Blade To Launch A Cloud Based Gaming PC You Will Never Need To Upgrade

Start-up company Blade is attempting to revolutionise the PC market by launching Shadow, a service that turns any screen in to a “top of the range” PC. You will be able to access Shadow on any desktop PC, laptop, Mac, tablet, smartphone or smart TV with the dedicated Windows, macOS and Android apps, or purchase “a small, sleek box featuring ports and an AMD Accelerated Processing Unit enabling real-time decoding in 1080p at 144Hz or 4K at 60Hz.”

The cloud based PC specs are said to be the equivalent to a ÂŁ1,500 computer, “Shadow is equipped with a dedicated high end GPU from NVIDIA (Equivalent to a GTX 1080), 12GB of RAM, 256GB storage and eight threads from an Intel Xeon processor.”

The advantages are many, Blade will upgrade and repair your virtual PC and you can access the Win 10 machine anywhere you like and install whatever you want. There again, 256GB of storage space is nothing, four of five big PC games such as Grand Theft Auto V (65gb) and you’re out of space, and of course you’re going to need a really good internet connection, especially if you are streaming 4K games at 60fps.

Blade say the service has “already proven hugely successful in France where it now has over 15,000 users,” and if you fancy joining them then the first 500 subscribers in the UK will receive Shadow box on loan for free. Here are the pricing options:

  • ÂŁ26.95/month for a one-year commitment
  • ÂŁ32.95/month for a three-month commitment
  • ÂŁ39.95/month for no commitment
  • The Shadow box will available to buy for ÂŁ109.95 or for rental at ÂŁ7.95 per month.

For more information head on over to the official website.

Source: Press release

Written by
News Editor, very inappropriate, probs fancies your dad.

8 Comments

  1. OnLive, anyone?

    No thanks.

    • Onlive had a huge amount of input delay and lag. It was also for playing games from a game catalogue. Shadow gives you a full gamer Windows PC which you have full control over. The input delay you experienced from Onlive is gone as well.

      I understand, OnLive has left a bad taste in your mouth. That happened to most of us. But there are good services out there.

  2. That works out as over ÂŁ1400 (at least) a year before you buy or rent the Shadow box. You could buy a very good pc for that and not have to worry about your Internet connection dropping. Or for two years worth of subs you could have a pc with a top of the range i7 8th gen cpu and a Nvidia Titan graphics card that would run most games at their highest settings for quite a few years to come.
    No thank you.

    • How do you get ÂŁ1400??

      ÂŁ26.95 a month if you commit to a year? That makes ÂŁ323.40 a year. If you wanted to rent the box as well, that’s another ÂŁ95.40 a year. So ÂŁ418.80 a year.

      Do it for 3 years, and buy the box, and it’ll cost you ÂŁ1080. Which probably isn’t that good a deal.

      And the lack of storage is a big issue.

      OnLive was a good experiment in streaming games, but didn’t work too well at the time. Sony showed it can work really well with PS Now, and that doesn’t rely on installing the games on some limited space in the cloud.

      And 4K at 60fps just isn’t going to work. That’s 11Gbps of data. Compressed, you might get it down to somewhere in the 20-30Mbps range. But that level of compression probably makes it look horrible and you’d be better off sticking to 1080 instead of 4k.

      4K/60 is definitely way beyond the average speed of an internet connection in this country at least.

      • I’ve mixed things up and calculated a week not a month, silly me. That’ll teach me not to do two things at once, especially when they both include calculations.

      • There is a storage upgrade coming soon, but there is no definite release date yet. Point is, it is known that the amount of space can pose an issue for some gamers, and it is being worked at/on.

        (I am also a user, and I also know how it feels to struggle with space. That said, I also own an older PC, so I just keep the most demanding games installed on Shadow.)

  3. That price is just too high. If you want 4k gaming but can’t afford a high end PC and the constant upgrades, you buy a PS4 Pro or Xbox One S.
    It costs about the the same as a year on this plan but will last for several years, be far more reliable, playable without NASA’s internet speeds, and capable of storing more than 4 games.

    This is a good idea but the price is too high and the infrastructure requirements are just not there for the vast majority of potential customers.

    • – A PS4 Pro costs ~400$.
      – An Xbox One X is ~500$+.
      – The games cost 60$+, and there are usually no Steam like discounts.
      – You never get to experience true 4K 60 FPS gaming on them as neither is powerful enough.
      – You have to pay extra for online. (lol)

      I mean even if we just calculate with an Xbox One X – which still cannot do true 4K most of the time, let alone 60 FPS – you would still have to save up to 12 months of Shadow’s subscription just to buy one. Not saying it’s some uber-awesome deal that just beats all. But if someone actually sits down and adds the numbers together, it can be clearly seen that is a decent value.

      – You pay no electricity price for it.
      – You have a super fast 1000/100mbps internet on it, so you can stream, work, whatever.
      – The hardware is also kept up to date.

      I also did the math because I am not willing to throw away my money. To me, who likes playing games on 60 FPS maxed out, it was a good proposition. Buying a GTX1080 would cost me 1000$+ now with current prices, so that’s quite a few years of saving up money. You get the idea.

      Just my 2 cents. And the proposition is not out for everyone. If you live far from the service, it’s just not a sensible choice. There are pros and cons, just like everything.

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