Product Updates

What is Operation Reboot ?Some of our users will be migrated to OVH datacenters. To encourage them to reboot their Shadow in this process, we’re offering more than $23,000 in prizes. When Blade became Shadow, we made a few announcements. One of them was to put in place ways to guarantee you a better service experience. In order to achieve that, we must finalize our new industrial implementations. As a result, we will be migrating a number of users to new hosting centers. In this context, the continuity of the service may not be able to guarantee the transfer of the data of all our basic customers. Rest assured that we have considered all the possibilities to avoid this and wish a limited impact on the reset requirements for some. This also means that Shadow accounts currently hosted on previous datacenters will have to be migrated to the new ones. Ok, but who is affected by this? What does it mean? And, oh, wait? There are €23,000 in prizes to win? How come?  Just read this article to learn everything you need to know on the topic! CLICK HERE TO TAKE PART IN OPERATION REBOOT Who? When? How? When?This will happen in the upcoming weeks, we will email the affected users prior to the migration. Who?Shadowers from the New York, Santa Clara, and Amsterdam datacenters will be migrated to new data centers. To determine if your Shadow PC is impacted by this migration, you can check out our status page. How?This migration will impact your Shadow PC. We know it’s not a fun process, this is why we came up with the Operation Reboot to make things easier and more enjoyable. We’re hoping that you will like the initiative!  CLICK HERE TO TAKE PART IN OPERATION REBOOT Operation Reboot, or how to win cool stuff! How will the migration impact your Shadow? There are two options that you can choose from:  Option 1: Operation Reboot (quick and fun): We factory reset your Shadow PC, and in exchange, you enter our Operation Reboot.  This factory reset will wipe all the data on your Shadow PC and restore it to its default software state. This option will greatly speed up your migration process (if you don’t choose this option, you won’t have access to your Shadow PC during hours/days - will explain more about it below). You will be notified prior to the reset, and when your Shadow PC is up and running again. Ok, but what is Operation Reboot? It’s a chance to win from more than $23,000 in prizes.  What are the prizes in this good-looking loot box? 1 year of free Shadow subscription (50 winners will be picked). 1 4K UHD 50" TV $50 Steam gift cards (100 winners will be picked)Sounds amazing, right? To sign up for Operation Reboot (and accept having your Shadow reset), just click here!  But this isn’t the only thing you can get! If you’re not much of a player, you can also decide to accept the factory reset, in exchange for a $5 discount on next month’s bill! I WANT A FACTORY RESET AND $5 OFF OF MY NEXT BILL This is really the option we encourage you to take, as it will make things much easier for us and faster for everyone! We hope this incentive speaks to you, and we wish you all the best of luck :)  Option 2: Long and Not so Fun: If you choose not to factory reset your Shadow PC, then we will automatically migrate you to the new data center with, hopefully, all of your data intact. Your Shadow PC will be unavailable for a period of a few hours to a few days, this is an automatic process, so we cannot say how long the process will take for each Shadow account. Also, please note that there is a risk that we may have to still erase your data, as we are limited in time to make these migrations, and that as much as we are doing our best, it might still be a possibility. Of course, we won’t erase your data without warning you prior to that. I DON’T WANT TO PARTICIPATE AND WISH TO KEEP MY DATA You will be notified by email with more information regarding when the migration period will start and end. Whether you decide to factory reset your Shadow or not, we highly recommend backing up any data you might need from your Shadow PC. We want to make the experience of migrating to a new data center for everyone to be as smooth as possible, which is why we have these two different options for you.  To end this article, we would like to remind you, once again, that we really encourage you to pick the Fast and Fun option! Also, please accept our sincere apologies, as we are truly sorry for the inconvenience these migrations are bringing. Participating in our Operation Reboot will not only make the entire migrating process of your Shadow PC easier for us, but also faster for you. So if you participate in it, THANK YOU! You have our eternal love and recognition <3 And if you don’t, well, we still love you :)  Wishing everyone the best of luck!

