Cloud Gaming Takes a Hit as Blizzard and Blizzard Games are Pulled From Nvidia’s Platform

These past few years have been big for cloud gaming, seeing both the launch of Nvidia Geforce Now and Google Stadia, but the lukewarm reception to both platforms has many thinking that maybe cloud gaming isn’t here to stay. For those who don’t know what it is, cloud gaming is a type of online gaming where the game itself runs on remote servers and is streamed to the user’s device. It works a lot like Netflix where you can just stream video from Netflix’s servers without having to download the whole video file onto your device. This technology makes it possible for you to play complex games on your smart TV, or even your tablet or phone screen, without having to hook up an Xbox or Playstation (or any other console). Also like Netflix, these two services have the same kind of business model where you subscribe to their service and you can play unlimited games for whatever price per month they have set up (Nvidia: 5.99/month, Google: 9.99/month). Although people have responded well to this model for video, it may not be the same for video games and there are a few reasons why.

When watching a movie or show on Netflix sometimes the video will buffer, and you have to wait a few seconds before the video starts playing again. Although it’s not a huge deal for many if a movie stops for a few seconds for games it can make the experience frustrating. Latency is also a huge issue with cloud gaming. If your controller inputs and the video are desynced even a little bit it can make the game unplayable, especially games where quick reactions are key. Also, the fact that you don’t own the games you are playing can lead to some bad scenarios. Imagine if you were playing through a game, and you take a break from it for a week, and then you come back online to find that the game was removed from the service without warning. This is totally possible with cloud gaming.

The fact that Activision and Blizzard have removed their games from Nvidia’s platform is not a good sign. These two developers offer hugely popular games, and if they don’t think that cloud gaming is the way to go, and won’t even offer their games on these services then it may not be long before other developers begin to follow. In my opinion cloud gaming may be a cool idea in theory, but I personally would not subscribe to a platform until the above problems are solved. What do you think? Does cloud gaming have a future?

 

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/11/21133793/nvidia-geforce-now-no-more-activision-blizzard-games-carriage

3 thoughts on “Cloud Gaming Takes a Hit as Blizzard and Blizzard Games are Pulled From Nvidia’s Platform

  1. Cloud gaming will be at most a gimmick, and it will not be the mainstream way of playing games. You don’t physically own the games, and as mentioned the games could be taken off the service at any time. Since games are only through the service, you won’t be able to play if you are not connected to the internet or the service goes down. With how cloud gaming has been explored so far, they are a completely separate service from your traditional devices; this is bad because if you have a game you bought for $60 to play on your current device, you would have to pay another $60 to play it through the cloud gaming service since they are not connected at all. Buffering is one of the biggest problems cloud gaming faces. Buffering could cause you to lose a match or miss an important piece of dialogue while gaming. To go alongside buffering issues, the other big issue is latency. When streaming, the latency will be much higher between the inputs on your controller to the action in-game. Basically, the game doesn’t pick up your input until moments later, and it can cause issues especially in competitive games where reaction time matters. Cloud gaming is certainly a cool concept on paper, but it could never replace traditional devices in any way.

  2. I believe Cloud Gaming does not have a future. It most likely got its hype because you would be able to play “any” game you want on any screen. It is very similar to google Stadia. The problem with these platforms, however, is that they do not offer a wide variety of games that you think they would. The other issue is likewise to what you said about the latency of the game. If you are streaming a game, there will instantly be a reduction in the fps, and synchronizations. Even for single-player games that do not require internet to play if you owned the game, a simple desync with the video game servers would completely ruin the game and cause more frustration. I would rather buy games than have to deal with low fps, desyncing, and latency reductions. If you are patient, then perhaps this is the platform for you but based on all the reviews I have seen over the years, it will not be successful. Gaming is entirely different than watching shows or movies. Like what you said about buffering in shows which is completely normal, a buffer in a game could ruin your experience entirely, especially if you crash. I remember as a kid, I subscribed to “Gamefly” which is a company that sends you video games in a disc form and you would have to deal with installing, but other than that there are no issues and when you’re finished, you uninstall and send the game back. This method in our current day is much more reliable than any form of streaming games.

  3. The concept of cloud gaming is great, as it will bring more people into gaming at a relatively lower cost, especially if the system they will be using is a PC. However, like many other brand new things and like you said, it isn’t perfect. Nvidia says that GeForce Now will be able to stream games at 120 fps and maximum settings at 1080p. This does not seem to be the case as many users have reported low framerates even at low settings. What is nice about Nvidia’s approach is that they have a free membership option. This means that users can join for free, but are limited to 1 hour of playtime per session. This will allow users to test out the service more and will give Nvidia necessary playtime for testing in a live environment. Overall, I think that cloud gaming is the next step in the gaming industry, but it will be a while before users can scrap their consoles and PCs.

    references:
    https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce-now/memberships/
    https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/news/geforce-now-cloud-gaming-pc-beta-begins/
    https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/gfn-for-pc/22/300165/low-fps-on-geforce-now/

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