We all talk about Cloud Gaming endlessly this year, based on the idea that there is no longer need of the gaming consoles, with some really heavy and powerful graphics hardware. All this heavy stuffs will be done in the Cloud there.
You can understand this Cloud gaming if you know about streaming videos. The server of Cloud gaming will run a game and stream the videos of the gameplay for you. All your actions through keyboard, mouse and controller input are sent over to the cloud gaming server via the network.
It’s essentially a video streaming server but intellectual. Your computer will receives the streaming videos (and audios), depending on the input commands and rest of all the heavy stuffs are carried out by the Cloud server.
Cloud Gaming Advantages
Cloud gaming claims, it has a lot going for:
- Enjoy games on every OS: This concept will allow your game to become more platform-independent. This will enable PC’s Tablets having Linux, MAC, Android, Chrome OS etc. to play games and not been limited to Windows only.
- No More Expensive Hardwares And Upgradation: Now save the pocket money for your partner and not for the gaming consoles as with Cloud gaming you just need to have a cheap streaming Box and controller which will plug in to your television and a home network. It’s not possible to enjoy the whole set of new games with your existing hardware.
- Easy Spectating: Why would you install a game, if you just want to spectate it. The video stream can be easily duplicated for the other users so that they don’t need to install it.
- No Need To Download, Instant Playing: With the Cloud Gaming, where you already have your game installed, you can play your game immediately without downloading it.
- Low Piracy Rate: Cloud technology has the most secure storage policy, which makes it almost impossible to pirate the data.
Cloud gaming Disadvantages
We all are aware of the famous proverb, “Every creation has a downside.” So is the case with Cloud Gaming:
- Latency: We all have experienced Lagging on LAN gaming and concluded that it would run smoothly on your local computer. It’s a common sense that when you input, data has to travel through all the internet to the remote server, which would then send the output, the action would obviously will lag behind the other action.
- Video Compression: Internet do have unlimited space of storage but a server is always limited. The videos or games stored in the Cloud are always compressed, and the same way you get it when you play them. This result in low sharpness and low detailing.
- Bandwidth: You would require the unlimited plan over your bandwidth if you are thinking of storing all your games in the cloud. A continuous play of any game online eats up your 3 GB of bandwidth per hour. Its bit too expensive.
Is it the Future?
There are many Cloud gaming services available today, OnLive being the most popular
which gives you a free trail of 30 minutes, to play the full version of each supported game, to check the service of the OnLive. Still Cloud Gaming has failed to rally catch up on the users. NVIDIA’S, Sony etc. are some great name working for its development.