Cloud gaming and 5G could finally make high-end gaming affordable

Get ready gamers, you may no longer have to spend thousands of dollars on expensive hardware which requires semi-regular updates in order to game.

Since Google formally announced its Stadia cloud gaming product at the 2019 Game Developers Conference on March 19, 2019, people worldwide have questioned just what its inclusion into the already hectic gaming market could mean.

For most, the system’s capacity to provide potentially 4k gaming experiences without the need of a multi-thousand dollar gaming computer through the leveraging of rapidly expanding cloud technology seemed interesting. For others, the unique ability to take your game to any screen, free of clunky equipment and therefore risk, provided an even more exciting opportunity.

Now Stadia is not perfect. Plenty of reviews have called the product out for potential latency issues, something which plagued earlier and now dead versions of other cloud gaming platforms such as Onlive.

If you aren’t in an area with fairly fast internet, chances are you won’t be able to properly enjoy the Stadia system.

Here is the important factor though, not only are average internet speeds rapidly rising, 5G connections are about to be rolled out in many western nations.

According to early testing done in Germany, the mobile network could become 20 times as fast, measuring speeds past 10 gigs per second.

As a result, the average speeds of internets not just on your phone, but nationwide will likely rapidly increase far past the 35 Mbps requirement to maintain a 4K connection through Stadia. With stable high-speed internet, gamers could potentially play on any screen, removing the need to also have both consoles and a PC, as the Stadia could perform the actions of both.

While this all sounds interesting, the real win, comes at just how much gamers stand to save.

At this moment to enter the market at the low end, a consumer would have to spend a minimum of 300 dollars on an older console (without 4K), 500-600 on a modern console (4k compatible), or thousands for powerful gaming computer (4K+ compatible).

The Stadia controller system starts at $169, less than half the price of the cheapest competitor.

Looking past hardware, even on software, the costs are not comparable. In order to play online through consoles, whether Xbox or PS4, you’ll have to pay for a monthly membership.

For Stadia? You can roughly pay the same ten dollars to get 4K streaming alongside one free game per month. Or you can ditch 4K and stream at 1080P for free.

Here some competitors like the PC and the Switch do provide a free option that supersedes the Stadia, but they each also either lack serious hardware for 4K gaming, or require expensive parts.

Of course, the savings don’t stop there.

Even when it comes to the games themselves, advances in the market have rapidly moved the dial from a pay $60 per game norm, to an environment in which virtually every producer is preparing to put forward a bulk subscription, some costing less than $10 a month.

Finally, while the cost an important incentive for many, the usability of the cloud platform is perhaps what will push buyers the most, especially those currently forking over thousands to enjoy the pinnacle of PC gaming.

Many of these high end users have a console and a gaming PC. Some even have a PC for home, a console for friends, and a switch for the road.

Through the Stadia, one system has you covered in all those areas, and best of all – your save file finally travels with you.

When looking at the overall costs combined with the potential gains from the ease of use, Stadia stands to be the clear winner in gaming for the coming decade, and as a result.