Shadow, the cloud gaming platform that does things quite differently in that it’s not just a straightforward streaming service but gives you a full-blown gaming PC in the cloud, has announced a major relaunch coming soon. next month.
The company, which was acquired by OVHcloud founder Octave Klaba in May 2021, has revealed that a ‘Shadow Spotlight’ keynote will reveal its relaunch plans and “strategic vision for the coming years”. Additionally, it will “deliver on promises made to its community,” the firm wrote in a teaser press release for the event taking place on May 18.
There will be plenty of new announcements about the cloud gaming service, and apparently plenty to get excited about. In fact, we’re told that: “2022 is going to be a huge year for Shadow and we can’t wait to update our community with everything we have in store for them!”
The launch event kicks off at 8am PST in the US (4pm UK time) on May 18, as mentioned, on Shadow’s YouTube and Twitch channels (plus Twitter). ).
Analysis: What lurks in the shadows?
Shadow’s strength is, of course, the fact that you get what is essentially a full remote PC, not just a streaming service packaged for specific games or products. In other words, you can use that virtual Windows 10 PC to do whatever you want (including upgrading to Windows 11, as we’ve seen, though Microsoft’s latest OS doesn’t officially support a Shadow PC install just yet).
Exactly what changes are coming, we can’t be sure, perhaps Windows 11 support for one thing, as information in this early trailer is pretty scant. Although the press mentions creative and business users, that could indicate different subscription levels targeting those people, perhaps.
What’s also welcome is a mention in the press material of making the service more “accessible and affordable”, which can only be a good thing, assuming, of course, that this isn’t just general marketing nonsense.
Better stability is also another vague promise, and we can guess at some improved specs to boot, as the current GPU in the Shadow PC – a GTX 1080 equivalent – doesn’t exactly feel cutting-edge for contemporary gaming (remember, Nvidia now offers a RTX 3080 level with its GeForce Now streaming service).
Whatever the relaunch brings, we’ll find out soon enough, and we’re certainly looking forward to seeing how Shadow reshapes its cloud PC offering to better take on rival gaming services like the aforementioned GeForce Now or, indeed, Google. Stadia.