Alienware’s Nyx concept aims to stream your PC games to whatever screen you have

For CES 2022, Alienware unveils its Concept Nyx, which envisions a future where loading and playing games on a variety of screens can happen as instantly as streaming music and TV shows. The idea is simple at first glance (though undoubtedly complex under the veil): Thanks to Nyx software, all of your PC games would be available to be streamed wirelessly to a variety of screens at home, regardless of location. .

Imagine that you are playing Cyberpunk 2077 on your PC screen, but you want to go to the living room sofa and play on a large TV. The idea is that you could press a button in an app, and the game would swap screens wirelessly, allowing you to monopolize the TV to yourself or slide your game alongside another in split view mode. Alienware strives to make it possible to launch up to four games at once. Alienware introduced Nyx at The Verge with repurposed Concept UFO controllers we last saw at CES 2020 connected to a Switch-type tablet.

This is what the main hub looks like in Concept Nyx, although it may change if it becomes a product.Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge

In the conceptual phase, Nyx needs a machine powerful enough to run multiple games at once, with network capabilities to handle the distribution of low-latency streams. It’s unclear if Alienware intends to launch its own hardware, when it could be, how much it could cost, and if what Nyx intends to do will be a paid service. Clearly, there are many questions that Alienware must answer.

While still in concept, Nyx performed as expected during our joint Cyberpunk 2077 and Rocket League shoot.Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge

But compared to Google Stadia and Amazon Luna, Concept Nyx seems designed to make its proprietary PC games easier to access and play, with a similar level of device compatibility and perhaps less compromise on visual quality. . In a way, it’s remarkably similar to what Valve already does with its Remote Play Anywhere feature – free to begin with. However, where Nyx aims to differentiate itself is by handling more streams at once and pulling games from multiple platforms.

It was encouraging that Alienware was able to successfully run the Nyx demo for us, going from screen to screen in just seconds between screen-to-screen changes. But we will have to test it at home and not in a controlled environment to see if it is ready for the real world.