Cloud Gaming Services Comparison
| Service | Minimum bitrate | Maximum resolution | Price | Trial offer? | |
| GeForce Now | 15 Mb/s (720p) 25 Mb/s (1080p) | 4K | Steam, Epic Games, UPlay, GOG | €10.99 at €21.99 + games | Yes (with limitations) |
| Shadow | 15 Mb/s (theoretical) | 4K | All PC games combined | From €29.99 to €49.99 + games | No |
| PlayStation Plus Premium | 15 Mb/s (1080p) 38 Mb/s (4K HDR) | 1080p | PS1/2/3/4 and PSP catalog | From €16.99 | Yes (7 days) |
| Xbox Cloud Gaming | 10 Mb/s | 1080p / 4K | Xbox Catalog | €14.99 / month | €1 for three months |
Selection of Cloud Gaming services
This is the moment you've all been waiting for. Below, we'll take you on a comparison between four of the Cloud Gaming offers available on the market and we'll tell you about one of the most anticipated. Whether you're a PC or console gamer, there's no doubt you'll find what you're looking for.
GeForce Now, Nvidia's service
GeForce Now, Nvidia's service, is mainly aimed at PC gamers and offers to launch your games from Steam, UPlay, GOG or Epic directly from their own servers. While not all of them are compatible, a large list of games that can be used on this service is already available and will allow you, for example, to play Genshin Impact, Rocket League, Fortnite, Wolfenstein or even Dead by Daylight, all on computers managed directly by Nvidia.
In terms of connectivity, this service will require you to have at least a 15 Mb/s connection for a 720p display at 60 frames per second, and 25 Mb/s for 1080p at 60 frames per second. In both cases, it is strongly recommended to connect your device via Ethernet if possible, or with a 5 GHz WiFi connection.
If we talk about WiFi, it is because, in addition to being compatible with Windows and macOS (via software to download), GeForce Now is compatible with Android in the event that your smartphone has at least 2 GB of RAM and version 5.0 of Google's OS.
Pricing
Three subscriptions are offered for this service, one being completely free (the games are obviously your responsibility, since they are purchased on Steam or the Epic Games Store), but relatively limited: you will only be entitled to sessions of one hour of play at most, after which you will have to restart the service and risk falling into a queue. Note that the free offer only offers a definition of 720p, and that you will have to accept some advertisements.
The other subscription is offered at a price of €10.99 per month, but promises you priority access sessions for six hours, the possibility of having a definition up to 1080p with 60 images per second and above all the possibility of taking advantage of raytracing on compatible games. The latest offer, Ultimate, is available at a price of €21.99 per month. The latter allows you to play in 4K definition with 120 images per second, in particular thanks to the RTX 4080 included in the offer. You will also be able to play two additional hours, for a total of eight hours.
- Priority Offer: 10.99 euros per month or 54.99 euros every six months (9.17 euros per month);
- Ultimate Offer: 21.99 euros per month or 109.99 euros every six months (18.17 euros per month).
The pros
- No need to buy games again
- Works really well
- A free offer
- Inexpensive paid offer
- RTX 4080!
The Cons
- Not compatible with all games
- The ergonomics of the application are far from excellent
Shadow, the complete remote PC
The service offered by Shadow is a little different from the others. While it is quite usable for gaming, this is not its basic principle since Shadow offers Cloud Computing above all. By this we mean that it is indeed a complete computer where you can, for example, program, edit videos, browse the web and, of course, play remotely, on a powerful machine.
Shadow's real tour de force is undoubtedly that it can be used with relatively poor ADSL connections. Tests have already been carried out with a flow rate of around 2 Mb/s and surprise, it was possible to play a video game with a completely correct latency. It wasn't pretty, but it was fluid and with such a connection, there's no doubt that everything is excused.
What's more, if Shadow is able to run a game this way with an extremely low flow rate, you can imagine that office automation is nothing more than a trifle and will work wonderfully. Note that Shadow recommends a minimum of 15 Mb/s for normal use.
As for the required hardware, Shadow asks nothing more than a computer (even a very low-powered one), an up-to-date internet browser and a connection, even a weak one as we saw just above.
Although previously, many new subscribers unexpectedly fell into the twists and turns of an infinite pre-order, things have changed a lot. In recent years, with the boost given by the acquisition of OVH Cloud, it is possible to subscribe and access your machine remotely in less than an hour.
Pricing
A cloud computing service obviously means a higher price. The classic Boost offer at €29.99 per month offers a GTX 1080 (P5000) GPU with 16GB of GDDR5X, 8 virtual cores on an Intel Xeon processor clocked at 3.1 GHz as well as 12 GB of RAM. The internal storage of your remote machine will be 512 GB of SSD storage, and up to 5 TB of HDD storage.
Alternatively, the company also offers a Power offer for €49.98 per month, which will please not only the most demanding gamers, but also content creators. This offer will allow you to benefit from 8 virtual cores on an AMD EPYC 7543P clocked at 3.7 GHz, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti (A4500) card.
Note that both offers provide 1 Gb/s download speed, allowing you to download your video games quickly.
The pros
- A very low ADSL connection is already enough to use the service;
- More complete than a Cloud Gaming service;
- Compatible therefore with all launchers;
The cons
- A minimum “official” speed 15 Mb/s (but usable with less, as indicated above);
- A necessarily higher price, a little too much if you only want gaming;
- Limited storage, but which can be improved later.
