Cloud streaming
The game runs on a company's computer and is streamed to your screen.
It lets you play without a console, but you're renting access to someone else's computer, and a 'purchase' can vanish if the service closes.
What you're actually buying
A video stream of a game running in a data centre, usually through a subscription. Some services also sell games, but what you get is the right to stream them, not a copy. Others, such as GeForce Now, charge for the computing power and stream games you already own on other stores.
How it works
Cloud gaming finishes what downloads started: no box, no disc, no console, only a subscription and a screen. The company, not the player, carries all the infrastructure risk, which is why early attempts burned capital on data-centre graphics cards years before home broadband and video codecs were ready. The services that survived reframed it: Nvidia's GeForce Now charges for compute time rather than content, and Microsoft folded streaming into Game Pass as a bundled feature rather than a product on its own. The library is never a file. It is a stream, and a promise that the servers keep running.
When it's fine
When it's a bonus on top of games you own elsewhere, or bundled into a subscription you already pay for. Be careful about buying games that exist only on the streaming service.
Where it came from
OnLive tried first, launching in June 2010 and shutting on 30 April 2015, its patents sold to Sony for about $4.8 million against a once-claimed valuation of roughly $1.8 billion. Sony paid $380 million for Gaikai in July 2012, and its technology became PlayStation Now (closed beta January 2014), later folded into PlayStation Plus as a retention perk rather than a business. Google made the biggest bet: Stadia launched on 19 November 2019 with Red Dead Redemption 2, and big titles such as Cyberpunk 2077 followed. Google announced the shutdown on 29 September 2022, closed Stadia on 18 January 2023, less than four years after launch, and refunded every hardware and software purchase. Xbox Cloud Gaming (launched officially on 15 September 2020) sits inside Game Pass Ultimate. Stadia is the clearest example of the ownership question: what do you own when the server is the game?
Historical prices and revenues are in US dollars at the time unless marked A$.
By the numbers
Sony paid $380m for Gaikai in July 2012; its streaming technology became PlayStation Now.
Google announced Stadia's shutdown on 29 September 2022, closed it on 18 January 2023, and refunded every hardware and software purchase made through the Google Store and Stadia Store.
OnLive launched in June 2010 and shut down on 30 April 2015, within five years of launch.
GeForce Now, which streams games players already own on other storefronts, had reportedly grown to around 25 million registered members by early 2023.
Games that use it
No games in the database use this yet. Well-known examples: Google Stadia, GeForce Now, Xbox Cloud Gaming, PlayStation Now, OnLive, Red Dead Redemption 2, Cyberpunk 2077, Halo Infinite.
Related badges
Covered in Video Games & Money: Ep 34 · Cloud.