As 2023 has come to an end, we all wonder what 2024 holds for the cloud gaming market and community. While kicked off by the closure of Google Stadia, 2023 has been an important year for cloud gaming in general. Many services have steadily improved their games catalog and offerings, surpassing all-time highs. Additionally, we saw the expansion of platforms like Amazon Luna, which, after a year of lying low, finally took some significant steps around Europe.
What does 2024 hold for cloud gaming? Here are the predictions from our editors.
Predictions from Jack
- Ubisoft will launch its own cloud gaming service for Ubisoft+. While Ubisoft+ is available as a separate channel on Amazon Luna, the channel has yet to gain a ton of traction. Ubisoft however now controls the cloud streaming rights to Activision/Blizzard games and is promising to add the games to Ubisoft+ in the cloud (and only in the cloud). With Ubisoft in control of such a huge portfolio of games, it makes sense for them to launch an Ubisoft branded cloud service.
- PlayStation Cloud Gaming will Arrive on the PlayStation Portal – The PS Portal is practically begging for this to happen. It is the perfect device to take on the road with you and play games anywhere and everywhere, regardless of the need to have your own PS5 at home connected to a lot of upload bandwidth.
- Microsoft will release and focus on an Azure-backed Xbox PC cloud gaming service. Currently, Xbox Cloud Gaming uses Xbox Series X hardware on the server side for streaming games. The company has hinted that it wants to add PC game streaming to its cloud portfolio. I think this makes a lot of sense, as they will then be able to use standard Azure datacenter blades that can also be used for other purposes during downtimes (like the early morning when no one is gaming). Given the queues we’ve been seeing, xCloud needs to add capacity. This seems like a way to do it.
- Xbox Cloud Will Finally Add Support for Games You Own – Right now xCloud is suffering from a lack of capacity which is leading to long queue times (sometimes as long as many hours). Possibly in connection to prediction #2, I think they will finally make good on their promise of letting users stream (at least a subset) of games they own outside Game Pass. PlayStation recently enabled support for this with around 300 PS5 games. It’s time Xbox followed suit.
- Xcloud Will Arrive on More TV Platforms – Right now, Xbox Cloud Gaming is only available on Samsung TVs. I think 2024 is the year when Xcloud expands to LG TVs, Android TVs, Fire TVs and more!
Predictions from Adrià
- GeForce NOW will greatly limit the usage of the free tier. Let’s be honest, after the addition of Xbox Game Pass and many more popular titles, NVIDIA’s cloud service has seen its userbase skyrocket. Around the time Cyberpunk: Phantom Liberty released, they ran out of monthly subscriptions for their basic plan. Not only that, but the queues have been long for months in the free queue. With many popular games being targeted for 2024 and more Xbox titles being added next year, I think NVIDIA is planning on either getting rid of their free plan or changing it dramatically.
- Utomik Cloud will be available via PC. As of now, Utomik Cloud is available via select smart TVs (Samsung and LG), and compatible Android smartphones. Sadly, unlike other cloud gaming services, Utomik doesn’t allow its subscribers to play on PC via the browser or their own app. I understand that not every game is compatible with mouse and keyboard, but if Xbox can enforce a controller in order to start playing, I’d argue that so can Utomik. That’d make Utomik far easier to recommend!
- Amazon Luna will keep expanding across Europe. While Amazon’s cloud gaming service has been taking baby steps around Europe, I feel that Luna will be available in other countries such as Portugal, Austria, Belgium, Netherlands, Ireland… you get the idea. Germany, France, Italy, and Spain cover a good chunk of the content, but there’s more room to improve.
- Xbox will release a dedicated Cloud Gaming handheld. We’ve seen handhelds make a big comeback with devices like the Steam Deck, ROG Ally, Logitech G Cloud and even the PlayStation Portal. While users can enjoy Game Pass on the go with their smartphones and controllers like the Razer Kishi and Backbone, there’s something special about a dedicated device. While leaked documents showed that Microsoft had no intents to release such a device. After the “fumble” PlayStation had with PlayStation Portal in regards to cloud gaming availability, it might be Microsoft’s turn to provide a solution for cloud gamers. Especially, considering their partnerships with different cloud gaming service providers such as GeForce NOW and Boosteroid.
Predictions From Lee
- GeForce Now To Level Up Again – A rather safe bet for me for cloud gaming in 2024 is that GeForce NOW will once again upgrade its servers. NVIDIA pushes out new GPUs regularly and so far they have been pretty good at deploying these GPUs into their GeForce NOW datacenters. I believe that this is a trend that will continue.
- Netflix Rolls Out Their Cloud Gaming Service – Again this is probably a safer bet as we know that they are currently testing it, but I think that, in 2024, Netflix will finally start rolling out their cloud gaming service to the masses. Netflix has gone about their entry into the video game market very diligently. They have not delved in too deep; they are taking their time and hitting all the spots they need to. I look forward to seeing what they bring in 2024.
- PlayStation Cloud Gaming Breaks Its Shackles – Surely it has to happen. After rolling out the ability to stream PS5 titles in the cloud, PlayStation has to roll out this feature to more devices. PS5 cloud streaming works extremely well, I personally feel it sits between Xbox Cloud Gaming and GeForce NOW. If PlayStation can roll this out – not just to their own PlayStation Portal device but to also PC and mobile device – I think it could be huge for them.
- Ubisoft To Test Its Own Cloud Gaming Service – We know that Ubisoft loves cloud gaming. They were big supporters of Google Stadia from the very beginning, they are big supporters of GeForce NOW and Amazon Luna as well. Ubisoft now also has a deal where they currently control the licensing rights to future Activision Blizzard titles in the cloud gaming space. I can see it being in 2024 where Ubisoft capitalizes on this to launch their own cloud gaming service, purely for Ubisoft and future ABK titles.
- Nintendo Enters The Fray – I think at this point is very safe to say that the next iteration of the Nintendo Switch will arrive next year, most likely holiday of 2024. However, it may be the case that the new Nintendo console will still be behind the likes of the Xbox Series Consoles and the PS5. Personally, I don’t feel that Nintendo needs to compete with those consoles, Nintendo has done a fantastic job of creating fantastic games that are really hard to match. Nintendo has however dabbled a little bit with cloud gaming, bringing certain titles to their platform that can only be played via cloud streaming. I think we could see this ramped up and vastly improved by Nintendo. There are cloud service providers out there that I am sure would jump at the chance to work with Nintendo on this: Google and NVIDIA to name a few. So, I think that into 2024, we could see Nintendo take a bigger leap into cloud gaming.
Finally, we have one last prediction from our newest staff member, Netflix Gamer! Netflix Games will officially come out in 2024 as a fully-fledged cloud gaming platform and leapfrog all competitors like Xbox and NVIDIA by offering games like Oxenfree, Afterparty and games based on the widely popular Stranger Things. However, the appeal of the games on Netflix may not be as big as the appeal of certain TV shows and movies due to the difference in audience between a video game and a TV/Film.
Happy New Year all! 2024 is going to be a fun ride for cloud gamers.
