Stewart Jack

Contributing Writer

   The idea of cloud computing has been around in business for a while now. Let someone else spend the money on purchasing, servicing, and upgrading the
hardware, then just pay a monthly fee to access and use their resources.
   The same concept has arrived in gaming. On the surface, it seems an attractive proposition: You no longer need an expensive computer or console to play the latest and greatest games.  Almost any device that’s capable of streaming content from the internet should work, although you may still need a game controller, or a keyboard and mouse. In theory, you would never have to upgrade your gaming hardware ever again. That by itself lowers the cost of gaming considerably for your average consumer.
   Performance is advertised as being able to deliver up to 4K resolution at 60 frames per second, although with those settings you can expect to quickly eat up bandwidth. Don’t even think about cloud gaming if you have data caps to your internet connection as it could easily blow through three gigabytes per hour. Latency (that delay between you pressing a button or giving a command and it being carried out by the game server) is also an ever-present problem since an extra step is being introduced. That may only make the difference of a few milliseconds—but just ask someone who plays an online shooter, that extra delay matters. On the other hand, if your gaming experience has been spoiled by hackers in the past, you may appreciate the fact that since the game is no longer running on a local computer, it’s VERY difficult for anyone to cheat or exploit.
   Access to these services almost always means a monthly subscription charge, which may also include a library of games at no extra cost (Xbox Game Pass or Amazon Luna spring to mind), or you may have to also purchase access to individual games, similar to the way you purchase games at the moment.