Which Is The Best Cloud Gaming Service FOR YOU In 2021?Posted by Gustavsen Lau on June 11th, 2021 So i often get asked the question: what is the best cloud gaming service that i should use, and what do i recommend well as someone who's used, all the major ones from stadia geforce, now, xcloud, psnow, amazon, luna and even shadow? This question isn't actually going to be the same for everyone. We all have different cases where one just fits better. Do you have a huge library on steam? Well, one of these services makes more sense, or have you been out of gaming for a while, and you just want to try a big library of older games. Well, quite a few of these services could fit that bill. What we're going to do in this video is quickly break down each service figure out which one of these is right for you. If you're new to the channel, i cover all major cloud gaming services, and i let you know the latest news on each of them. So subscribe by, hitting that red button below hit that like button to help that algorithm do its magic to find more cloud gamers, who also might need a similar help. So we have to start this video with one of the more familiar ones that a lot of you are gon na know about, and that is xbox game streaming or xcloud for short and as i'm counting how many games right now, the service has i'm looking at Over 250 games just on what games can be streamed alone, which is pretty insane and shows how far this has come, since i reviewed it last year with only 100 games at that time. Not only that, but they gave access to over 50 titles with touch control, support and in the future new first party games are coming to xcloud. Also, they are getting big games like mlb the show 21 day and date as well as outriders that just recently released. These are games that you typically have to spend 60 elsewhere, and the pricing is fair as well. For read this , you get access to all these games or, if you're new, just one dollar for your first month. Then there is the huge games on here. We have doom, eternal, the fallout franchise, huge bethesda titles, online games like dead by daylight or even sea of thieves. I mean at this point it almost looks like the winner all around except out of all these services that i talk about today. By far the one that has the most issues is xcloud, there's constant lag, there's scanning, there's huge delays, there's definitely latency with the button pressing. As you can see here at times, this can be unplayable depending on the game me playing. Gta 5, for some reason, was great and i was playing gta 5 online, but then i jumped into sea of thieves and minecraft dungeons and for some reason it was just unplayable. Some people, though, report that they have no issues lots of people report that they have a lot of issues. It almost depends on the game where you are streaming at, maybe you're near a data center. It'S really hit or miss, but the library here is undeniable, especially if you own an xbox or a gaming pc. You just get immense value out of xbox a game pass and arguably, in that sense, xcloud comes on top on sheer value of games. You get for just a low monthly price, i say if you own an xbox or pc and have at least five megabits per second on your internet and you don't mind 720p or 1080p in the future, and you do cloud game. Xcloud could be for you, but as a standalone cloud service, you might have to wait until later this year, when they finally upgrade those blades and you get a more steady performance. Also, browser support and ios support are coming soon, but at the moment of this video they are not there yet. But overall, this is a pretty well-rounded service, so jumping into the next one. That'S gon na be really familiar to you guys and it's been around for quite some time in playstation now or ps now. For short, this boasts close to 700 games and only needs five megabits per second for 720p streaming, but it only tops out at 720p. Now the pricing coming in, though, is pretty fair. For 9.99 a month you get access to those games or the immense value for the 12 month 59.99 deal and well. What is there to say? 700 games is no joke, but admittedly a lot of these games aren't pretty good and they can be pretty old. But there is some heavy hitters here, especially recently with borderlands 3 marvel avengers or playstation exclusive classics like the last of us, or detroit become human out of all these services. This one has the most games and it's not even close, but what about the performance? Well, despite only 720p, the performance for me on the pc app was actually amazing. Yeah, it didn't look pretty, but i felt a zero lag and i was actually quite impressed. Then the fact that there is over 300 games you can download to your playstation if you own, the console and ps now easily becomes insane value. The real only issue i have is you're limited to your pc or playstation out of every service that i talk about today. They all have access to mobile gaming of some kind except ps now, which is a bummer, because the reason i like cloud gaming is because of that mobile accessibility also there's no keyboard or mouse support for games, but any controller will do again if you're looking for Playstation exclusives or one of these 700 games excites you i think playstation now is good enough for a world, especially since i found the performance to be pretty darn good and worth checking out. With that. The platform i actually play on the most is google stadia and that's for a few reasons. It'S extremely versatile, very easy to use. Just by clicking and playing a game you can play on your pc with a controller or a keyboard and mouse. If you're like me, you can play on tv with a chromecast ultra or completely on mobile, even with just your 4g connection on android or ios, and it's been very stable even on 4g connection, but granted you only need 10 megabits per second for 720p. For me, out of all the services, this one makes me feel like i'm playing on a native console featuring over 170 games with big ones like cyberpunk 2077 assassin's, creed, valhalla and upcoming games like resident, evil. Village. There'S a lot to like here, including free-to-play games like destiny 2 and there's no upfront cost. You get console quality performance with 1080p or 4k if you're a stadia pro member which, by the way, is the only cloud gaming service that has its own library featuring 4k performance, but i admit the pricing might not be for everyone. You have the option to buy a game or buy games when they are on sale and you own those games outright. But if you have an existing library on another platform or you're. Looking for that, netflix experience like ps now or xcloud, that might not be what you're looking for with stadia, though stadia pro at the time of this, video has around 27 games that you get instant access to and get to keep as long as you stay subscribed And stadia pro costs 9.99 per month with your first month. Free stadia pro does have some excellent titles within that 27, like the newest little nightmares 2 that just came out or even resident evil 7 and you get access to 4k gaming, but otherwise you can literally just play the free-to-play titles or buy one of the many Games that are on sale on a weekly basis and you just boot the game and you're just playing