French startup Blade has started rolling out its Shadow cloud gaming platform in California, finally making the "Netflix for video games" service available in the United States.
Blade's Shadow offers gamers the chance to remotely play on a high-end PC in exchange for a monthly subscription fee. How does the service work, and is it worth it?
Blade's Shadow Cloud Gaming Service Rolls Out In California
In January, Blade announced that it will be rolling out Blade in the United States by Feb. 15, starting in California. The startup apparently missed the mark by a week, but gamers looking forward to the service are likely just happy that it is finally here.
Through Shadow, gamers will be able to gain access to the capabilities of a high-end gaming PC through the cloud. The service can be used not only on desktop computers and laptops, but also on Macs, smartphones, and tablets.
"We're giving you the equivalent to a $2,000 gaming PC for a subscription fee of $35 a month (for an annual plan)," Blade CEO Asher Kagan told GamesBeat in an interview. "Your performance would be equivalent to a PC with two Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 graphics cards."
The $34.95 subscription fee is for customers who would agree to a one-year lock-in period. For gamers who would like to try out the service first before committing to a one-year membership, the charge is $49.95 per month for no lock-in and $39.95 per month with a three-month lock-in.
The $2,000 PC that gamers will access through Shadow comes with high-end NVIDIA graphics technology for resolutions of 1080p at 144Hz or 4K at 60 Hz, eight dedicated threads on an Intel Xeon processor boasting the same power as an Intel Core i7 PC with 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage space, and zero latency for gamers with internet connection speeds of 15 Mbps or higher.
Blade opened its first data center to enable Shadow in France in July 2016. The startup was able to bring the cloud gaming service to the United States through a partnership with the Equinix Datacenter of San Jose, with Shadow targeted to be made available to the rest of the country by the summer.
Should You Subscribe To Blade's Shadow?
Accessing Blade's Shadow is simple through a streaming box that gamers can rent for $10 per month or purchase for $140. The Shadow Box functions like a video decoder, but also supports peripherals such as the monitor, keyboard, mouse, and headset.
Blade, meanwhile, also has apps for Windows, Mac, and Android, with iOS soon to come. This means that players can keep the Shadow Box running at home, and then use Shadow's app to play while on the go through a laptop, smartphone, or tablet, as long as the internet connection is 15 Mbps or better.
The jury is still out on whether Blade's Shadow works as intended in the United States, but the service will make high-end PC gaming much more accessible to everyone.
