Cloud-powered game streaming service is a revolutionary new way that you can enjoy your games.

Other than the cost of maintaining a subscription and an internet connection with decent speeds, you don’t have to spend any money on hardware or even on the games themselves.

Sounds tempting, right? Let’s take a peek at how it works and a few game streaming services available right now.

How does it work?

Cloud gaming has much in common to streaming videos. Basically, the cloud-gaming server runs the game of your choice and streams the video of the gameplay to you. Your keyboard, mouse, and controller inputs are sent over the network to the cloud gaming server.

Your computer receives the video (and audio) while the remote server does all the heavy work.

Also read: Top 5 websites for streaming or watching games

Advantages

Cloud gaming has a lot going for it in theory.

• No need for heavy investments or upgrades: Since all the heavy lifting is done by the servers you don’t have to worry about your hardware as much you would with a traditional setup.
• Cross-platform play: Cloud gaming is often a client based application and can be ported on any OS or a supported device.
• Instant play: You won’t be required to download a huge day one patch or even the game as it’s already on the cloud ready for you.
• DRM – Piracy would be a thing of the past as they would be impossible to pirate. This could result in a huge win for the game publishers too.

Disadvantages

Cloud gaming also faces some significant challenges ahead.

• Latency issues – No matter how fast your connection is there is always going to be a lag between your input and the output from the server.
• Bandwidth – Cloud gaming services require a lot of bandwidth. Even after compression, it’s still going to use more data and people with data caps could find this annoying.
• Video compression – To save you the trouble and decrease latency issues, streaming companies may use strong compression which might compromise on graphics quality.

Now since we have a better understanding of cloud-powered streaming services let’s look at some of the options.

Also read: Best gaming accessories for every budget

Top 5 cloud powered game streaming services

GeForce Now

Price: NA (Currently in Beta)

Own a mac or an old windows pc? and want to enjoy the latest AAA titles? GeForce now has got you covered. Nvidia is a household brand and has partnered with many big budget game studios to bring you the latest and greatest.

The service is currently in beta but you can become a tester if you really wish to learn about it.

Requirements

• Connection speed: 25 Mbps minimum 50 Mbps recommended
• OS: MacOS 10.10 and Windows 7 64 bit or later

Jump

Jump is also another game streaming service that focuses on indie titles and as a bonus also has support for Oculus and  HTC Vive VR. The save data is stored in the cloud and allows you to pick up where you left off even across different devices.

Requirements

• Connection speed: 15 Mbps recommended
• OS: MacOS 10.10 and Windows 7 64 bit or later

PlayStation Now

Price: $9.99/mo

Sony has some of the best first party games and over 600 games in their library on offer. New games are added every month although you’ll need to own a PlayStation console to access this service.

Requirements

• Connection speed: At least 5 to 12 Mbps
• OS: Console and Windows 7 (SP1 32 or 64 bit) or above.

PS Now is currently not available for Mac.

Xbox Gamepass/Xcloud

Price: $9.99/mo

With team blue in the race, you can always bet team green is gonna compete too. Xbox Gamepass/Xcloud is Microsoft’s very own game streaming service with over 100 titles and more added every month.

But unlike PlayStation Xbox natively downloads your game files if you want or stream them to your computer, phone or tablet too.

Requirements

• Connection speed: At least 10 Mbps
• OS: Console and Windows 7 (SP1 32 or 64 bit) or above

Google’s Project Steam

Price: NA (Currently in Beta)

Google recently took a leap into game streaming service with its ‘Project Steam’ and promises that users can play AAA games straight from the Chrome browser.

It currently has only one game — Assasin’s creed Odyssey — as a preview (only for people from the US) and promises to add more when they launch officially.

With so many options and with big names backing them up rest is assured that the future of online game streaming is in good hands and an exciting future is ahead for games.

Also read: Top 10 free games on Steam that you must check out