Streaming videogames

Roughly 32 years ago I had an argument with a coworker.  He argued that once internet speeds became fast enough to transmit full-screen video, we wouldn't need game consoles, since we would be able to stream video games from a server to our computer screens.  Rather than pay for expensive hardware, that hardware could be on a server someplace, saving us money.

I have to admit that he had remarkable foresight literally 30 years ahead of his time.  This was at a time when the Internet was text only.  However, I saw a number of problems with his idea...

1.  Internet speeds were still fairly low, like 1,200 to 2,400 bits per second.

2.  Latency is always an issue when playing games.  No matter fast your Internet is, there is an overhead to transmitting data back and forth.  

3.  It is always advantageous to have your own hardware.  Imagine having to share hardware with other people competing for the same physical resources.  I figured that hardware would get cheaper over time, eliminating the need to share hardware with other people.

4.  His idea reminded me of the early days of computing where you would have to dial into a mainframe using a dumb terminal, one of which I actually owned and used at the time, whereas the new trend in computing was for everyone to have their own computer.

I argued that streaming video games would never be practical.  He couldn't understand why I didn't see the obvious wisdom of his idea.

Two years ago Google introduced Stadia, which was a video game streaming service, and it totally flopped.  Other companies like Microsoft and Amazon are working on the same idea, but they all suffer from the same problems like latency. 

It makes very little sense to be dependent on unreliable Internet communication and shared hardware to play games when you can purchase a video game console like the Xbox Series X for $500.  Putting hardware in a centralized location instead of your living room isn't necessarily cheaper, except that you can share that hardware with other people, but what if you all want to use the hardware at the same time?

In theory, this could become practical someday, but the same technology that will make this more feasible will also make it more feasible for you to have your own hardware that is just as good.  This is the problem I saw three decades ago.