You’ve probably heard the phrase “storing something in the cloud” before. It typically refers to data that’s stored outside of one’s computer or home network on an online storage device. The same is the case for cloud gaming. Here, games are streamed directly from a data center of the cloud gaming provider.
Performance-intensive games are run on external data center servers, so that players do not require their own powerful hardware. Audio and video signals are streamed via the Internet. The inputs made by the player via mouse, keyboard, gamepad, or other peripherals take the reverse route via the broadband line.
Cloud gaming is still a comparatively young technology for gaming on PC or consoles, and not yet a fully-fledged alternative for video gamers. Until now, video gamers purchased games either physically or digitally, installed or downloaded them, and in that way gained permanent access –subject to registration via an online account such as Steam, Origin, or Ubisoft Connect. This has the advantage that single-player content can be played offline, which is usually not possible when streaming games via the cloud.
