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Cloud gaming is one of the most exciting innovations in recent years. Although the advertising for cloud gaming lands on the hyperbolic side of things, some of the claims are true.
Using the criteria in our cloud gaming reviews, we tracked down the top three services in each category. If you want the short answer, Shadow is the best cloud gaming service available today. If you want to go into detail about what cloud gaming is and how it works, be sure to read our how does cloud gaming work guide. For a more familiar point of reference, Netflix or any other streaming platform delivers videos from the cloud though Netflix gaming is a little different.
Cloud gaming does a similar thing. Then, after you launch a game, a video stream of that game is sent to your machine. Using that choose-your-own-adventure movie as an example, when you make a selection, Netflix decides what the next clip should be, then delivers it to you. The same thing happens with cloud gaming; it just happens many times over. That input is sent to the remote computer, and that instance of the game updates to the input. All of this happens in a matter of milliseconds, and if the cloud gaming service can get the latency low enough, the input lag becomes imperceptible.
As you can imagine, the tech that goes into cloud gaming is expensive, not only to purchase, but also to maintain. Let this serve as a PSA, if nothing else. Every service is a little different, so we evaluated the platforms based on the features we thought were most useful. Unlike most cloud gaming services that boot directly to the DRM platform where the game is located, Shadow boots you to a Windows 10 desktop. With 1 Gbps download speeds, you can get a lot done quickly with Shadow. The only limitation is the hard drive, which is only GBs.
Plus, you can purchase additional storage, and then you can add or remove increments of GB to Shadow via your account page.
You can add up to a total of 2TB of additional storage. Read more about that in our Shadow review. Currently, Shadow is the only fully realized cloud gaming service out there, making it our top pick by default. It offers good speeds and a pleasant experience, though it's not without its faults.
Check out our full Shadow review for all the details. Additionally, voice chat is supported on PC and Mac. However, its performance features are the star of the show. Blacknut is, oddly, a family-focused cloud gaming service. In addition to offering a family plan that allows you to play simultaneously on four screens, Blackbut also offers a few family features, starting with a kids mode.
Although you can quickly switch between profiles, enabling kids mode is a quick way to restrict the selection if you have little ones that want to play. Controller support is excellent, too, with most games supporting a keyboard and mouse, as well as gamepads. On smart TVs, you can even use your remote for some games.
You can learn more about that in our Blacknut review. In this section, we searched for three services that not only have a wide selection of games, but a large library filled with high-quality games. Shadow dominates this section with honors. The GOG inclusion is huge. Services like GOG have done the heavy lifting so you can emulate these older titles on modern systems, and because Shadow gives you a full Windows 10 desktop, you can do it in the cloud.
Although not as fluid as GeForce Now, where your games are preinstalled and patched from the get-go, Shadow offers a lot more flexibility in the games you can play. Plus, the Shadow VR app was released in early PlayStation Now has more than titles in its library. Furthermore, the library includes games from PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3 and a small collection of PlayStation 2 games. However, Sony fans will be more excited by the library of first-party titles.
Some newer exclusives are available, too, including the wonderfully difficult Bloodborne. That said, the latest exclusives take a while to show up. Even so, the volume of games you can play simply for the cost of a subscription is excellent. You can view more of the games list in our PlayStation Now review. GeForce Now started off with small library of just over games. Compared to PlayStation Now and Shadow , it fell short in terms of volume.
However, the number of games has now increased to around 1, Each option is specifically curated for PC gamers, with the latest releases added almost immediately to the list read our GeForce Now vs PlayStation Now piece. Indies get a lot of love, too. Each game is of high quality and no matter if we search for a heavy-hitting triple-A or a niche indie, we can find it on GeForce Now. You can read more about the games list in our GeForce Now review.
In this section, we looked for platforms that offered a solid value at the asking price, not just the best deal overall. PlayStation Now is expensive if you sign up for a monthly plan. However, Sony offers multiple durations, which is something that Shadow and most other cloud gaming platforms lack.
This is assuming you have a DualShock 4 controller already. Families are where Blacknut is most at home ironic, we know. The library mostly consists of child-focused indies and mobile games, with the odd, subpar and M-rated title thrown into the mix. The price itself is good too. Thankfully, Vortex cloud gaming has a solid selection, including the ever-popular Apex Legends.
Vortex clearly has an affinity for mobile users, allowing you to buy a subscription through Google Pay or the Windows 10 purchase option.
If you buy a plan by accident, Vortex even offers a refund policy. You can learn more about that in our Vortex review. Netflix and many other streaming services have refined their UIs to be accessible, robust and attractive. In this section, we looked for cloud gaming services that hit those three marks.
Everything about Shadow is smooth. To sign up, all you need to do is choose your billing cycle, enter some information about where the service will be located and choose your Windows 10 installation. Shadow takes some time to set up — around 30 minutes, in our case — but the waiting pays off.
The local app installs immediately, and once you get access to it, you can boot your remote desktop in a matter of seconds. Shadow will run through a few hotkeys so you know how to get out of the system, too. You can change your background, browse the web and install any software you want though torrenting is off limits.
The only addition is a semi-transparent Shadow button in the top-right corner, which you can use to open the Shadow menu. A little clarification here and there, likely in the form of tooltips, would make the experience more fluid. Regardless, GeForce Now is smooth from setup to play.
The local application is neatly organized with a search function, meaning you can quickly find the games you want to play. The fluidity of the experience is second to none, with no lag or unnecessary loading overhead added to the games.
Blacknut may not have a great library of games or excellent streaming performance, but its accessibility is sound. Blacknut clearly took a lot of notes from Netflix when designing its UI, and that pays off.
Games are broken up by section, with a featured game at the top showing some art and a trailer. Blacknut lets you create up to four player profiles. Each one of these profiles can be customized with an image and name, and protected with a pin number and kids mode.
After choosing a profile and selecting the game you want, Blacknut also shows media for that game, the supported platforms and the supported controllers. No matter how accessible the UI is or how deep the library goes, the performance has to be intact. Although performance is more of a feel situation than anything else, we looked for services that had little to no input lag, produced most of the resolution of a local session and streamed the game with little artifacting. GeForce Now is, by far, the cloud gaming experience closest to a local game session.
Each title performed excellently, with clear image quality and little to no input lag. We were able to adjust graphical settings on a few titles, including DOOM , and have those changes reflected on screen.
With DOOM in particular, we were able to play with medium to high settings at 4K and manage nearly 90fps. This is particularly impressive considering how demanding the Resident Evil 3 is, even on high-end systems.
However, we also tested it with around 15 tabs opened in Opera read our Opera review on a 2. There was more stuttering, but GeForce Now, surprisingly, delivered mostly the same experience.
Although the video compression shows through more clearly here than with GeForce Now, the responsiveness is just as good. Platforming in Cuphead was as precise as ever, with no perceivable input lag or stuttering.
We tested with bots, and although the experience was fine in that setting, the occasional hiccup is too much in a competitive setting. For the casual market, though, the performance is fine. Testing on a modest WiFi connection on a Galaxy S9, xCloud provided a near local experience, with only the slightest amount of artifacting during intense sequences.
What was so shocking was the lack of input lag. Even playing Halo 5 and Gears of War 4, xCloud was able to keep up with the action. There was never a moment where we felt at a disadvantage because of the cloud-based system.
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