- No latest generation hardware
PlayStation Plus (ex-PS Now), for Sony fans
Designed primarily for fans of the Japanese company (not Nintendo, the other one!), Sony's PlayStation Plus (formerly PS Now) service is nonetheless a very attractive offer for all gamers in general thanks to its nice catalog of more than 700 games PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4 PS5, PSP, and not just exclusives (they themselves are not all present). For example, you can find God of War, Uncharted 4, The Last of Us, or even Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart.
PlayStation Plus (formerly PS Now) is available on both PC, where it is possible to stream your games, but also directly on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 where in addition to streaming, local downloading is offered to avoid any connection problems. You are also only required to have 5 Mb/s to enjoy it, however the resolution is capped at 1080p on PC. Furthermore, we also regret the absence of the service, for the time being, on macOS or smartphones.
PlayStation Plus (formerly PS Now) subscribers will also be able to access a PlayStation Plus collection with video games on the red carpet such as:
- Bloodborne ;
- Days Gone ;
- Detroit: Become Human ;
- God of War ;
- Infamous Second Son ;
- Ratchet and Clank The Last Guardian ;
- The Last of Us Remastered ;
- Until Dawn ;
- Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End ;
- Batman: Arkham Knight ;
- Battlefield 1 ;
- Call of Duty: Black Ops III – Zombies Chronicles Edition ;
- Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy ;
- Fallout 4 ;
- Final Fantasy XV Royal Edition ;
- Monster Hunter: World ;
- Mortal Kombat X ;
- Resident Evil 7: Biohazard.
Pricing
PlayStation Plus consists of three subscriptions, to enjoy each game independently. However, only the Premium formula allows you to stream your games in the cloud. It is offered at €16.99 per month, €49.99 per quarter (€16.67 per month) or €119.99 per year (€10 per month).
The pros
- Sony's big hits on PC;
- Choice between streaming or downloading (on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5);
- Very interesting catalog (over 700 PSP, PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4 and PS5 games);
- 5 Mb/s minimum connection;
- Local download on PS4 and PS5 to play in 1080p;
- Free video games every month;
- Multiplayer;
- Subscriber discounts.
The cons
- Only on Windows PC, no macOS or smartphones ;
- A maximum definition of 1080p in streaming
Xbox Cloud Gaming, the successor to xCloud
The “Project xCloud” that caused a lot of ink to flow since its announcement has been closed and replaced by Xbox Cloud Gaming, a service still in beta offered free of charge to subscribers of the Game Pass Ultimate plan.
You will be able to access it from an Xbox One or an Xbox Series S/X, from a computer thanks to its compatibility with Windows and macOS and on smartphones running Android and iOS. In short, it is possible to play the entire xCloud library on vacation, at the office or at home. Xbox and Microsoft recommend a connection with a minimum speed of 10 Mb/s to be able to play comfortably on the xCloud.
To access the benefits offered by the Microsoft / Xbox cloud gaming service, you will have to subscribe to the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate; at the moment, it is not available in a standalone version. This subscription includes:
- Xbox Game Pass with its free Gold games, access to multiplayer, and great deals;
- an EA Play subscription included;
- the ability to play games from the xCloud library on PC, Mac, iPhone, Android, Xbox One, Xbox Series S, and Xbox Series X;
- the ability to download these same games on console;
- day one access to games from Microsoft studios.
Pricing
- Xbox Game Pass Ultimate with Xbox Cloud Gaming: 14.99 euros per month
The more
- Usable from Xbox, smartphones, tablets and computers;
- Microsoft's expertise in online gaming services;
- A cloud gaming service that runs on Xbox Series X;
- Accessible from 14.99 euros per month;
- Usable from 10 Mb/s download.
The disadvantages
- Games that are sometimes not available on consoles and computers;
- Launching games is sometimes complicated even with a good connection.
How to choose your Cloud Gaming service? Follow the guide
Which platform are you from?
Depending on where you initially come from, namely the world of PC, Xbox or PlayStation, the offer that will be most suitable for you may be different. Indeed, you will have noticed it when reading the comparison: all the offers are quite different and are aimed at a particular audience.
For a console player, everything will depend on your preferred platform. Obviously, Sony fans will prefer PlayStation Plus, and Xbox players will probably be more tempted by the Xbox Cloud Gaming experience included in the Game Pass.
For PC players, it's a safe bet that GeForce Now will be the offer that will attract them the most, thanks to its compatibility with a nice list of Steam or Epic Games Store games as well as the possibility of enjoying them on PC, macOS and Android. For those looking for more versatility, Shadow's offer is probably the most flexible, since it is not limited to gaming.
Want freedom, or simplicity?
By reading the comparison above, you have probably already understood: some of the services offer more simplicity than freedom, and vice versa. If we compare Shadow to PlayStation Plus for example, we must admit that the two are radically different: the first is a real remote computer and therefore offers total freedom, to the detriment of a certain simplicity, unlike Sony's service which will focus solely on games, nothing else.
In the middle of the two we have GeForce Now which will still allow you to configure at least the display settings of your games, and to play them almost anywhere with Android, macOS and Windows compatibility. The whole thing offers a little bit of freedom, but remains firmly anchored in gaming only.
So you have to think carefully about whether you want a “plug and play” experience or if you need more freedom before choosing your Cloud Gaming service.
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