Cloud gaming: an overview
I have recently, once more, become more interested in playing some games. While I really enjoy playing on my Nintendo Switch (especially while travelling), I realized I really miss playing a bit more strategically involved games (e.g. Civilization). However, I also noticed that playing them on my Macbook is just not as much fun, given that the performance is not really there and a lot of the games don’t work super well.
Accordingly I evaluated my options, of which there mostly seemed to be two:
- Buying some degree of a gaming computer
- Trying out cloud gaming
I don’t really play enough that I felt I could justify a gaming computer, however the idea of cloud gaming had intrigued me before. I had in the past already tested a setup that would allow me to play using AWS spot instances for little money, but somehow the offering didn’t really do it for me at the time. I did however decide to give it another shot.
So I started looking around and evaluating a couple of players and their offerings out there. I evaluated the following options in some more depth and want to give you the ups and downs as I have perceived them so far.
The options I tested myself are these:
I also pre-ordered a Shadow Boost, however they have not managed to fulfill my order yet and they seem to struggle significantly under the current corona virus caused demand and I am not sure they will fulfill my order any time soon.
There were two other players that I looked at but already discarded before it got to the testing phase, due to some concerns:
- PlayKey: Is a cloud gaming service that somehow failed to convince me that I wouldn’t regret using it by having my credentials stolen. Googling for it also returned a bunch of negative feedback so I decided against testing it.
- Google Stadia: Didn’t have any of the games I was interested in, so I didn’t even consider it seriously.
Criterias to consider & scale
So while trying out and evaluating the various offerings out there, I came up with the following, hopefully useful criteria, that should help everyone to find the solution that works best for them, independently of whether it is the one I prefer the most.
| Criteria | Description |
|---|---|
| Setup | When you want to get started initially, how much time/work is it going to be? |
| Storage | Do you have storage restrictions? If so, what kind? |
| Maintenance | Is there any maintenance work necessary? If so, what kind? |
| Resolutions | What resolutions can you play in? Are there restrictions? |
| Performance | What is the performance of the games itself, any issues? |
| Streaming | How well does the streaming work, any lag? Quality? |
| Usability | What is it like interacting with games? Any issues? How quickly can you start your game? |
| Pricing | How much does it cost? |
| Availability | Can you even get started at all? |
| Compatibility | Which platforms can you use this on? |
| Games | Can you play whatever you want? Any game restrictions? |
I used the following, really rough scale when evaluating the above criteria:
| Rating | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| ⭐️ | Great | When there is no issues and something is in line with my expectations. |
| 🤷♂️ | Okay | It’s not great, but I could live with this. |
| 🚨 | Beware | This was a showstopper for me, so you might want to consider it. |
| ❔ | Could not evalulate | Some stuff I could not test/find info on, in which case I marked it accordingly. |
Ratings overview
For your convenience I included an overview table of the results of my tests & research here. If you are interested in the reasoning behind the evaluation, you can find more details in the respective section.
| Criteria | Geforce NOW | Parsec & AWS | Parsec & Paperspace | Shadow |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Setup | ⭐️ | 🚨 | 🤷♂️ | ⭐️ |
| Storage | ⭐️ | 🤷♂️ | 🤷♂️ | 🤷♂️ |
| Maintenance | ⭐️ | 🤷♂️ | 🤷♂️ | 🤷♂️ |
| Resolutions | 🤷♂️ | ⭐️ | ⭐️ | 🤷♂️ |
| Performance | ⭐️ | ⭐️ | ⭐️ | ❔ |
| Streaming | ⭐️ | ❔ | ⭐️ | ❔ |
| Usability | ⭐️ | 🤷♂️ | 🤷♂️ | ⭐️ |
| Pricing | ⭐️ | 🤷♂️ | 🤷♂️ | 🤷♂️ |
| Availability | 🚨 | ⭐️ | ⭐️ | 🚨 |
| Compatibility | 🤷♂️ | 🤷♂️ | 🤷♂️ | 🤷♂️ |
| Games | 🚨 | ⭐️ | ⭐️ | ⭐️ |
Geforce NOW
So this was my favorite contender for a while. I get on it really quickly with no issues whatsoever, could just launch any game pretty much instantly, didn’t have to worry about anything really. But then they pulled all the games I wanted to play, so it become a no-go for me.
| Criteria | Explanation | |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | ⭐️ | Just install the app and you’re good to go! |
| Storage | ⭐️ | Nope, just play whatever you want! |
| Maintenance | ⭐️ | None, just works. |
| Resolutions | 🤷♂️ | Up to FullHD, none more than that. |
| Performance | ⭐️ | Seemed to work perfectly fine based on what I can tell. |
| Streaming | ⭐️ | Worked flawlessly for me, no lag, no issues. |
| Usability | ⭐️ | Just launch the app, select your game and go, it doesn’t get much better than this! |
| Pricing | ⭐️ | There is a free plan available, with restrictions. Founders edition is 5.49€/month, pretty cheap in comparison to most. |
| Availability | 🚨 | As of right now, you can only get into the free plan, nothing else. |
| Compatibility | ⭐️ | They have apps for all the usual platforms, no issues here. |
| Games | 🚨 | This is where it fell apart for me. Recently a bunch of studios have pulled their games from Geforce NOW, so make sure that the games you want to play are available first. |
Parsec
So in general, Parsec was not super intuitive to get ready. Their website doesn’t clearly say that it is going to offer you functionality to cloud game, it looks more like a tool that you can use to play together with friends. Even in their helpcenter most of the documentation on this functionality is pretty hidden, however it works super well. The just offer the software to do remote gaming, streaming, controls and stuff, the infrastructure you have to get from somewhere else. I tried two providers and I will evaluate them separately below.
