Game streaming showdown

4K gaming with graphics set to max, and no need for downloads? Welcome to the world of game streaming

From cassettes to cartridges, DVDs to downloads, the way we get our games is always changing. But the next evolution may be the most dramatic yet. What if there were no discs, no downloads, and you could take your games and saves with you wherever you went, and play them on any device that has a screen and a broadband connection?

That’s the dream of game streaming, with companies like Google, Nvidia, Sony and more battling it out to lay claim to this fertile new gaming ground. The platforms, like Sony’s PlayStation Now, Google’s Stadia and Nvidia’s GeForce Now, store games on remote cloud servers, letting you tap into them instantly over the internet. Imagine a Netflix stream that you control with a gamepad, and you’re on the right track.

Powered by supercomputers, they let you run even the most hardware-intensive of PC games on a lowly smartphone or underpowered laptop, as all you’re really powering locally is the video stream coming back from the services’ servers.

It’s not all plain sailing though – you’ll need a steady and fast internet connection, lag between your button inputs and onscreen action can be a problem, and the variety, availability and quality of the games differs greatly from platform catalogue to catalogue.

But the benefits are undeniable – imagine getting halfway through a mission in Red Dead Redemption 2 on your TV, then picking it up moments later at the very same point on your smartphone in the cafe down the road? That’s a future that’s already very much here – and these are the best services offering it.