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Comment by setgree | Hacker News Reader

Really glad I didn’t buy any titles on the platform, which I presume will be non-transferable when this folds.

The glory days of cloud gaming, for me, were when i was a beta subscriber to GeForce Now and I could play all my Steam and Blizzard Games at high graphics. Slowly the picking got slimmer and slimmer, and then Nvidia started charging.

My dream is to pay $5 a month to play my existing games on a decent computer without having to buy one. Given the heavyweights who have tried and failed to provide this, I’m guessing that it’s not going to happen any time soon, or at all. The more likely future is platform-specific, siloed.

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> My dream is to pay $5 a month to play my existing games on a decent computer without having to buy one.

It's more than $5, but what you're looking for ("cloud" gaming PC without walled garden) exists. You can rent a VM with GPU, for example from Paperspace [1], and install a remote desktop app that optimizes for latency, for example Parsec [2].

In the past there was the french company Shadow [3] that offered gaming-ready Windows VMs, but they filed for bancruptcy in 2021, not sure about their current status.

Not affiliated with them, but I tried both (Shadow before their bancruptcy, Paperspace+Parsec maybe a year ago) and both worked okay. A bit too much latency for my taste so I stopped using it, but with better connection speed and lower distance to the data center it might be acceptable.

[1] https://www.paperspace.com/

[2] https://parsec.app/

[3] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow.tech

I really like the idea of using my huge steam and gog game libraries, but 0.45/h for the lowest configuration is way too expensive. I use stadia, bought some games, play a lot (hundreds of hours) and I like it, simply I'll not buy more games. I like the service, not expensive at all and ideal for my not competitive game habits. I will not be happy if the service will die.

I'm glad I did! I paid $20 to try a game I wanted to try, and got a free Chromecast ultra+controller from the deal. The Chromecast I use daily, and the controller apparently has Linux drivers as a plug-in.

$5 a month doesn’t seem like it would work out economically with the price of GPUs. Why not buy a powerful computer and finance it?

GPU’s are overpriced due to demand. If they are utilised more efficiently in cloud then it’s cheaper.

Personally gaming sounds so expensive considering you’re just burning time. Probably cheaper than clubbing or travelling tho.

Gaming is one of the cheaper hobbies out there.

I’m currently nomadic and a gaming laptop would be over current carrying capacity; I much prefer Mac OS and Apple build quality; and gaming components are crazy expensive. I might get a PlayStation or an Xbox at some point though

I'm sure you've considered it already but a Steam Deck might be up your alley.

Have you tried buying a GPU in the past 2 years? If you can buy one 50% higher than MSRP, you're getting a deal. Most are going for much higher, if you can even find them in stock.

Yes exactly. So I’m not sure how a company can change $5 a month, with their own overhead and profit margin, and still make money.

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