THE WHAT AND THE HOW: cloud gaming

Have you ever wanted to game on a PC but maybe your computer isn't capable due to physical limitations or maybe you fear the price of a gaming PC build. Cloud Gaming could alleviate that problem. Cloud gaming is a relatively new alternative to playing games on a local gaming computer.

With a cloud gaming setup the games actually run on a remote computer/server somewhere on the Internet instead of on your local machine. The remote server runs the game on its own hardware and then streams video of the gameplay back to your local device.

From the user’s perspective it appears that the game is running locally, but what you’re seeing on the screen is simply a video stream that was created and sent by the remote server.

You interact with the game using your local device, which then transmits the action taken to the remote server. The server then applies the interactions you sent it to the game and then sends the results back to your machine as an update to the video stream.

In a nutshell, you use your local device to control a game that’s actually playing on a remote computer that’s located somewhere out in the vast world of the Internet. The advantage of cloud gaming is it eliminates the need to purchase a gaming computer, which can be quite expensive.

Cloud gaming allows many popular games to work just fine with older (and slower) computer hardware and decent-quality mobile devices.

However, the above being said, cloud gaming has its disadvantages as well:

1 – Monthly fees

Unlike the one-time purchases of a gaming PC and the games you’ll install on it, cloud gaming requires paying monthly fees that can eventually add up to more than what you’d pay for a gaming PC in the first place.

2 – Game purchases

Even with the monthly fees some cloud gaming services require you to purchase the games you want to play even though they will actually be running on their remote servers. And of course that just adds to the overall cost of the overall cloud gaming experience.

3 – Internet requirements

You’ll need a fast, and super reliable broadband Internet connection in order to fully enjoy an acceptable cloud gaming experience.

If your connection is glitchy or suffers from frequent periods of heavy traffic (caused by lots of simultaneous users) the gameplay will be jerky and unreliable.

And of course you won’t be able to play any games at all when your Internet connection is down.

As you can see, while cloud gaming is indeed an option to purchasing an expensive gaming computer, it won’t necessarily be cheaper in the long run.

It could actually turn out to be more expensive over time, depending on which games you want to play and the other factors mentioned above.

In conclusion, looking at various cloud gaming services and comparing their total costs against the up-front expense of buying a gaming PC is better for the purpose of weighing out options.

You’ll need to factor in any extra expenses required in regards to the purchase or rental of the various games you will want to play, as well as the extra costs incurred if you need to upgrade your Internet service.

here are a few popular cloud gaming services that you can check into:

• Xbox Cloud Gaming from Microsoft

• GeForce Now from Nvidia

• Vortex Cloud Gaming

• Amazon Luna