It’s relatively simple for Netflix or YouTube to stream video data to your television, smartphone, laptop, PC, or whatever other device.
If you have a stable internet connection, even if you’re on a smartphone, you can probably stream video. Occasionally it might need to buffer, or maybe it’ll drop in resolution in an attempt to mitigate buffering, but those stutters aren’t such a big deal if you’re just watching an episode of “The Office” idly during your lunch break.
Those stutters matter much more if you’re playing a game, and can mean the difference between it being playable and unplayable in some cases.
Such is the case with Project xCloud. I pushed a button, and a beat later the action would happen in whatever game I was playing.
In the case of “Forza,” I had to react a moment earlier to upcoming turns so that I could account for that input lag. It was noticeable enough that, if I were playing “Forza,” this would get me to stop and wait until I could play it on hardware that could power the game locally.
For a racing game like “Forza,” the lag was enough to make it unplayable.
In another game I played, a third-person character action game named “Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice,” the lag was less noticeable. This wasn’t a measure of the lag not being present, but due to the style of game that “Hellblade” is: a slower-paced, less reactionary action and exploration game.
For a third-person action game like “Hellblade,” Project xCloud was fine — good enough that I’d use it to play the game, whether at home or remotely.
Any number of factors could’ve impacted my experience during this demo, and it’s entirely possible that the experience on stable, high-speed home internet would be much better for any type of game.
