Cloud Gaming: Can Streaming Overtake Traditional Gaming Methods?

With technology driving choice and opportunity, surges in popularity have raised the profile of a newer type of play. Cloud gaming, which is playing on remote servers, has stripped back some of the physical and monetary inconveniences of traditional gaming.

Cloud gaming has been around since the turn of the century, but only better internet connections and faster servers have helped propel it more into the mainstream in more recent times. That and manufacturers recognising that there’s another big sector of players to capture.

But will cloud streaming be bigger and more popular than traditional gaming methods? How big can this new way of playing get?

Cloud Gaming Modelling

The bulk of the major cloud gaming services require a subscription, with the likes of PlayStation Now, GeForce Now and Xbox GamePass accelerating this model. Some offer access to games, but with time limitations, and usually a wait in a queue to access servers as well. But those restrictions are lifted by paying an annual or monthly subscription, which gives access to a massive library of features in the cloud.

All it takes is an app, usually installed on a desktop or a mobile phone, to gain access to the gaming data centre, sort of like Netflix for video games, and then that is streamed to the device being used. Because everything is stored elsewhere, players don’t need to obsess about storage and back-ups, which, given the capabilities of modern games, can run to a 100GB or more.

What’s on the Other Side?

Instead of a gaming PC sitting in the same room as you, think of it as being located in a big data centre somewhere on the other side of the country. The games are installed on those gaming servers, and then remote users log in to them and essentially rent (through the subscription fee) a little bit of that supercomputer’s power to play.

The data involved is a two-way street. The user input has to reach the server, and then the cloud also needs to send that rendering back as quickly as possible. High-quality internet is the key to a big, smooth cloud gaming experience. But even then it isn’t flawless. There is no guarantee that even with a good Ethernet connection, the server won’t be having issues, messing with the resolution and reaction time that you experience in-game.

Digital tech companies have poured a lot of money into cloud gaming, but lag exists and is one of the most common issues, particularly with the more complex titles. Streaming a game uses much higher bandwidth than streaming a YouTube video does, and that traffic can get slowed across networks. The high latency is more noticeable when playing fast games where split-seconds are all-important and can ruin a moment.

Will Cloud Gaming Replace Traditional Gaming?

It is unlikely that cloud gaming will replace traditional gaming for a few reasons. But it certainly holds its own in a niche area, because it makes for a quick way to get into gaming, and it works.

Instead of shelling out a huge lump sum for the latest gaming console, players get immediate access to their games without the need to be invested in the latest tech, which is a great exercise in convenience and cost.

But cloud gaming is more of an augmentation to traditional gaming platforms than a replacement for it. Serious players still want to hold a physical copy of a game, while collectors will always fill their shelves up with an array of top titles.

Dedicated gaming hardware provides a stronger, more consistent level of high performance than any remote gaming will. That hardware can be souped-up as well, plus playing on a console or a PC also gives access to another side of gaming – modding, where things can be tweaked like how they look and/or behave.