CLOUD GAMING GOOGLE STADIA AND MICROSOFT XCLOUD EXPLAINED
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CLOUD GAMING: GOOGLE STADIA AND MICROSOFT XCLOUD EXPLAINED
Sony. Nintendo. Microsoft. Google. Amazon. Walmart. Verizon. Electronic Arts. Nvidia.
Each of these companies are giants in their respective fields — and every single one of them is or is said to be testing tech that could change the way video games are played, distributed, and sold.
Some companies have announced publicly — hey there Google and Microsoft — while others are quietly experimenting behind closed doors. But each company is at least hedging against a future where discs, downloads, even consoles are no longer required, because you’ll stream games across the internet as easily as you stream your favorite Netflix show.
It’s called cloud gaming, and it’s not actually a new idea: Over the past decade, the tech’s been laughed at time and again due to technological and economic constraints. But this time, it feels like the stars may have finally aligned to bring cloud gaming to the world.
WHAT IS CLOUD GAMING, EXACTLY?
Today, you slide a disc into your game console, or download a game’s files onto a drive. Your game only looks as good and only runs as fast as the processors inside your box.
With cloud gaming, that “box” lives in a datacenter full of servers, miles and miles away. You stream games, just like you’d stream a YouTube or Netflix video, as a series of compressed video frames — only now, those videos are reacting to your inputs. Every time you press a button for your character to jump, that input gets sent to a remote server, tells the game what you’ve done, and sends you a new video frame that shows you the result. Multiply by 30 or 60 frames per second, and you’ve got a video.
THAT SOUNDS... DIFFICULT. DOES ANY OF THAT ACTUALLY WORK?
Yes! And not only in the lab. We’ve been testing early cloud gaming solutions in the US, Europe, and Japan for almost a decade now, and it’s only getting easier to play games that don’t actually run on a box in front of you. One Verge editor has pledged to beat the notoriously difficult Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice using nothing but game streaming services, and he’s already halfway through.
Don’t just take our word for it: here are 15 ways you can try streaming game services for yourself.
WHAT IS A STADIA AND HOW DO I EXPLAIN IT TO MY PARENTS, WHO WILL BE BUYING ME AN ACCOUNT?
Stadia is Google’s new cloud game streaming service launching November, and it’s automatically considered one of the front-runners in the current wave of cloud gaming because, well, it’s Google.
Essentially, Stadia is like having a game console in the cloud that you can access from any device. Think of it like how Netflix is a DVD player in the cloud — Stadia works in a similar way, but for games. At launch, you’ll be able to use it on laptops or PCs with a Chrome browser, Pixel 3 and 3a phones, and a Chromecast Ultra dongle that plugs into the HDMI port on the back of your TV. Like Netflix, you can start playing on your phone, than pick up on your tablet, laptop, or TV once you’ve got a bigger screen handy. Or the other way around.
SO I PAY A MONTHLY FEE AND GET ACCESS TO A LIBRARY OF STADIA GAMES?
Yes, but it’s more complicated than that. There are three different ways to get your fix:
Pay $9.99 a month for a Stadia Pro subscription that comes with a very limited library — just Destiny 2 to start
Buy Stadia games for full price on top of your $9.99 subscription (until 2020, when the subscription is no longer required)
Sign up for additional subscriptions (sort of like how you can subscribe to HBO through Hulu) to get access to a variety of different games.
We don’t yet know exactly how many games will part of the Stadia Pro subscription library or how many third-parties will offer their own bundles and subscriptions on top, but Stadia is mainly about buying games right now.
WOW, THAT’S UNNECESSARILY CONFUSING. I THOUGHT THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE LIKE NETFLIX?
Only in terms of how the games are delivered to you — not necessarily the library of games you’re paying for. Sony’s PlayStation Now cloud gaming service is a bit more like Netflix, with a big back catalog of 750+ PS2, PS3 and PS4 games you can stream for $20 a month or $100 a year, but Sony doesn’t put its brand-new heavy hitters there.
WHO ELSE IS A “FRONT-RUNNER” IN CLOUD GAMING?
Microsoft. Heard of xCloud?
SURE. HOW IS XCLOUD DIFFERENT FROM STADIA?
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