Blacknut Cloud Gaming launched in France in 2016, beginning a decade-long journey through the increasingly crowded world of cloud gaming. It arrived on the scene rather like a tourist at the Louvre who suddenly realized the Mona Lisa had been staring directly at them the entire time: unexpectedly, slightly unnerving, and impossible to ignore.
Over the following decade, that French cloud-gaming newcomer grew into a genuinely global proposition. Blacknut had expanded its catalog to more than 1,000 games and had brought the service to PCs, mobile devices, browsers, Smart TVs and an expanding range of connected platforms. Along the way, the company had built partnerships with publishers, telecommunications operators, internet service providers, and device manufacturers, steadily turning its original proposition into a broader cloud-gaming ecosystem.
But the more interesting question was not simply how many games Blacknut had accumulated. It was how well those games actually played.
The history of the history, or l’histoire de l’histoire
That question had become particularly interesting as Blacknut expanded into markets such as South Africa and the Philippines. These were not simply additional dots on a map. Localized infrastructure and telecommunications partnerships had given Blacknut an opportunity to establish a powerful niche in markets where the cost of dedicated gaming hardware could make traditional gaming considerably less accessible.
In the Philippines, Blacknut had partnered with Smart, while its South African expansion had been accompanied by local data center infrastructure through Vodacom Business. For a cloud-gaming service, those developments mattered because latency was not merely a number on a technical specification sheet. It could determine whether a game felt responsive and playable or whether the player spent their evening arguing with physics, servers, and their own increasingly questionable life choices.
Founded in Rennes, France, in 2016 by Olivier Avaro, Blacknut was built around a relatively simple proposition: premium gaming should not be restricted to people who could afford the latest console or a high-end gaming PC. Its mission was to make great games accessible everywhere, using cloud technology to put the hardware burden somewhere other than the player’s living room.
Cloudy with a chance of…
There’s a saying in French, «Tout ne marche pas comme sur des roulettes.»
Literally translated as, “Not everything is working as it should.”
This is true of everything:
Dying cacti (It wasn’t me… I asked Munchie, my munchkin cat-person, to look after it, okay?)
Greek mythology (Acorn ate her husband – Nutella – and somehow produced an heir to Hazelnutiana’s second son’s daughter’s eye)
My face (Facial recognition fails me constantly. Seriously. I’ve locked myself out of my phone, laptop and bank account more than once…)
I digress.
Blacknut delivers on its promises, but with one caveat… Their games, though extensive, sometimes act like a French art house film—delayed audio, interpretive resolution, dancing, and an adaptive layout system with questionable intentions.
Blacknut’s streaming quality is unparalleled. Whether this is true for everyone, it certainly exceeded my expectations. Although my WiFi internet speed was investigated by NASA, I tested the streaming quality with a 4G LTE sim card, because of science.
I experienced zero latency or packet loss.
Like liquid satin.
Games just wanna have fun
Blacknut’s subscription model is a peculiar little work of art. The full library allows for unlimited gameplay with a variety of niche games, e.g., Wales Interactive’s entire FMV library.
The games don’t actually cater to the “let’s have a party for me, myself, and I” crowd (it’s a myth invented by a mythical mime). In fact, their insert-collective-term-here of games caters more toward the “narrative; choices matter” players such as myself.
With another caveat—many of the popular games, e.g., Assassin’s Creed: Original Odyssey Deluxe 6th Remastered Edition must be added as an additional subscription, because, you know, capitalism.
Or for some technical blah-blah streaming blah reason which no one is ever privy to.
Ever.
Ergo, you have to shell out to… Umm, ship out in the 17th iteration of Assassin’s Creed: Original Origin Universe Master’s Really Deluxe Edition Viking Super DLC.
Bête Noire
Blacknut might be anathema to AAA gamers.
If you’re after something like Call of Duty: Warzone Zombies Shoot Dead Edition, then Blacknut won’t be your thing. But for gamers who don’t like the whole hiding under a bush for a year because fear is real, Blacknut might just scratch that narrative itch.
Once.
Or twice.
Such as yours, sincerely.
Blacknut provides more niche narrative sustenance than its competitors (here’s looking at you, GeForce Now), yet the technical issues and costly add-ons could eventually lead to a DayZ starvation situation.
Also, DayZ is a French term for death by staring at a mushroom for too long.
Or so they say.
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