Blade Shadow Spreads Nationwide, Says Ditch Your Gaming PC
The service known as Shadow by Blade spread across the United States this week in a newly minted USA-wide upgrade. This service was first introduced at CES 2018, and promised that it'd get at least to the point we're at right now, where anyone could stream their favorite games without the use of their own high-end PC. Now the service – and the devices they offer – are available across these United States for the first time.
The cost is approximately $35 a month for this service called Shadow by Blade. For that you'll get a subscription access to your own account of games on a remote gaming PC. The folks at Blade say that Shadow delivers "a perfect image up to 4K, with no perceptible latency." That includes controller latency too – keyboard, mouse, and other gaming controllers.
SEE TOO: Game streaming is the future and it's scary
Color me highly skeptical. Last I checked, we were discussing how little latency there was streaming from a PC in the same room – now Blade suggests we'll have no perceptible latency across the country. In all of Blade's presentation materials, they do not hold back on claims ever, whatsoever. They say "all your games on max settings, forever."
They also say "While technology constantly evolves, so will your Shadow. We solve any technical issue and upgrade all components for you, in the cloud. You get to enjoy the unparalleled power of a PC without any upkeep." That sounds kinda impossibly great, really. Included in these claims here in August of 2018 are 8 dedicated threads on an Intel Xeon server, 12GB DDR4 RAM, 256GB storage, and a single-user high-end NVIDIA graphics card.
Users can choose to subscribe with or without a "Shadow box" – that's a tiny box into which the user can plug controllers, headsets, microphones, and a display, making the whole process pretty much plug-and-play. That box costs a bit over $100 USD – right now they've got it at £ 109.95 (GBP).
Users can also choose to run Shadow streaming services through one of several apps. There's a Mac OS app, Windows app, Android app, Linux app, and soon an iOS app. It sounds kind of bonkers. It sounds sorta impossible. If it works, it still seems kinda expensive – but maybe worth it if you're the sort of person who's always upgrading to the newest hardware whenever it's released. So who knows?
Have a peek at the intro video above and prepare your brain for getting rid of your hardware in favor of a subscription service. Everything else is going that way, why not this?