Member-only story
Plex Appeal: How One Company’s Buggy Launch Explains the Problems With Game Streaming
And how to fix them
In January, personal media streaming service Plex announced a new game streaming feature called Plex Arcade. The new subscription lets users take their library of classic emulated game ROMs and stream them to their phone or computer. The launch has been rough, and the reasons behind Plex Arcade’s bumpy rollout point to a broader challenge the entire game streaming industry faces — and perhaps how to fix it.
Plex occupies a unique space in the streaming media industry. While the company has some content offerings, its primary product is a tool that lets users stream their own media from their computer to phones, laptops, or TVs. In most cases, setting up a server is relatively simple. Most of the legwork involves organizing your library, and Plex handles the technical aspects of streaming video for you.
Game streaming, on the other hand, is more complicated, easier to break, and less worthwhile for games that are often easy to run on mobile devices already. But the issues with Plex Arcade highlight a potential future for the larger game streaming industry.
