Remote Gaming

Remote Gaming

Remote gaming is playing games which are not stored on your computer.

Advantages of Remote Gaming

No Need for Expensive Hardware Investments or Upgrades

– The main advantage of using a cloud based service is that you don’t have to upgrade game software every time a new update comes in. And most importantly, you don’t have to worry about system requirements for a new game upgrade.

– With cloud gaming, you wouldn’t need to upgrade your PC or console. Instead of buying an expensive gaming hardware, you’d just use your existing hardware. You could also buy a cheap streaming box and controller that plugs into your television and home network.

Play Games on Any OS or Device

– The majority of high-end, non-mobile games are currently chained to PCs (often Windows) or consoles. Cloud gaming would allow games to become more platform-independent, allowing PCs and tablets running Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, Chrome OS, Windows RT, and other operating systems to play games that might otherwise only run on Windows.

Integrate Gaming Into TVs and Other Devices

– Television manufacturers could integrate support for cloud-gaming services into their smart TVs. The TV wouldn’t need any powerful, expensive gaming hardware — any TV with the correct software and a controller could work for gaming without any additional boxes required. Some smart TVs already include this feature via their OnLive integration.

Instant Playing

– Some games may require a download of 10GB, 20GB, or even more before you can play them. Cloud gaming would allow you to start playing games instantly, as the server already has the game installed and can start playing it immediately.

Easy Spectating

– Cloud gaming services would allow for very easy spectating of games, such as professional gaming matches. Spectators wouldn’t need the game installed, as the video stream could be easily duplicated for many users.

DRM - Digital Rights Management

– If games ran on remote servers instead of your own computer, they’d be almost impossible to pirate. This makes cloud gaming an attractive form of DRM to publishers, if not to gamers. DRM stands for digital rights management. (Reference: https://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/what-is-drm-in-video-games/).

Disadvantages of Remote Gaming

• Video Compression

– Just as videos we watch on YouTube or Netflix are compressed to make them take up less bandwidth, the gameplay “video” you receive from a cloud-gaming service is compressed. It won’t be as sharp and highdetail as what could be rendered by a highend gaming PC. However, the compressed video you receive may look better than a game rendered at lower detail locally.

• Bandwidth

– Cloud gaming services require a large amount of bandwidth. Playing a game on OnLive may use more than 3GB per hour in bandwidth. If you have bandwidth caps on your Internet connection, this could be a serious problem. If everyone played games using cloud services, bandwidth usage would increase dramatically.

• Latency

– There’s no getting around it — games can react to your actions much more quickly when they’re running on your local computer. Reaction time is faster when your mouse movement just has to reach your computer than when it has to travel over an Internet connection, be rendered and compressed, and then travel back to you. Cloud-gaming services will always have more latency than powerful local hardware.

• DRM

– Publishers love the DRM results of cloud gaming, but many gamers would be at a disadvantage if cloud gaming became the primary way to play games. Just as it’s impossible for people living in certain areas to play always-online games like Diablo 3, cloud gaming would have even higher Internet connection requirements.
(Reference: https://us.diablo3.blizzard.com/en-gb/).