2 Internet multimedia services and applications
2.4 Cloud gaming or Game as a Service

Cloud gaming (or Game as a service or Gaming on demand) belongs to online gaming. Currently, we can distinguish two main types of cloud gaming:

Basic task of cloud gaming is to provide end users with an ability to play smoothly games on various devices.

In case of cloud gaming based on video streaming the games are streamed to user’s computers, terminals and mobile devices like video using a thin client, so it is similar to the video on demand service. The user’s computer receives streamed video over the internet which is sent from game company’s server (cloud) where particular game is executed and rendered to video data.

This type of cloud gaming doesn’t put on users high requirements on a performance of their computers, because server side performs all necessary processing. All users’ activity (button pressing and controlling) is transmitted directly to the server. Server records this activity data and sends back to user’s computer a game's response to those input controls.

In case of cloud gaming based on file streaming user’s device runs actual game. At the beginning small part of the game is downloaded to user’s device and quickly executed so the user can start to play. The rest of the game data is downloaded to the device during playing.

This allows users with low bandwidth Internet connections instant access to games without lag.