What I mean is the only way to play the game is though a streaming service. This way the game code is never public. This probably is already a thing but I haven’t heard anything about it.
Customers have roundly rejected game streaming. If streaming is the only way to play a game, that game will see a colossal hit in sales. This won’t be acceptable to companies trying to make money.
It is rejected, for now. But that could change, only really takes one massive game to do it to open the floodgates.
U don’t think it will happen, but what if GTA6 did it? They would be big enough to be able to pull it off, and most of their revenue will probably come from online anyway, so adding a base game subscription could make sense for them.
Laughs in Stadia
Did you ever wonder why so many games have a seemingly unnecessary multiplayer/online component these days? If the server side code is an integral part of the game then it can be used as a form of DRM.
I think it would only get widespread adoption if lag was completely eliminated. Which is pretty much impossible without teleportation.
Very much depends on the game though. A bit of lag in strategy/city builder/etc is not really an issue. But in a competive shooter it is a huge deal.
The lag in this case would be in the controls. Even a one second delay in pressing a button in a single-player strategy game would be annoying without really disrupting gameplay.
