, one that will effectively remove the boundaries between players and between platforms.
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What are cloud gaming services?
Cloud gaming services are not entirely new. Indeed, this type of service has been around us for many years, but now is the most time that allows the growth of this type of service due to the current technological progress.
Cloud gaming relies on a major advantage, which is the ease of access to games. With these services, anyone can play the latest available games without having to buy a $500 home console, or a $2,000 gaming PC.
An example has emerged in recent months illustrating the importance of such services. Which is the difficulty of running the awaited Cyberpunk 2077 game on older generation devices such as PS4, while the cloud services allow it to run without the need for any custom specifications.
However, cloud gaming remained a major problem. It is played directly over the Internet. In this case, the gaming performance is highly dependent on the strength of the player’s internet connection.
Since this field is a viable field for growth and expansion, it has witnessed huge investments from well-known companies, including Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon, and others. Here we take a look at the most prominent cloud gaming services:
1 – GeForce Now . cloud gaming service
GeForce Now from NVIDIA is known as one of the most prominent services in this field. The service allows you to play the latest games in FHD on all your devices from smartphones to PCs, TVs, tablets, and more.
But this service depends on your ownership of the games. As you will only be able to play recent games if you have purchased them through stores like Steam, Epic, or Uplay.
The previous point may constitute an advantage and a disadvantage at the same time. The downside is that you need to buy games regularly, and the advantage is that the games will still be yours to download and play without the need for cloud play services.
The service subscription costs $24.95 every six months. With this subscription, the player can play continuously for six hours before the connection drops and has to wait for his turn to play again.
2 – Microsoft xCloud service
This game comes from Microsoft, which in itself is an advantage. It comes as an add-on to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate without the need to pay for it separately.
The disadvantage of this service is that it supports the Android system only at the moment, and it offers the ability to play in 720p resolution only, and soon the service will undoubtedly launch for the rest of the platforms. In exchange for a subscription to the service, the player can access more than 200 games, without the need to purchase any of them.
Microsoft is known to be a leader in cloud processing through Azure services, so the service offers more than excellent performance.
3 – Google Stadia service
No one disputes how professional Google is in implementing new projects, and Stadia is an example. The service, unlike competitors, offers up to 4K resolution gaming with HDR mode.
The service also comes to all platforms, from smartphones to tablets, laptops, and TVs. The service is free, while the paid subscription is available for $9.99 per month to take advantage of 4K resolution.
Important games are available for the platform, such as Cyberpunk 2077, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, DOOM Eternal, Red Dead Redemption II, Wolfenstein: Youngblood, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
4 – PS Now service
This service comes from Sony, is ideal for streaming games of previous generations, especially PS3, and costs $60 per year for a subscription.
The service provides access to more than 800 different PlayStation games, and can also be used on PC, PS4, and PS5.
The great importance of this service for players lies in the ability to access PS2 and PS3 games, especially since these devices are no longer officially sold in the market, and dozens of iconic games are available, especially from exclusive Sony series such as Metal Gear.
5 – Amazon Luna cloud gaming service
There are not many details about the Amazon service, which is because it is not available yet. However, it will support 4K resolution for cloud gaming with great integration with Amazon’s proprietary Twitch platform.
Amazon has promised 100 games right at launch, and it will come with a $15 per month subscription with a built-in Ubisoft+ subscription at no additional cost.
What is a cloud game platform and how do you choose what suits you?
