We've seen a few services do video game streaming, but this one was a surprise. Plex is going in on retro game streaming with Plex Arcade.
Plex is partnering with Parsec to let you play old retro games on your Android, iOS, or PC using Chrome by firing it up in Plex and streaming the game to you. You just need to pair up a controller and you're good to go.
If you don't own any ROMS, Plex is offering up old Arcade classics to play. Ranging from Arcade, Atari 2600, and Atari 7200, there's currently 27 games that can be streamed to you.
Now, Plex is known for streaming your own media and Plex Arcade will also let you stream your own ROMS. That's pretty slick and really takes this service to another level giving you the ability to play the games you own via streaming.
And yes, you can share your gaming library with members in your user group that's setup in Plex.
Right now, it'll only work with the Windows and macOS server versions of Plex so for those like me who run it on an Unraid docker, it's a no go. Neither for those that run a Plex server on their NVIDIA Shield or Linux server.
For Plex Pass subscribers, the service will be $2.99 a month and $4.99 a month for non Plex Pass subscribers. That's not too bad and you can cancel anytime so you aren't locked in.
I'm a very happy Plex Pass owner and while I would've loved to have a stripped down option without any included games without having to pay extra, I can understand starting out this way with the paid streaming tier. Hopefully, we can see that option in the future, but I'm very happy to see another option out there to let you play retro games.
Also, I wonder if there can be an option in the future to download the ROM to the device you're playing as some of them can be pretty small. Sort of like syncing the Plex media to your mobile device and playing it off that instead of streaming.
If this service takes off, I can imagine a lot of improvements that can be implemented to make this a killer retro gaming option.
