4 ms·
The biggest bottle-neck to any game streaming service is latency and I've some major doubts that they're going to be able to resolve it unless the client is loc
by beezischillin 8y ago
The biggest bottle-neck to any game streaming service is latency and I've some major doubts that they're going to be able to resolve it unless the client is located really close-by to servers. I messed around with Steam InHome Streaming, Xbox Streaming and PS RmotePly a bunch from work where we have the same ISP as I do at home. The speed between the two is around 6-700mbit and yet the added latency can still be felt and I don't live very far from work.
From my own experience the extra delay can be tolerable in a few game genres, especially on console-optimised games where, to my knowledge, developers optimise controls for higher latency due to a possibility of a slower tv. Obviously PC FPSes and the like suffer the worst. It does work really well on the same LAN, though: I decided to use a tiny SteamLink for my living room gaming needs instead of messing around with long HDMI cables and the added fiddliness of having to directly use the desktop launch games.
I wouldn't really sign up and pay for a service operated by Google, tho.
By the way, while a future affordable game streaming service that works well might lower the bar of entry to the hobby, I have a serious fear of such a thing enabling the worst parts of the video game industry to take over. The software-as-a-service model and renouncing the last vestiges of actually owning a copy of a game seems like a terribly tempting way to turn the entire industry off of actual creativity and onto even more "whale-chasing".