Parsec & AWS
I tried to set up a VM on AWS for Parsec and I failed to do it properly. I would probably not recommend doing this and instead suggest you try paperspace instead.
| Criteria | Explanation | |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | 🚨 | I failed here. I tried to use the guide referencing an AMI for AWS, which didn’t exist anymore and I didn’t manage to pull it together manually. Feel free to try it with the more up-to-date documentation, but it seems like a pain. |
| Storage | 🤷♂️ | You’ll have to pay for however much you need, you can provision as much as you want, but it will cost you also. |
| Maintenance | 🤷♂️ | You basically have a VM, so you will have to do whatever you’d do for a real PC as well. |
| Resolutions | ⭐️ | You can configure whatever the underlying machine can handle. |
| Performance | ⭐️ | Just pick the machine that you need! |
| Streaming | ❔ | Didn’t test this, so I cannot tell you what it will be like. |
| Usability | 🤷♂️ | You will have to launch your VM first and then open it in Parsec and then launch your game (and do the reverse when you’re done). It could be worse, but it could be better also. |
| Pricing | 🤷♂️ | You will have to pay a fixed fee for your storage (or re-provision your machine every time you play) plus an hourly fee for playing. Which means you pay as much as you play. |
| Availability | ⭐️ | You’re good to go whenever you want to, no issues. |
| Compatibility | 🤷♂️ | Parsec on the desktop is no issues, couldn’t find any clients for mobile or the likes. |
| Games | ⭐️ | It’s a full VM, so you can install whatever you like. |
Parsec & Paperspace
I alternatively tried Paperspace and it worked fairly well, I would recommend doing this! This is also the setup I use at the moment with very little issues.
| Criteria | Explanation | |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | 🤷♂️ | It’s not super intuitive, but it works. There is a guide available, that I’d recommend to follow. However you need to file a support ticket with the Paperspace team for them to allow you to get the right kind of instance. |
| Storage | 🤷♂️ | You’ll have to pay for however much you need, you can provision as much as you want, but it will cost you also. |
| Maintenance | 🤷♂️ | You basically have a VM, so you will have to do whatever you’d do for a real PC as well. |
| Resolutions | ⭐️ | You can configure whatever the underlying machine can handle. |
| Performance | ⭐️ | Just pick the machine that you need! |
| Streaming | ⭐️ | For me this worked super well, however your mileage may vary. It will mostly be dependent on how far you are away from the datacenter where your VM is. |
| Usability | 🤷♂️ | You will have to launch your VM first and then open it in Parsec and then launch your game (and do the reverse when you’re done). It could be worse, but it could be better also. |
| Pricing | 🤷♂️ | You will have to pay a fixed fee for your storage (or re-provision your machine every time you play) plus an hourly fee for playing. Which means you pay as much as you play. |
| Availability | ⭐️ | You’re good to go whenever you want to, no issues. |
| Compatibility | 🤷♂️ | Parsec on the desktop is no issues, couldn’t find any clients for mobile or the likes. |
| Games | ⭐️ | It’s a full VM, so you can install whatever you like. |
Shadow
Shadow is a dedicated cloud gaming provider. I have not been able to test this yet, since my pre-order that was supposed to be ready in March is still not ready yet. So all of the information below is based on information I pulled together. I will update this article if I ever get access.
| Criteria | Explanation | |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | ⭐️ | Just install the app and you’re good to go! |
| Storage | 🤷♂️ | The base plan comes with 256GB of storage, which means you will likely need more, however availability seems limited at the moment. |
| Maintenance | 🤷♂️ | You basically have a VM, so you will have to do whatever you’d do for a real PC as well. |
| Resolutions | 🤷♂️ | Boost (the base plan) is limited to FullHD, you can get better resolution with higher plans, however they are very expensive. |
| Performance | ❔ | Didn’t test this, so I cannot tell you what it will be like. |
| Streaming | ❔ | Didn’t test this, so I cannot tell you what it will be like. |
| Usability | ⭐️ | Just launch into your VM using the app and you can do whatever you want, pretty easy! |
| Pricing | 🤷♂️ | So the base plan is pretty reasonable, at 17CHF (where I am), however the higher plans with better resolutions are fairly pricey. On the other hand, at least your costs are fixed, so you can play as much as you want! |
| Availability | 🚨 | This is a major issue at the moment, depending on where you are. Make sure to check out the subreddit as well as their blog to see how long you might wait, some people seem to have been waiting since months. |
| Compatibility | 🤷♂️ | This would have been a star, but it looks like Apple pulled their iOS app, so no more Shadow on your iPhone/iPad. If they manage to bring it back, I will upgrade this to a star. |
| Games | ⭐️ | It’s a full VM, so you can install whatever you like. |
Summary
So in summary: If you are relatively technically versatile, I’d recommend you to go for a setup using Parsec & Paperspace right now, if you are not versatile, check out the other options to see what fits you the best, based on the available games and how quickly you need your setup.
