Game streaming - how important is it to you?

[Veho]

Game streaming.

For years, gamers have been dreaming of being able to play their games on the crapper Okay seriously now.
No matter how comfy the couch, how ergonomic and spine-hugging the chair, how floppy and relaxing the beanbag, being chained to the big screen for your gaming sessions can be a little stifling at times. Sometimes people like a change of venue, while still enjoying the features and benefits of the full gaming rig. Handhelds and portable gaming devices are more flexible in that regard, but they have limited hardware and usually don't run big exclusives.

In comes game streaming, the worst best of both worlds! Run the big games on your big fancy hardware, but stream them to your more flexible portable device and play on the toilet anywhere*

*Some limits apply

But how important, how essential, how critical is this to people?
I know it's a neat feature to have, but do some devices take it too far?

We've had devices that support it but it's far from their main function (mobile phones, tablets, smart TVs, gaming handhelds), we have devices that are "focused" on it but are still capable of running their own stuff, like that Logitech thing, but now (or soon-ish) we will have devices dedicated to it as their sole purpose. Here's one.

PeakDo's gaming thing is a wireless gamepad and screen combo dedicated to game streaming. It uses their existing 60GHz wireless HDMI solution to minimize lag, and has absolutely no other features, options, bells, whistles or capabilities. No CPU, no storage, no OS, no independent operation. Its only purpose is to let you play games off your main hardware, but in another room.

And it's $500

I may be out of the loop here, but I just don't get it. You can get a device that supports game streaming on top of its other uses for way less than that. It's plug and play while most other devices require at least some level of setup, but is that really worth that much? It's low lag, low latency but a) is the extra millisecond worth it, and b) if you're really serious about high level gaming, I doubt you'd do it via streaming? Dunno, maybe that's just me.



Tell me. What are your thoughts on game streaming, how essential is it to you, would you spend $500 on a dedicated device?

 

[SylverReZ]

I wouldn't fork out thousands for the very best gaming equipment, it's best to go with the basics.

 

[FAST6191]

For b) I would say there is serious and serious but casual evening for when you want to play but ultimately are not going for rank or anything, grinding, exploring or the like.

$500 is on the steeper side but I have seen wireless video transmission methods go nearer than not before, even back in the SD days if you were foolish enough to want the cable/satellite TV in your bedroom and did not fancy forking out £25 a month for an extra box and also decided to buy on the high street. Too pricy for my taste but I can see going there. I have certainly priced out higher for more professional grade setups for people wanting remote walkaround video of things, and part of that was "no software that is going to not work on my next phone".

Though "high gamut 72% NTSC"... is a curious claim.

 

[Veho]

Look, $500 for a video streaming solution for your 150'' screen that won't clutter up your $10 million home with cables (even if they're gold plated HDMI cables) I can understand. Sorta. But $500 for a device that, when all is said and done, does the same as your phone with a gamepad attached, but costing more than your phone, and incapable of, say, making calls, unlike your phone? I struggle to understand that one.

I know that with any hobby there is a point of diminishing returns where the price rises exponentially with each next increment in quality, but I didn't realize game streaming was that serious. Gaming? Yes. Streaming games to a handheld screen? I had no idea.

 

[Reploid]

Not at all, lame and boring.

 

[Hayato213]

I wouldn't fork over any money into cloud gaming, Logitech G Cloud and Razer Edge is nice but they are overpriced, for the price of the Razer Edge you may as well get a Steam Deck 64GB instead.

 

[hippy dave]

I love playing PS4 games via my Switch. Still think Sony should just make an official app for it.

I wouldn't be so interested in buying a specific gadget for the job, especially when an existing gadget does it well.

 

[Minox]

My connection isn't nearly reliable enough for me to consider it being an option.

 

[Kioku]

On a scale of 1-10, it's a solid 3. I mainly use game streaming to play some games with the wife in the living room as we don't have the room for more than one big screen. Outside of that? I seldom use it. Even now, in late 2022, game streaming is nowhere near as practical as promised as companies like Spectrum have a tight hold on internet services in most markets it is a pixelated mess that is not worth it.

I am also confused as to why we still have devices coming out marketed as game streaming devices. The market is there for portable gaming, but the conditions for streaming still are not good enough.

 

[krakenx]

I have a gaming PC connected to a 4k 120hz TV. That's the best way for me to play games, but sometimes I want variety. It's not really critical since there is always older games that can be played locally, but it's a nice to have.

For streaming, the most important thing is to have the source wired in at gigabit and have the client connected to the best network possible. Also lowering the resolution helps significantly if the network isn't great.

In my bedroom I have a 1080p TV and an Nvidia Shield (1st gen) connected wired with gigabit ethernet. It streams from the gaming PC very well, but there is occasionally a stutter or compression fuzz. It's nice to play just a bit more before bed. Over WiFi, it's unplayable because the Shield is only wireless G.

I have an old phone that I use in the bathtub along with a controller clip. Normally I play older games locally on it because the streaming doesn't work well over wireless N. My new phone performs much better with dual band WiFi 6, but not quite as well as the Shield when it is wired.

The quality on my Steam Deck is noticeably worse when streaming from my PC compared to running locally, so I use streaming on it rarely.

PS5 streaming works worse in all cases than Steam Link or Parsec, but I use it occasionally on the Shield and both phones.

I don't stream from the cloud. I have attempted to stream from my PC when I'm away from home, but the WiFi or cell network wherever I am is so bad that it's unplayable. Given that I have gigabit fiber internet at home, I doubt that any cloud services would perform any better.

I don't get dedicated streaming devices though. Your phone plus a controller clip or a cheap Android TV device will do a better job for a couple bucks. If you are serious about streaming, focus on Wifi6 and wired ethernet. The client doesn't really matter much.