Logitech are bringing cloud gaming home with the G CLOUD Gaming Handheld
After teases and leaks have already given away most of the information, Logitech have officially unveiled the Logitech G CLOUD Gaming Handheld, a device built for streaming games from services like Xbox Cloud Gaming and Nvidia’s GeForce Now.
The device, which is launching in America this October, will be based around an Android OS, meaning that games made for that platform should work on it, however its main draw is that it comes with cloud based apps pre-installed, as well as support for items like Steam Link and PlayStation’s Remote Play.
“Cloud gaming is a super-exciting new way to play games. I love that you can access game libraries from anywhere,” said Ujesh Desai, vice president and general manager of Logitech Gaming. “What we wanted to do was challenge ourselves to build a device that was perfectly optimized for cloud gaming. This meant precision controls – similar to a high-end Xbox controller – a large HD screen, amazing battery life and lightweight design so players can enjoy long gaming sessions, without any compromises.”
The device sports a 7-inch 1080p screen and is claiming 12 hours and more of battery life, though as the device would need to be constantly sending data to and from it, I suspect that is going to be less.
“Xbox Cloud Gaming was built to enable players around the world to access Xbox games whenever they want, on the device of their choosing,” said Catherine Gluckstein, vice president Xbox Cloud Gaming at Microsoft. “At Xbox we’ve been on this journey to bring the joy and community of gaming to more people, and we’re excited to see Logitech G launch a cloud-gaming device that will delight players with Xbox games in more places.”
“NVIDIA GeForce NOW is an open cloud gaming service that streams over 1,400 PC games, including over 100 that are free-to-play,” said Phil Eisler, vice president and general manager of GeForce NOW cloud gaming at NVIDIA. “It’s great to see Logitech G optimize the experience so gamers can enjoy their favorite PC games in an incredible new way.”
The only downside to the device, at least without going hands on, is that there is no mobile connection, the device is WiFi only, meaning that you either have to be at home, or somewhere that has decent internet for you to connect to.
A local date has not been announced, but with a RRP for $350 USD, straight converted makes it around $525 here, so add another hundred on for safety and then round to the next $50, making a $650 price tag likely.