The biggest video games usually require expensive hardware to run, be it an Xbox One, PlayStation 4, or PC with a powerful graphics card.
But on Monday, I ended up playing Madden NFL 20 and several other high-profile titles on—of all things—an Amazon Fire tablet, and gameplay was console smooth thanks to EA's cloud gaming service, Project Atlas.
The game itself was being processed in a remote Amazon Web Services data center and streamed to the tablet via Wi-Fi. All that was required was the EA app on the Android tablet.
That's the promise of EA's upcoming cloud gaming service: game on any device as long as you have a stable internet connection. The company announced Project Atlas about a year ago, but has remained relatively quiet on its progress until Monday, when it began recruiting gamers to test the service on PCs.
We tried Project Atlas on a variety of devices, including TVs, a Windows laptop, and a Mac, in addition to the Android tablet. And overall, I was pretty impressed.
(Titanfall 2 via Project Atlas on a smart TV)
When you think of cloud gaming, your natural inclination is to worry about lag and the graphics stuttering into a hazy mess. But I didn't notice any slowdowns as EA streamed games on an LG Smart TV and a separate display connected to an Amazon Fire TV Stick.
During the demo, I played FIFA 19 and the sci-fi shooter Titanfall 2, and it felt like I was gaming on my PlayStation 4 at home. The experience was completely smooth, in crisp 1080p graphics, and the controls responded accurately with no lag.
But the process wasn't perfect. On a MacBook Pro, I opened first-person shooter Crysis 3 before moving on to Star Wars Battlefront II, and when a game started, I did notice some lag, which caused the game's introduction screen to briefly stutter. On the backend, EA's Project Atlas app was locating the nearest servers to my internet connection to help keep lag at a minimum.
Recommended by Our Editors
(The game selection screen on the app over a Dell XPS 15 laptop.)
A game of Madden NFL 20, meanwhile, abruptly ended due to a network error, even though the device was connected via Ethernet, forcing me to load the game again. But aside from this minor hiccup, I didn't encounter any other problems.
To play, download the Project Atlas app and log in with your EA Origin account. When you start up the app, the cloud gaming service will show you the games you can play; simply scroll through and pick one, like Netflix for games.
Project Atlas only works with a stable, unlimited broadband connection. EA's cloud gaming service will require at least a 5Mbps connection, which will enable game streaming at a 640-by-480-pixel resolution.
A faster connection, 30Mbps, will let you game at 720p and 1080p HD resolution. However, EA is well aware some gamers have been saddled with data caps on their home broadband. It's why Project Atlas, for now, is not streaming games at 4K resolution. Not all games were streaming on the highest graphical settings either because better graphics consume more data, which can also drag down network bandwidth, prompting your housemates or family members to complain.
(Crysis 3 running on a MacBook Pro connected to an Ethernet cable.)
What features and customization options will be offered on Project Atlas is still a work in progress, which is why EA is conducting a public trial to gather data on how Project Atlas will perform in the real world. Performance factors include which ISP you have, whether you're connecting via Wi-Fi or Ethernet cable, how many people are also on the connection, and even the age of your modem.
So far, EA has not announced when Project Atlas will launch. But it will join a crowded market. Google is preparing to launch its Stadia service in November, and Microsoft's xCloud service is also poised to begin a public trial this fall.
To make cloud gaming appealing, EA will also need to figure out how to price Project Atlas. But so far, I like what I see. EA demonstrated that the technology works, and if it can offer an exciting catalog of games at a reasonable price, then cloud gaming may have chance to shake up the industry, and lure some consumers away from consoles.
To try out Project Atlas, sign up for an invitatation to the public trial, which will offer free access to stream FIFA 19, Titanfall 2, Need for Speed Rivals, and Unravel. All you need is an EA Origin account.