We are on the brink of the next generation of gaming consoles from both Microsoft and Sony. Each is offering a vast improvement over the currently available machines, but competition is starting to grow from cloud-based gaming services like Google Stadia. The introduction of cloud-based gaming has started an evolution within the industry and it is one that can’t be ignored. There is no question that the dedicated home console concept is going to change at some point down the line, but what form will that take? From recent comments by Xbox boss Phil Spencer, it would seem that cloud gaming is the future. Spencer recently went on record with Protocol to cite that the Xbox team now considers Amazon and Google to be the bigger competitors in the coming years of gaming.

Both companies have massive network infrastructure and presence in the gaming industry and it makes sense that they could easily upend the established dominance of the current console model. Though to be fair, Sony has had an established cloud-based gaming service longer than anyone with PlayStation Now.

Oh, these trailer brings back so many memories!

What do you all think of Cloud Gaming? For a looooong time, I was vehemently against it. Trying out services like On Live and later PlayStation Now fueled my dislike for the technology with a sub-par gaming experience brought on by the early days of game streaming tech. It also didn’t help that the internet we had at the time was complete trash. Anyways, fast forward 10ish years to the present and cloud gaming is more of a talking point than ever. Google has launched Stadia which has been met with a surprising amount of good reviews. Microsoft has its Project xCloud currently in beta. Nvidia has finally released its GeForce Now service officially, and Sony continues to work on and improve PlayStation Now.

It was the Project xCloud beta that finally got me to give cloud-based gaming another shot after so long. The Beta includes a number of games I don’t own currently that I wanted to give a shot so I figured, why not? After getting everything set up on my phone and Bluetooth capable Xbox One controller connected, I was playing games anywhere in my house and I have to admit I loved it! We have a fiber connection here so there was barely any latency that I could notice between my inputs and the action happening on the screen. The image quality on my Google Pixel 3 (not XL) looked crisp and left me with little to complain about. Occasionally, there would be some sort of grid lines happening on the screen but that’s it.

Another added benefit of xCloud was being able to set up my own home console for remote streaming. There have been a few times where I have been at a friend’s house and wanted to show off something I had stored on my home box, so this has been very convenient. Running the streaming service off of 4G and some less than ideal wi-fi setups have still plagued my enjoyment of xCloud but overall I have been pretty happy with the results, especially considering how little I actually game at a dedicated screen these days. Because of xCloud, I have been more open to trying out Google Stadia which works really well in our house. The recent price reduction has also given me more incentive to finally give PlayStation Now another try as well. I have to admit the service has come a looooong way since the first time I tried it way back when.

From my last few months of testing the waters of cloud gaming, I have to admit it works much better than I ever gave the tech credit for. There are even some great advantages to a service like Stadia where you won’t constantly need to upgrade your personal hardware. Oh, not to mention multiplayer servers will have much better ping since they are in the same data center. Of course, this comes at the cost of owning a physical game and a physical box which many are not willing to abandon completely, myself included. But with the traditional consoles becoming more glorified PC’s every generation, you have to stop and wonder: where does gaming go from here? Will everything eventually merge into a PC-only market or is the cloud really where everything is heading?

Each of the major console makers has already begun dipping their toes into cloud-based gaming in some form. Whether that becomes mainstream or not, only the future will tell. In the here and now, I am content to continue owning my physical boxes with plenty of games. I no longer fear the cloud-based future like I once did though, and can’t wait to see some of the new opportunities it could create for our medium!