How likely do you think game streaming as DRM is to become a thing?
from colourlesspony@pawb.social to nostupidquestions@lemmy.world on 10 Nov 2025 23:07
https://pawb.social/post/34651803
from colourlesspony@pawb.social to nostupidquestions@lemmy.world on 10 Nov 2025 23:07
https://pawb.social/post/34651803
What I mean is the only way to play the game is though a streaming service. This way the game code is never public. This probably is already a thing but I haven’t heard anything about it.
#nostupidquestions
threaded - newest
Customers have roundly rejected game streaming. If streaming is the only way to play a game, that game will see a colossal hit in sales. This won’t be acceptable to companies trying to make money.
I guess so. I recently setup moonlight + sunshine + tailscale and have been self hosting game streaming. I really do see the appeal of it for some games. It’s nice not have to sit at desk or have to holding giant hand held.
It works when it’s local, because the ping can stay low. Try it over a shitty US internet service provider from a town that’s a few hundred miles from the nearest data center and it’ll be a different story.
Yeah, Steam in-home-streaming is great and is something I have used on many an occasion.
Game streaming over the internet is simply miserable.
I get 18ms ping to the servers ~1000km away from me on Xbox Cloud, can barely tell it’s not native.
It is rejected, for now. But that could change, only really takes one massive game to do it to open the floodgates.
U don’t think it will happen, but what if GTA6 did it? They would be big enough to be able to pull it off, and most of their revenue will probably come from online anyway, so adding a base game subscription could make sense for them.
i for one, can’t stomache the input lag, even over a lan connection
Game streaming usage is increasing massively year on year, every year. It definitely has not been rejected, in fact it’s becoming more and more accepted.
Laughs in Stadia
I don’t think I’d be happy without faster than light internet with no hiccups, but corporations will repeatedly try making it happen with shitty delay at garbage bit rates regardless I’m sure. Whether it sticks one day or not, idk. We suck at predicting the future.
Probably a higher recurrence than with trying to make 3D TV happen.
I think it would only get widespread adoption if lag was completely eliminated. Which is pretty much impossible without teleportation.
Very much depends on the game though. A bit of lag in strategy/city builder/etc is not really an issue. But in a competive shooter it is a huge deal.
The lag in this case would be in the controls. Even a one second delay in pressing a button in a single-player strategy game would be annoying without really disrupting gameplay.
Yes, but 1000ms latency is super bad. No service has anything even close to that high.
I get 18ms lag consistently on xcloud. It’s essentially not noticeable. I’ve even played online shooters on it and had no real trouble. It’s pretty amazing these days.
correct. it’s called cloud gaming. examples of services include AirConsole, Amazon Luna, PlayStation Plus, Xbox Cloud, GeForce Now, InstantAction, G-cluster, Gaikai, GameFly, Google Stadia, Jump, Kalydo, LiquidSky, OnLive, Playcast and PSNow.
most of them have shut down. the ones that still exist are either offering streaming games as a value-add to other services, or marketing themselves as value-adds for other companies to include in their own product.
most of these platforms tried attracting devs for exclusives, but it’s such a small niche that there’s no way to actually make any money.
Not really, cloud gaming just lets you play existing titles. OP means you don’t have any way to play except for streaming.
Yeah. This person is saying that for a streaming only game to exist, streaming has to do well first. Which it hasn’t.
that’s why i added the last paragraph. onelive, stadia and airconsole all tcied doing exclusives.
I see, that’s a fair point then.
You need like near perfect internet for that to work. Lag is very painful even as of now. Nobody in a developing country, or even just a less-developed neighborhood in a developed country, would be able to play.
Wanna play on your steam deck in the subway? Nope (afiak internet still non-existent tunnels, or very shitty if it exists). Going on a trip to some remote place and wanna game a bit? Nope. Boring flight? Nope.
People are gonna hate it.
While this likely happened on some obscure platform idea, it’s extremely unlikely to have a popular title this way, Here’s why: each instance running the game would cost seperately to the company hosting it. Sending raw stream capture data worth of tens of thousands to each user personalised per day would cost way too much.
This ignores the fact that companies are already doing this.
Did you ever wonder why so many games have a seemingly unnecessary multiplayer/online component these days? If the server side code is an integral part of the game then it can be used as a form of DRM.
It was called OnLive and it died over 12 years ago
Even if it happens, people are still playing their Nintendo 64 in current year.
If PC gaming goes full DRM like this, I/we can just dust off their PS4/Xbox One, and keep going disc only
Game streaming is very likely.