I hope Amazon has plans for better distribution than their current datacenters. They have absolutely nothing in the US south or mid/mountain west. Maybe they'll run in some edges like Stadia?
Luna – Cloud gaming service
211–220 of 288 posts
Re: Luna – Cloud gaming service
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think its interesting how almost all content has gone to streaming and subscriptions but games have not. The way most people use games seems to be fundamentally different though. I listen to new music every day so subscriptions work best. With games I always play the same stuff, I buy a new game once every few months so a subscription would cost me more.
If games go subscription there will be less money for the big developers. Netflix is a net looser and selling dvds makes more money for publishers.
I think this is a long tail type issue, assuming publishers can find a way to get a profit sharing agreement from the service providers based on time played. In the short of things, publishers make some money on each sale and then monetize on micro transaction, season passes, etc. The clear push towards “games as a service” from all the big publishers reflects this line of thought, i.e. we want to keep making money from this forever (or as long as the company can be counted on to actually run the service). But, and I admit this part assumes some form of payment to the publisher based on continued play, if the game is played via streaming subscription (which would probably have tiers or some such for access to individual publisher’s libraries) then the publishers can in theory keep making money on a finished product over the long-term.
However, I agree that this system is very likely to NOT benefit developers, it will be the publishers that make the cash and it will become a haggling point in dev/pub contracts as to the amount, of any, the devs see from these continuing fee arrangements.
All said, I cannot see a time when I’m willing to go in for full game streaming as a stand alone product. I can imangine paying for Microsoft’s game network or something if I wanted a console this generation. But I have 7000+ DOS games, and a few external drives full of Windows games, and then emulators and ROMs, so I think I’m good for gaming and don’t fit the target for a streaming service.
Re: Luna – Cloud gaming service
#213Looks direct competitor to Google’s stadia Just out of curiosity how does cloud gaming works and don’t we need high bandwidth for that
Stadia needs roughly 20mbps, which these days is fairly average for most places in the world. Actually data transfer can become an issue if you don't have unlimited data transfer and play more than a few hours a day. 720p is 4.5gb per hour, whereas 1080p is 9gb. 4K is even higher.
Dang
Outside of US you usually pay for the data
I think this can be expensive for some people
Re: Luna – Cloud gaming service
#214Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hawe you actually tried Stadia or Geforce Now?
I don't have fiber, so I'm at the mercy of how much demand there is for Comcast at any given time. Sometimes it works great, other times not so much. I'd rather just install games locally like with Game Pass, Steam, or EPIC. My local computer can handle these games just fine. I'm definitely not the target audience since I can afford the hardware. The only place I can think of in the US with fiber are university dorms…
> The only place I ca think of in the US with fiber are university dorms
While definitely nowhere near the majority of the US, there are many metro areas with large residential fiber to the home (FTTH) deployments. Suggesting it is only available at university dorms is massively misrepresenting reality.
In pretty much all the areas I've lived for the last decade, FTTH has been extremely common. I'm certain lots of other people have had very different experiences from me. Lots of other people have had experiences vastly different from yours.
https://broadbandnow.com/report/fiber-optic-availability-map...
https://www.att.com/shop/internet/gigapower/coverage-map.htm...
Re: Luna – Cloud gaming service
#215Ah, of course. Only in the US. For a change it would be nice if they started literally anywhere else.
Great, there is a business opportunity for global game streamming.
Re: Luna – Cloud gaming service
#216Earlier quoted context omitted.
The 100GB of game data I have to wait around to download. The 100GB of streamed frames happen while I'm playing so I don't care. This benefit is for those who value their time highly and want something to 'just work' without having to bother with installing stuff, updating, buying and setting up new hardware every year, etc. Imagine you only have 30 mins a month to do gaming... Like many busy adults... With a PS4 or…
Even then, it would still be massively more efficient for the game to just stream in the assets in the background while playing, while still rendering everything locally. WoW, for one, has done that for years. Or you could just start Steam a few minutes before your monthly 30 minutes I guess. If you have the internet connection required for stable cloud gaming, you won't be spending long waiting for the patches anywa…
You’re missing the point. Most people don’t want to download a video instead of streaming directly, which is a far lower barrier than procuring equipment, dealing with compatibility issues, doing system updates etc. I doubt competitive gamers will ever move across but it hugely reduces the barriers for casual or time poor gamers.
Re: Luna – Cloud gaming service
#217This feels like an appropriate place to rant on something that’s been bothering me for a while. It’s really disappointing to me to see every single form of entertainment becoming a subscription service. It’s also the same problem you see with various apps/software trying the SaaS model, even when it doesn’t make sense. Are we going to have exclusive games requiring multiple subscriptions to enjoy the content you want…
> Are we going to have exclusive games requiring multiple subscriptions to enjoy the content you want?
Well, we've been living in a world where to play certain games you had to make a several hundred dollar investment into a platform. Platform exclusives have been a thing for a long, long time. To an extent only having to pay a dozen or so dollars for a month of service to get access to some exclusive game sounds a lot better than having to shell out several hundred dollars for yet another console when I've already bought three.
Re: Luna – Cloud gaming service
#218Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not just people gatekeeping, developers are usually going to target whatever gives them the biggest return. PC games have been gimped for a long time because the developers make sure the game runs on consoles as well, and if cloud gaming takes off, it'll be even less likely that people develop games with PC players in mind. I can't blame people for wanting cloud gaming to fail; if it's succesful it could cause m…
Not to mention it makes modding dead on arrival. I get it, most gamers do not mod. But being able to write mods and work with Microsoft Flight Simulator in the 90s is what got me hooked on computing in the first place.
F
Re: Luna – Cloud gaming service
#219I'm not sure I would get back on one of these. I used OnLive back in the day, but now I can't play those games any more. It was a subscription with lock-in, and now that it's out of business I can't even choose to be locked in. Now, I have recently started playing on GeForce NOW, nVidia's offering. However there it's much closer to an EC2 model: I'm renting a machine, and I log into my Steam profile and play games th…
I'm an avid cloud gamer. I used GeForce NOW at first, but it had limited game selection.
I use Shadow now and it is much better. I have full control over the PC/VM, and install whatever I want from anywhere. I'm also super impressed with the latency - I can play multiplayer competitive games no problem.
I'm on a Mac so cloud gaming makes sense for me. I was going to build a PC but the cost was too high. Much cheaper to just pay ~$15/month.
This sounds like an ad, so to get back on topic -- if Amazon's Luna doesn't let you install whatever you want, it wont be able to compete.
Re: Luna – Cloud gaming service
#220Has anyone tried a Stadia before? I've remained doubtful about game streaming because it seems like the latency is such a hard problem to overcome. In any game that requires even a bit of precision and fast reaction, 30-100ms of latency can feel pretty bad. Seems to me like the only way this could possibly work is if the games are designed with streaming in mind, but even then it seems hard... Remote Desktop in Windo…
I've tried both Nvidia GeForce Now and Stadia, and Stadia has been a much better experience. GeForce Now takes a few minutes to launch, and it's really wonky to tweak your mouse settings to make your mouse speed match what you're used to on your own computer. I also experienced terrible input lag on GeForce Now even on 600mbps wired internet and after turning on all of their recommended settings.
Stadia has felt pretty magical, I just open chrome and go, I don't notice any input lag, and I also have the option to grab my controller and play on a TV. It has a few hiccups every now and then, but nothing bad at all. It feels like the future.