Alienware ended a Skunkworks project called Concept Nyx at the CES show in Las Vegas this week, revealing what looks like a gigantic PC tower that would function as a game server for an entire household. The concept was created by the “wizarding consortium” of the company he calls the Experience Innovation Group (EIG). . This is indeed an ambitious goal, and something Alienware calls “the future of gaming,” but like all the concepts presented at CES (Cough, Razer), there is no indication that it actually exists, even in Alienware’s lab. Still, it’s fun to consider its possibilities.
According to Alienware landing page for the concept, here’s how it works. You come home from work and like any rational adult, you want to film things to relax you a bit before bed. The problem is, your kids are playing Minecraft; one on your PC and the other on a tablet. With Project Nyx, you can simply sit back on your couch and start playing a game on your TV with a controller, without interrupting the children’s adventures. In the midst of all of this, your spouse might also start playing a game on their laptop, all powered by the same computer; the Nyx monolith. Then your kids announce they’re going to bed, so you put down the custom Nyx controller, jump to your main PC, and resume your game where it left off. You can even send a request to your spouse to join your game, and it all happens seamlessly, with no latency, of course.
Concept Nyx includes a brand new controller designed by Alienware.
Alienware describes the problem they are trying to solve this way: “How do you simultaneously allow gamers in a household to easily access their entire game library and play on any device, even if they wish to switch games? screen during the game ”. To achieve this, they turn to Edge computing, which pulls the processing power required for games out of the cloud and brings it closer to where the player is located, so it’s the opposite of streaming services like GeForce. Now and Google Stadia. All processing would be done locally, on the Nyx tower, then broadcast over the network to multiple clients with low latency. Even more pie in the sky: Alienware says anyone in the house will be able to access any game, no matter where it was purchased, all through a custom app that should be installed on each device. The company claims that its technology would allow up to four games to be streamed simultaneously, but there’s no mention of the hardware specs, internet speed requirements or the CPU and GPU that actually powers the damn thing.
Like any concept showcased at CES, there aren’t many details available, like when it could launch or what it would cost, so take all of that information with a big grain of salt. Businesses like to show off these futuristic projects just to grab the headlines, but very few of them make their way to store shelves. Yet what’s interesting here is how Dell and Alienware are taking the game in the opposite direction to where everyone else seems to be heading, which is towards cloud-based streaming solutions. Whether or not it will become a functional product remains to be seen. Maybe they’ll decide it’s not profitable at some point and just, uh, cancel everything altogether.
Now read:
- Concept Nyx is Alienware’s take on a home game server
- Alienware Concept Nyx: a game streaming command center
- Alienware Concept Nyx Just Redefined Home Gaming – Here’s How
- CES 2022 Media Day Highlights: Everything We’ve Seen From the Galaxy S21 FE to Alienware’s Nyx Concept
- CES 2022: Alienware Concept Nyx will let you play on multiple screens seamlessly
