Online Gaming

here's a specific kind of frustration associated with crappy

game-streaming services. It's all about the buildup: You

find a game, whether it's something brand new or a long-

lost childhood favorite, and boot it up. It takes forever to load.

The title screen stutters and your heart drops, but it's easy to

convince yourself it was just a bout of preliminary jitters.

And then the game begins. And stops. And starts up again.

And stops. The dialogue is chopped, animations are discon-

nected and any type of action scene is impossible to control.

Your character is killed five times in 10 minutes, and you're

simultaneously filled with rage and an acute sense of loss.

You exit out of the streaming service and spend the night

playing Fortnite again.

That's been the story with so many streaming services over

the years, from OnLive to GeForce Now. However, this entire

ecosystem is poised to change. After years of impossible

promises and half-baked public trials in an incomplete online

ecosystem, streaming services are finally viable, and major

companies like Google and Microsoft are teasing the future

of the industry.