With Microsoft announcing ‘Project X Cloud’ and Google announcing ‘Project Stream’, game streaming is a seriously hot topic right now. Will the next generation of consoles be revolutionised by the cloud or will we still be stuck with physical hardware cluttering our homes?
Shadow PC is the new(ish) kid on the block and they offer something slightly different. The french company gives you access to a pretty beefy, cloud based Windows 10 PC of your very own, allowing you to access your games and software anywhere in the world.
With the equivalent of an Nvidia GTX 1080, 256GB of storage, 12GB of RAM and a dedicated 1GBPS internet connection, it really feels like holding the future in your hands. It’s certainly made us question whether it’s still worth it to own and upgrade your own bleeding edge PC, when you have a company that can do it all for you for just £27 a month.
Blade, the company behind the streaming PC, are so confident in their service that they’ve started to open data centres in America. But becoming the ‘Netflix of gaming’ isn’t without its hurdles, such as working with tricky internet providers to ensure all of their customers have a buttery smooth experience.
However, this technology isn’t new. One of the biggest pitfalls with streaming your favourite titles in the past was the latency you get between hitting a button in one location and having the effect relayed across the globe without you feeling a delay when playing. But now, with faster internet globally and clever new protocols, that delay is becoming far less noticeable. With services like Parsec, even your rig at home with can act as a server with just a piece of software and a domestic internet connection. It seems like Blade have fixed this problem too, achieving almost zero latency through Shadow PC.
For more info on the world of game streaming why not check out the above video to hear what Zac and Rich have to say about these emerging technologies? These streaming services are available right now, just waiting to satisfy your craving for gaming without tethers.
