Cloud technologies have been evolving since the early 2000s. You have to admit, this type of gaming is exploding right now. Today even the biggest skeptics realize that cloud gaming will change the whole industry forever. There are a lot of companies trying to get their piece of the pie. Some cloud platforms have managed to operate smoothly, while others are only trying to find their place in the market. Anyway, sooner or later, you’ll have to try one of them and join the cloud revolution.
Here are the five most popular cloud gaming platforms. You’ve probably heard about some of them. How can they help you? They can share their computational power with you so that you are able to run high-end video games almost on any device. You’ll no longer need to upgrade your PC or laptop. You can just play games on the remote machines, sometimes even free of charge. Now is time for a short overview that will help you decide where to begin with.
GeForce NOW
Nvidia is a technology market’s big player. It has massive ambitions in the gaming industry. So when GeForce NOW was announced, we all knew it will probably work out. Nvidia launched a huge marketing campaign, and a lot of gamers around the world started using GeForce NOW on a daily basis. This platform is probably the most stable on the market… but there’s something you need to know.
You can play GeForce NOW free of charge but only for one hour. Then your session will be stopped, and you’ll have to wait in line to continue running your games. Yes, the subscription is quite cheap, with a minimum of $5, but it won’t provide you with unlimited gaming. Recently there has also been an important issue with GeForce NOW. A number of publishers have pulled their games out of the service, so some popular AAA-titles are no longer available. Maybe, Nvidia finds a way to fix this issue in the future.
Boosteroid
Boosteroid will be interesting for our audience based in Europe. This cloud gaming service initially launched in Eastern and Central Europe. The company plans to scale to Western Europe and North America in 2020. That’s not going to easy, as many big platforms are trying to conquer the American market now. But Boosteroid does have few aces in its pocket.
One of them is pricing. The basic subscription costs €9,89 per month, but it’s possible to get one month of gaming for as little as €4.16 with a one-year subscription. Today it’s probably the lowest price on the market. If compared to GeForce Now, the basic Boosteroid subscription implies unlimited gaming time within its term and provides access to a pretty solid video game library. The most significant advantage of Boosteroid is you don’t have to use any app or other additional software to play games, just run them in a browser. This applies to PCs, Macs, laptops, and mobile devices.
Google Stadia
Google needs no introductions. If you’ve ever been online you know it. This multi-million dollar behemoth has recently created its own cloud service for gamers. Google Stadia was supposed to lead the market, but at the end of the day, a lot of users were disappointed. Why? Tough start. Players reported having huge latency and couldn’t run games smoothly.
Users should have purchased a subscription for $10 and also extra hardware to secure a better connection. Stadia provides the opportunity to play some AAA-games for free as Google partnered one of the world’s largest game studio Ubisoft. However, the service is still unavailable in many countries.
Vortex
Gamers in Northern America and Central Europe probably know Vortex. This cloud gaming service is closer to going worldwide than any other platform at the moment. Still having issues with their game library, Vortex is a solid platform.
For a price of $10, you can buy a basic subscription that includes a bunch of games. If you want to run more AAA titles, than you’ll have to try another subscription plan. You should also download a special app to access the platform.
Shadow
Last but not least is Shadow. Interesting name, isn’t it? This cloud platform launched back in 2015, and since then, it has become one of the most notable market players. However, it’s not that easy to see any difference between Shadow and other cloud gaming providers. The price might not be the best ($15), but, according to many reviews, Shadow users know what they are paying for.
Shadow is available on different devices. Nothing new, but this is enough for you to give it a shot if you are based in North America. Basically, this is the main area where users can run games on Shadow smoothly. All you should do is to download a special app, sign up, buy a subscription, and start playing.
So, there’s quite a large number of cloud gaming services to help you run high-end games with what’s at your fingertips. Some providers still have certain limitations; some offer pretty decent terms. But there is at least one thing they all struggle to do — making your life easier. Though it still depends on where you live or what games you prefer, remember, you’ll always have a choice.
