Cloud gaming, sometimes called gaming on demand or gaming-as-a-service, is a type of online gaming that runs video games on remote servers and streams them directly to a user's device, or more colloquially, playing a game remotely from a cloud. It contrasts with traditional means of gaming, wherein a game runs locally on a user's video game console, personal computer, or mobile device

Cloud gaming platforms operate in a similar manner to remote desktops and video on demand services;[3] games are stored and executed remotely on a provider's dedicated hardware, and streamed as video to a player's device via client software. The client software handles the player's inputs, which are sent back to the server and executed in-game.[3] Some cloud gaming services are based on access to a virtualized Windows environment, allowing users to download and install service clients and games as they normally would on a local computer.[4][5][6]

This approach provides several disadvantages, notably forcing the user to consistently maintain a high-speed internet connection to an external organization. This built-in barrier to entry not only locks out users who wish to play video games in areas without this internet connection, but also precludes the player from owning their personal copy of the software, and permanently locks the user into a rental agreement, tying the purchase of the game to the solvency of the streaming provider (if the company goes out of business, the game ceases to exist). It is also inherently wasteful[clarification needed], and has insurmountable lag built-in to the distribution model, forcing users to make connections to potentially geographically-distant servers for the sole purpose of sending command inputs and retrieving video and audio streams that are viewed once and then immediately discarded.

Advocates of this system argue that this increased set of restrictions makes the game accessible without the need to download and install it locally, and on a wider range of devices (including mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, digital media players, or a proprietary thin client-like device)[7] due to lower hardware requirements over running the game locally.[8][3][9] Some services may offer additional features to take advantage of this model, including the ability for a viewer to join a player's session and temporarily take control of the game.[10] However, these purported benefits do not invalidate the ecological, sociological, or technical concerns inherent to the distribution model.

Infrastructure
Cloud gaming requires significant infrastructure for the services to work as intended, including data centers and server farms for running the games, and high-bandwidth internet connections with low latency for delivering the streams to users.[11] The network infrastructure required to make cloud gaming feasible was, for many years, not available in most geographic areas, or unavailable to consumer markets.[11][9] Due to their dependency on high-quality streaming video, the ability to use a service regularly may also be limited by data caps enforced by some internet service providers.[12][13]

A major factor in the quality of a cloud gaming service is latency, as the amount of delay between the user's inputs and when they take effect can affect gameplay — especially in fast-paced games dependent on precise inputs (such as first-person shooters and fighting games).[14][15]

The provider's dedicated hardware can be upgraded over time in order to support higher resolutions and frame rates for the rendering and streams.[8]

The Quality of Experience that measures the user's general level of satisfaction needs to be brought into consideration during the development phase of cloud gaming.[