Streaming from the cloud was meant to change games forever – what happened?

<p>Once hailed as the future, even the likes of Google, Sony and Microsoft have struggled to make streaming games fun, fast or affordable</p><p><strong>• </strong><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/info/ng-interactive/2021/nov/24/sign-up-for-pushing-buttons-keza-macdonalds-weekly-look-at-the-world-of-gaming"><strong>Don’t get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up here</strong></a></p><p>In August 2009, at the very first Gamescom expo, I sat in a small meeting room in Germany and played Mario Kart and World of Warcraft on a laptop, via technology that was then completely new: cloud gaming. It was a demonstration for a yet-to-be-launched service called Gaikai that promised to let you play any game in a browser window, without a console. (Here is an <a href="https://www.ign.com/videos/real-time-demonstration">ancient video</a> of that demonstration, featuring a very young Keza.) With a single click I could launch into any game, hosted on servers hundreds of miles away. It really did look like the future.</p><p>Since then, plenty of companies have <a href="https://kotaku.com/top-gaming-people-say-streaming-that-frees-high-end-gam-1827695602">tried to be the first</a> to truly crack game streaming, vying to be the Netflix of games. Sony ended up buying Gaikai for $380m (£242m) in 2012; its technology now powers the streamable classic games library on PlayStation, and the PS5’s advanced game streaming. OnLive, Gaikai’s first competitor, launched in 2011 but shut down after less than a year, leaving Sony to acquire all its patents. Google’s Stadia cloud gaming service also imploded, launching in 2019 and shutting down three years later.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/games/2026/sep/09/streaming-from-the-cloud-was-meant-to-changes-games-forever-what-happened">Continue reading...</a>