The ability to stream video games via the cloud might not be something you, a person reading Kotaku, personally enjoys or uses very much. But the reality is that streaming video games on your phone, console, or PC is becoming more and more popular, and that’s led to Xbox and Sony (and other companies) investing more into the tech.
And now, with recent announcements from both big players, it feels like the video game streaming war is truly underway. Just what it will mean for gamers around the world, however, may not be clear for some time.
A History Of Streaming
For about 20 years now, companies have been trying (and mostly failing) to let gamers stream console and PC titles via the internet without having to download anything. As early as 2005, a service called G-Cluster was offering this. Perhaps you’ve heard of OnLive, which let players stream games from big publishers starting around 2009. (Both services are now defunct.)
However, things didn’t start heating up in the video game streaming space until 2014 and the arrival of Sony’s PlayStation Now service. That was the first time one of the bigger players really got involved. In the decade since, Xbox has started offering more ways to stream games, Sony has expanded its offerings, and Amazon, Google, and Nvidia have hopped into the streaming wars, too. (Google’s Stadia service famously flopped and is no longer around.)
Through all of this, streaming games has never felt like it was really a thing. It was an option, sure, but I rarely met anyone who used these services. It seemed like a neat idea, but not something anyone was really using.
That’s changed recently, however, as I now know more people who stream games on their phones and other devices. This shift has happened as Xbox has ramped up its cloud streaming offerings alongside Sony and the other tech giants.
Xbox and PlayStation expand their streaming services
On November 19, Sony announced that its PS Portal handheld device would now be able to stream some games without a console. Xbox has been letting players do that for a few years now, letting you stream Game Pass titles on your phone or browser. But on November 20, the day after Sony’s announcement, Xbox declared it was also going to start letting people stream games they own on supported devices.
Game streaming is now a part of many different video game ecosystems. You can stream Xbox titles on your phone, and PlayStation games on your PC. Some publishers have even released streaming-only games on the Nintendo Switch to get around the aging console’s weaker specs. It’s clear that cloud streaming is no longer an oddball experiment, but instead a key part of multiple company strategies moving forward.
“Our biggest growth in Xbox players is on PC and cloud,” Xbox boss Phil Spencer told Rolling Stone in a recent interview.
“The console space isn’t growing, across all of them. We love those customers, but in terms of continuing to expand and grow Xbox, it’s about PC, it’s about cloud, and it’s about making our games more available in more places.”
In May 2023, PlayStation’s then-CEO Jim Ryan said during a business call that “cloud [gaming] will be fundamental” and explained that Sony has “fairly interesting and quite aggressive plans to accelerate our initiatives in [game streaming].”
Amazon, one of the biggest companies around, is investing heavily into streaming with its own Luna service, which lets you play big and small games across multiple devices. GPU maker and tech company Nvidia has continued to expand its own Geforce Now streaming service, too.
The Future Will Be Streamed
And we can’t ignore that during the various court hearings involving Microsoft’s bid to buy Activision, streaming games was a key subject. A lot of people, both inside and outside these tech companies, seem to expect cloud streaming to become more and more popular in the coming years.
In 2024, more people are playing games via the cloud. Xbox boss Phil Spencer said in February that at least 10 percent of all hours spent on Xbox are now via players streaming games on their phones or other devices. It makes sense that as games get bigger, consoles get more expensive, and phones get better, a lot of people might decide to just stream the latest Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto instead of spending money on a new console, downloading the game, and playing it in one spot.
Anecdotally, a lot of younger people I know stream games on their phones and prefer it over playing with a controller or keyboard on their TV or PC. That might send a shiver down your spine, but the reality is that this is our future. I don’t think offline games are going away, but it’s clear that as console sales stagnate, cloud gaming looks like a potential goldmine to big game companies, publishers, and tech giants, if they can make the tech work and keep their costs reasonable.
Today, I know plenty of people who stream games via Xbox cloud or their PS Portal. I’ve now started streaming some games to my phone when I’m lazy and just want to do some grinding in an RPG or online game. It’s easier than ever and works better than it once did, too. Now that Sony and Xbox seem to be firing shots back and forth at each other with the recent streaming news, it’s safe to say: “Begun, the video game streaming war has.”
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