More recently, on a larger, public mass-scale, Netflix has released the ability to play games on their platform—catching the eye of most people with their titles such as Overcooked. Naturally I was instantly intrigued by the technical side of how they have games running on all these devices, including smart TVs. I was able to launch the game almost instantly, and connected my iPhone as a controller through an Apple App Clip.

I realised I wasn't gaming locally, I was gaming on a server; and god was I shocked. Netflix does NOT advertise their gaming service as cloud gaming, yet, it's become just that, and that's pretty exciting.

Accessibility

As someone who's used cloud gaming services before, the concept is anything but foreign. GeForce Now has served me many great hours of gameplay in it's peak before the increase of their subscription. Naturally the performance of cloud gaming heavily depends on the regional location of the servers the games run on, with extremely low ping being required for instant feedback. More and more countries are obtaining server centers capable of providing cloud gaming platforms, but not without struggle. They're expensive, and they're all relatively new, meaning it'll take a few years for some countries to catch up; unless they already exist.

GeForce's servers (Australia is now functional—map slightly outdated)

Netflix on the other hand?

Netflix already deals with a substantial amount of streaming requests amongst countless countries and continents. Streaming content is their speciality. Netflix already holds the existing infrastructure to assist with low-requirement gaming, to which they've decided to do. Netflix already held interest in the gaming world (to which Apple protested against), but cloud gaming takes it to a completely new level and unlocks a lot of possibilities.

Pricing

GeForce Now

Netflix

The day Netflix adds AAA titles is the day GeForce Now dies.

Yes, Netflix doesn't support high ray-tracing graphics. That's not what it's currently meant for—but very much could in the future. GeForce Now, in no way shape or form, will let you jump from a movie to a game with your friends in the matter of a couple minutes. Netflix has the potential and power to execute their expansion into cloud gaming further, overtaking the accessibility of other platforms.

The Pros?

• No expensive console required

• No extra game-owning costs (as of now)

• Instant gaming without requiring downloads

• Connects non-netflix members to the games easily without requiring installs or accounts (possibly varies from device type)

• Can run on lower end devices

And the cons.

• The You'll own nothing and be happy concept

• High(er) speed internet is connected (although the game ran smoothly on my not-so-amazing wifi, with lower requiring games often not causing lag etc.)