The Latest on PC Gaming & Console Streaming: What You Need to Know.
With the emergence of digital gaming services like Google Stadia and Amazon Luna, streaming video games to PCs or consoles is becoming an increasingly popular way to play. In the past few months alone, there have been a variety of PC gaming streaming news for console games and the future of gaming looks to be bright. Here, we provide an overview of the latest developments and what they mean for gamers.
First and foremost, Google recently made the announcement that their cloud-based gaming service, Stadia, will now be available on Android smartphones. This means that gamers can now stream the latest PC games to their mobile devices. It also opens up the opportunity for older titles to be played without the need for high-end gaming hardware on a PC or console. With the drop in prices for flagship models, the accessibility of high-fidelity gaming has never been better.
Furthermore, Google also announced that they are teaming up with AMD to develop “state-of-the-art streaming technology”. This includes the introduction of a new ‘Google Stream Connect’ feature that will allow gamers to stream both PC and console games to their Android devices. AMD’s new Radeon GPUs are also being used to power the enhanced Google Stadia experience.
Another recent development in console streaming has been the launch of Amazon Luna, Amazon’s own streaming gaming service. Although similar to Google Stadia, Luna looks to be more focused on gaming rather than cloud solutions and promises 4K/60fps performance. One of the key advantages of Luna is its integration with existing Amazon services and existing hardware, with gamestreaming available on PC and Mac computers and iPhone’s.
It’s worth mentioning too that the gaming streaming industry saw its first major pricing shake-up a few weeks ago. Microsoft, who have been offering their cloud-gaming service ‘Game Pass Ultimate’ for some time, lowered their subscription price from $14.99 to $9.99 per month. This has led to other companies such as Google and Amazon to rapidly alter their own pricing models in order to remain competitive.
Although the technology required to broadcast gaming imagery to different devices has existed for a while, the technology has been often criticised in the past for its latency and graphical limitations. Fortunately, since the introduction of new graphics cards, such as the AMD Radeon GPU, latency issues have been greatly reduced. Further innovations such as Google’s recently announced ‘Zero Latency Streaming’, may also help reduce latency even further.
One thing is for certain, this recent surge of PC and console streaming news has made the gaming industry a much more exciting place. With companies such as Google and Amazon introducing more affordable services and better quality features, gamers are now able to enjoy their favourite games without expensive hardware purchases. What’s more, there’s now a wider variety of content to explore, making it easier than ever to have a great gaming experience.
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