Connect with us

Gaming

Cloud-based virtual PC rental comes to the US with Shadow

blank

Published

on

Shadow Box

The ‘cloud’ has been a buzzword in the games industry for a while now. Although, in theory, it’s a brilliant idea, it’s not a concept that has ever really gained mainstream traction. From pioneers OnLive to current services such as Playstation Now and GeForce Now, cloud-based gaming is still in its infancy.

French startup Blade is hoping to buck this trend with their ‘Shadow’ subscription service, which is now available for the first time in America. Their unique selling point is that they don’t want to help you stream games. They want to help you stream an entire virtual PC, and an absolute powerhouse at that.

The thinking behind it is fairly simple. Blade wants to help people that don’t have the money or space to splash out on serious hardware. Instead of spending $2,000 on a new rig, why not just rent your own for a monthly fee?

By signing up to Shadow, you’ll get your own virtual PC, ready to go wherever you have a screen and a decent internet connection. The impressive part? You’re not sharing anything with anyone else. Each and every paying customer will get their own setup. The Shadow service currently offers a full Windows 10 PC fitted with an Intel Xeon CPU running four cores, 12 GB of DDR4 RAM and 256 GB of storage. Their graphics solution isn’t anything to sniff at either. For your money, you’ll get the equivalent of a GeForce 1080 with 16GB of video memory.

Blade even handle upgrades, constantly improving their offering as technology advances. Asher Kagan, president and co-founder of Blade, touched on this in a recent interview with Polygon:

The idea is that the user will never need to care about the hardware anymore“.

The Shadow service originally launched in France in 2016 and quickly reached capacity with 5,000 subscribers. Since its inception, other countries have steadily followed including Belgium and Switzerland. Now, as we enter 2018, Shadow is finally landing on American soil. California, to be exact. Initial backers are estimated to receive the service as of February with more and more data centres rolling the service out nationwide throughout the year.

Obviously, building an infrastructure that can initially handle and then maintain cloud-based computing at scale is expensive. As a result, Shadow isn’t cheap. With the lowest priced plan setting you back $35 / month for a year, you’re looking at around £420 to rent a PC for 12 months. Regardless, Blade is confident that their plan is ideal for those who want to sidestep a large initial cost.

Shadow Box 2

Boxing Clever

At this point, you’re probably asking how this all works for you sitting at home. There are essentially two ways to go about it. Either you grab the app on whichever screen you’re looking to use (this could be a Smart TV, low-end desktop PC, Mac or even your phone) or you opt for the official Shadow Box. As you’d expect, the Shadow experience varies depending on the screen and the quality of your Internet connection. With this in mind, it’s entirely possible that you could stick a controller into your Smart TV or MacBook and play the latest games at 4K as long as you have the bandwidth to back it up.

The Shadow Box is the second option. This dedicated local console is a basic hub, with several USB ports, display ports and room for an Ethernet cable. Acting as a replacement for a dedicated PC, the Shadow Box is the purest way to experience the service. Any peripherals you plug into the box will appear as accessories on your virtual PC, just as it would with a physical desktop. This slick looking box is also the only way to achieve the maximum framerate, 144Hz/1080p.

Naturally, because your Shadow PC is yours, you can essentially do what you like with it. You can download any games you own from popular stores such as Steam, GOG or Origin and play them as you usually would. Software can be downloaded and used as long as it doesn’t break the terms and conditions (which forbids things such as cryptocurrency mining).

Security is another major concern that Blade wants to address. The company itself has stated that they cannot access any user uploaded data, outside of the hosting and sharing that allows the platform to run. With each virtual PC essentially its own walled garden, they’re confident that network security will be equally as tight.

All in all, Shadow is an intriguing prospect. Although it has seen excellent success in Europe, cracking America is a different ballgame. With vastly different internet speeds, a larger prospective user base and much more land to cover, achieving similar success in the US will be a real test for Blade and the Shadow service.

UK based gaming writer, raised on a diet of Street Fighter and Isometric RPG's. I enjoy playing every game I can get my grubby little hands on.

Gaming

Sony Has a “Monopoly” on the High-End Japanese Gaming Market, According to a US Senator

blank

Published

on

blank

The never-ending saga surrounding Microsoft’s proposed $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard has a new participant.  Today, Senator Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from the state of Washington, said some things about the subject that were hard to understand.

The senator, whose remarks were reported on by ResetEra, spoke at a Senate finance committee hearing on “the president’s 2023 Trade Policy Plan,” which we are sure was quite interesting.

Senator Cantwell said that she had been told that Sony “controls a monopoly of 98% of the high-end game market” despite the fact that “Japan’s government has allowed Sony to engage in blatant anti-competitive conduct through exclusive deals and payments to game publishers, establishing games that are among the most popular in Japan.”

This 98% statistic is highly deceptive because it ignores PC, Nintendo, and mobile games and instead refers to Sony’s adoption rate over Microsoft in Sony’s native country of Japan, a fact that shouldn’t surprise anyone who is even somewhat familiar with the video game business.

What can we do to rectify these problems and create a level playing field, she said of US Trade Representative Katherine Tai after charging Japan’s Federal Trade Commission with improperly failing to look into this purported “exclusionary conduct”?

It is absurd to claim that Sony has a monopoly on the Japanese video game market, as Luke Plunkett of Kotaku correctly points out, “because Sony doesn’t even have a 98% share of the market for the God of War series, a title they own, as Steam is getting 30% of every sale on PC.”

It goes without saying that we can’t expect elected officials to be experts in every field, but this is a visible step at a time when the ongoing attempt to buy the company is at a very important point.

Is it significant that Microsoft, along with Nintendo, maintains its headquarters in Redmond, Washington—Senator Cantwell’s district—or that Microsoft has given Cantwell more than $500,000 over the past two decades?  Let us leave that up to you.

 

Continue Reading

Consoles

Eating trash, Pizza Possum destroys the PS5

blank

Published

on

blank

Pizza Possum is an arcade action game in which you, a possum, attempt to consume as much trash as you can without being discovered.  It is a web-based sequel to the anarchy simulator Untitled Goose Game.It will eventually be available on the PS5.

We couldn’t help but notice that the possum in the title doesn’t look like the cute Australian possum that comes out at night to visit people.On the other hand, it looks like the horrible North American opossums are the ones that will attack trash cans and cause general chaos.Even though we think the second choice was better in terms of theme, we prefer the first one and are happy to explain why.

Your thoughts on Pizza Possum?  Does it possess the necessary mass appeal to successfully skitter along the back fenceline while setting the dog off in the process?

Continue Reading

Consoles

The Mercenaries, a free piece of DLC for Resident Evil 4 Remake, launches on April 7

blank

Published

on

blank

Resident Evil 4 is now out, and the excellent remake can be bought right away.Even though you probably plan to play it all this weekend, you can take comfort in the fact that The Mercenaries, Resident Evil’s almost-required challenge mode, will be available as free DLC on April 7.

The mode’s exact details are still unknown, but if it’s anything like previous versions, you can expect some pretty hard tasks to test your skills.

You’re stumped about something? If you are still debating whether to purchase Resident Evil 4 Remake, be sure to look at our exhaustive guide for the answer or our in-depth review. Are you spending this weekend playing Resident Evil 4? Are you anticipating The Mercenaries?

Continue Reading

Trending