The new PS Plus incorporates a large game catalog and also Sony's PS Now cloud gaming service.

This service went through a dramatic change in 2022. But Sony has revamped its PlayStation Plus service to be much closer to what Microsoft offers. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate remains the gold standard, offering a catalog of games across console, PC and cloud (which works on practically any device). And the very first cloud-gaming service, On Live, started in 2010 and shut down in 2015. Google shut down its Stadia service in January. That said, the road to cloud gaming isn't always a smooth one. For this roundup, we're including both download and cloud-based subscription services. It helps that PC gamers can buy games a la carte from a variety of shops (Steam, GOG and so on), which means individual games are often discounted.Īnd if content subscriptions are the future of gaming, then cloud gaming subscriptions are the future of that future, as they require almost no specialized hardware, and generally work anywhere, from an iPad to a cheap Chromebook. With cloud gaming and the PC version of Xbox Game Pass, subscriptions are a big part of PC gaming, but not yet the default. That's right, even if you aren't interested in a digital gaming library, it might be more cost-effective to subscribe to one just to access things like multiplayer - and you might even find a new favorite game along the way. Every gaming platform has at least one, with Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo building their gaming subscription services around multiplayer and a library of playable titles. Just like movies and television, gaming streaming services have taken over.

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