right away again, with no upfront cost and getting pretty high quality performance. If i had to place one negative, though it's potentially the library itself, if you look at it and there isn't games that interest you, this may not work out for you, but the library has been expanding on a monthly basis. But ultimately, for me, the number one thing that i place priority above anything else when it comes to cloud gaming is performance, which is why stadia is the one i personally use the most and for me, it tops every other service that i talk about today. In that regard, i've tried them all extensively, not only that, but the pricing model for me works the best as i like to buy the games and not worry that they're gon na leave the service, unlike other services that i talk about today, i feel like stadia, Is the most well-rounded of the group, but at the end of the day it will depend on if stadia, has the right games for you when you're looking at this library, so geforce now is my first introduction into cloud gaming and that's because before i was a Cloud gamer, i was a pc gamer, which is where geforce now, in my opinion, shines absolutely different from all the services that i talk about in this video, really you're, renting a cloud pc somewhere to play, games that you own on steam, ubisoft or even epic games. All you need is at least 12 megabits per second for 720p, and just like stadia gfn is extremely versatile. You can play on your pc tv with various devices like the shield tv play on mobile with android or ios, and the pricing is pretty fair at 9.99 or even a free tier that has you paying nothing to use it, but you will sit in queues to Get access with a one hour limit now. Geforce now has over 2 000 games that you have access to, but keep in mind. You have to buy most of these games, so the 999 really only gets you access technically to six hour sessions of the free-to-play games or the games that you already own, but for the free to play games which, out of all of these gfn, has the heaviest Hitters in that department, you have fortnite apex legends rocket league path of exile, dota 2. The list goes on, but what about performance? Well, that is pretty top notch as well. 1080P is the highest resolution, but gfn is the only service that provides things like ray tracing. Unfortunately, though, there is some negatives for one. There is a lot of games that you own that might not be on the service, leaving you with really no way to play it. If you don't own a good gaming pc, the ui can also be troublesome. Having you logging in constantly to ubisoft or even steam, and the six hour session limit can be an issue if you're a gamer that plays for long periods. But you simply do just log back in outside of that, though, some of this cheapest gaming that you can do period is on geforce. Now, steam sales are always prevalent or the shady key seller websites can make you buy games typically that cost full price for just mere pennies and if geforce now has access to that game. Well, you're good mixed with the versatility on being able to play on multiple devices and the performance mixed with your pc library. To me, this one is the closest to pc gaming. If you're in that crowd, so geforce now might be for you, if you're part of that pc gaming group or you want access to all these big free to play, games jumping into the newest player in the game. We have amazon luna and this one i'm not gon na, go deep into since it's in beta, and it's only limited to the us at the time of this video but featuring its own netflix style, with luna, plus at only 5.99 a month or the ubisoft plus Library at 14.99, which is separate by the way, so in total you could be spending up to 21 to 22 bucks and giving access to 1080p with only needing 10 megabits per. Second, though, you don't get fully the 100 games from ubisoft, but what's actually on the luna service itself, just to make that clear, the library is still pretty small, with over 50 games on luna plus or with ubisoft in total, with both gives you about 80.. So some noticeable games here from luna plus are control, resident, evil, 7, metro exodus and ghost runner. Also luna has access to ios and some android, but not all android devices and you can play via fire stick tv. The performance is actually pretty impressive, though playing rainbow six siege via ubisoft plus, was an awesome experience, also playing resident, evil 7, so overall luna, while still in beta, if it has the games you're looking for, i do recommend it. And finally, we have shadow pc and put it simply. This is one of my favorites on the list, but it comes way way different than everything else here and essentially you're renting out a quality gaming, pc and you're controlling it via windows, 10 featuring three different tiers with three different performances, with the top tier being close To 40 bucks a month which is pretty pricey but top-notch performance, this has no restrictions in regards to games. You can buy the game on steam, epic games or literally anywhere else via the pc and just launch it, because you're controlling a computer, essentially with that there's downsides if you're not pc savvy, if you're not good, at keeping up your gpu updated or your games updated Or the games simply just aren't launching due to bugs or whatever random pc mess that you'll get yourself into you're gon na have some headaches as you're, basically controlling a virtual gaming pc. But if you know your way around what you're doing this is crazy good, because for me, shadow is right near the top of performance list. Out of all these services, though, they do seem to have issues keeping their app on the ios and having support for ios devices, but it is on android and pc. I do recommend shadow if you're, looking for just top-notch gaming with your own pc library, and you also want to do a stuff outside of gaming like video, editing or just plain old internet browsing overall, i do recommend shadow pc, but again it's only if you're pc Savvy with all that guys, if you went through most of these, then you understand pretty much at this point by now. All these cloud services do something different and it depends what you're looking for do you want a netflix style and a huge library, well, xcloud and ps now might be for you are you a pc gamer, but your computer just can't handle the latest games anymore or You'Re, just out of storage space on your hard drive, well, geforce now and shadow could work for you or do you want the option of both worlds with a mini netflix with stadia pro or the ability to just buy your own games and be on its own Ecosystem and platform stadia again might fit that for you, honestly, it just depends on what you need and what games you're, essentially looking for with that. Tell me in the comments guys, which service so far, you've used your experience with that service and what works best for you. That way, we can help others who might have a similar case in their gaming needs if you're new to the channel. I cover all cloud gaming so subscribe to always be up to date with all the latest news hit that like button, if you enjoyed the video - and you found this helpful, also hit that notification bell for near daily content. I'M sunny and i'll see you in the clouds.Like it? Share it! |