Cloud Computing And How It Is Transforming Gaming

For quite some time, anytime you heard mention of cloud computing it was always about business. It made sense as business needed the benefits of cloud computing more than anybody.

Considering how much gamers are known to spend on hardware to play more effectively, it should be no surprise that they are embracing the cloud, as well.

The cloud is basically on-demand availability of computer resources but just not located on your computer. There is a famous meme that says that the cloud is just somebody else’s computer, but that doesn’t do the cloud’s capabilities justice.

It can be looked at as a virtual hard drive so you can handle much greater computing demands than your current computer can.

In any case, it is a revelation in the gaming industry and is changing how gamers are able to play. In this article, I will go over some of the ways it has benefited gaming.

How the cloud works with gaming

Before the advent of the Cloud, games were played by either downloading a game onto your hard drive or using a CD. how complicated the game was depending on the limitations of the CD and you might not even be able to play if your computer couldn’t handle the processing required.

What changed now? Well, certain things are still the same. You have your favorite game, like League of Legends for example and you buy LoL accounts just like before. You use the same controller and play the game just as you normally would.

The difference is that your game is not on your PC. It is some ways away on a super server somewhere. Your internet connection acts like an enormous cable so you signal the game from your PC but the actions are performed on the remote server.

Benefits of using cloud computing for gaming

There are a number of benefits that we will cover in this article, but tied for the first two positions must be the quality of the game on the cloud and money savings to get that quality.

Let’s address the quality first.

Since the server has processing and computing capabilities way beyond what most normal PCs can handle, you get a much more complex and high-quality gaming experience.

Frames per second are much higher on the Cloud which makes for better-looking graphics. More importantly, the frames per second will increase reaction speeds so you don’t miss out on any action. The downside is now you can’t blame slow FPS if you make a mistake!

Then the cost savings come in with the fact that to have this quality, you don’t need to spend hundreds or even thousands on upgrading your hardware. As long as your computer is up to date and you have a high-speed internet connection, you can take advantage of using the super server of the Cloud.

There are other benefits, too. You won’t lose your game progress if something happens to your computer or internet connection. Suppose you lose power suddenly. Your game was not being played at home so it doesn’t matter if you lose power. Your game will be right where you left it when the power went out.

You also don’t need to use your computer to access your game. If you are at a friend’s house, you can use theirs to play your game with all of your settings saved. It’s seamless.

Then, you can switch between games quickly. If you decide to play something else, you don’t have to wait for it to load up or download. You just switch and it is almost instant.

Game companies also benefit

Using the cloud is a win-win for gamers and game manufacturers. They can save a ton of money by using the Cloud.

For starters, it is much harder to pirate a cloud-based game. Since you don’t need a physical copy to play, a pirate can’t illegally burn a CD to then sell. They also can’t host a mirror site where you would download a copy of the game from them either.

They save money on bandwidth, too as they only use what the given traffic needs at any particular moment in time. They don’t need tons of bandwidth for downloads or uploads, either.

Downsides to cloud based gaming

There is still some time needed for the promise of what the cloud can do for gaming to catch up to reality.

Unfortunately, the best case scenario doesn’t always apply to some users. For instance, lag is something that many gamers will experience when using the cloud. Yes, the super server is very fast, but they’re still isn’t a way to prevent lag from happening at all because internet speeds are not equal for everybody and at all times.

Picture using a cloud based game at peak times when everybody is streaming Netflix, for instance. You’re going to see some lag more than likely.

When you make an action on your mouse, that signal has to travel to the cloud, get rendered and then compressed and the results sent back to you. It often does so instantly, but there are times when latency is going to be an issue.

Now that Net Neutrality is threatened, it may actually doom cloud based games for many. The bandwidth needed will be limited if you have caps on your account. And it could get expensive to upgrade to the type of account necessary to provide enough bandwidth to be able to use that service.

Conclusion

For now, cloud computing is working for many people, but there are still some that can’t take advantage.

When the internet evolves again as it always does, it will finally allow gaming to be taken to the next level. For now, if you have the right internet connection and can take advantage, then you should as the advantages outweigh the downsides by a large margin.

What will the next phase be? Look out for blockchain based gaming!