If you’re reading this, you likely have Shadow thanks to the Proximus ‘Epic combo’ pack. With Shadow’s recent evolution and price adjustment, your favorite cloud computing service will unfortunately no longer be part of this offer as of December 31, 2021. To make up for this inconvenience, Shadow is offering a free month of service in January for those who have the Proximus ‘Epic combo’ pack.  But your journey with Shadow can still continue if you wish!With the possibility of getting more storage, planned hardware upgrades, continuous feature releases and new data center locations, now’s an exciting time to be part of the Shadow family.  Interested in staying onboard? Here’s what you need to know:  On February 1, your Shadow access will be on hold. You will have 14 days (between Feb. 1 & Feb. 14) to retrieve your data on Shadow, or reactivate your account by subscribing with the same email address on https://shop.shadow.tech for 29,99 €/month.  Once you’ve resubscribed, your account will be reallocated to you just as you left it with the same data, settings, etc. And you will be able to order more storage for 2,99 € / 256 Go. Of course, you will be receiving emails from us to guide you into this transition!To sum up:#TeamShadow

Using a second screen on Shadow was first mentioned 5 years ago—almost as old as Shadow itself—and it hasn’t left our discussions ever since. Today, we finally have the pleasure of announcing Shadow’s most anticipated feature of all time: Dual Screen.The seemingly simple feature turned out to be quite the nut to crack. Our teams tested a wide range of angles and strategies throughout its development cycle before finding the sweet spot, the best possible user experience crossed with a low-as-heck bandwidth profile.  And boy did they find a sweet spot.Don’t believe us?Read on and see for yourself. Two is better than oneIt’s better to have two of anything: eyes, opinions, shotguns (ask Serious Sam), and most importantly, screens.Throughout a year of development, we spent several months polishing and fine-tuning the Alpha and Beta (with none other than you). Now it’s time to release this baby bird into the wild.With Dual Screen introduced into our official release candidate, it will be available for:Windows macOS  Linux (Ubuntu) Shadow Box (not Shadow Ghost)💡 To see if you can use Shadow on your device, For more information on our Shadow App hardware requirements, see our dedicated Help Center article. Enabling the Dual ScreenLet’s move on to the most important part of the new feature: enabling Dual Screen.By now, you should be fairly familiar with Shadow’s Quick Menu: the closest to a personal command station for your Shadow you’ll ever get. And it will once more act as your very own gateway into a new dimension of Shadow experience as it will host all the necessary checkboxes, buttons and levers right there in it’s “Display” tab of the Quick Menu. It has to be noted however that enabling this feature will divide the allocated bandwidth of your Shadow in half. This means that if you are using Shadow with an allocated bandwidth of 50mbit/s, 25mbit/s will be used for screen 1 and the other 25mbit/s for screen 2.So please keep that in mind while using it.More information on how to set up this feature and a brief FAQ can be found in our help center. What is it good for?Do you enjoy watching a stream or YouTube video while grinding your favorite MMORPG, or would you rather stay in touch with your friends on Discord without having to change apps all the time? Well, let’s just say, in both cases a second screen comes in very handy.And even if your second screen is only hosting your walkthrough (of course that’s not cheating), or it’s the home to your chat (because you are one of them streamers) this feature is for you! There are of course many, many more ways for you to get the best out of this new release. More ways than we can possibly list here, so at this point we leave the Dual Screen in your hands.But before you jump off this article, we wanted to thank all of you so much for your help and patience throughout the development of this much anticipated feature. We hope you will enjoy it just as much as we do. See you on Shadow!

Hey #TeamShadow, We’re a month deep into the new chapter of Shadow (already). As we continue to lay the groundwork, there’s been promising progress on all fronts. Here’s the latest you need to know. And in case you missed it, check out our week 1 recap here. Strengthening team with new talentSince the start of the new chapter, we’ve been busy making adjustments to our team. This means shifting people to new roles, rethinking our processes and redefining what each department does. But what’s more exciting is that we’ll be welcoming a new wave of Shadowers to the team. By the end of 2021, we plan to bring on as many as 30 talented new hires to strengthen and deepen our current staff. Thanks to these reinforcements, we’ll be able to work harder, better, faster, stronger - you know like that one song? And who knows, maybe you’ll be joining us soon. Keep an eye out on our career page for upcoming openings. What’s up with the new offers?Each week, we take one step closer towards establishing our new sole offer, called ‘Shadow’. Next step: you can expect emails about the price adjustment this month with information about your particular case. And we’re quite chuffed about the new ‘Shadow’ offer too. Now that we’re financially backed by Jezby Ventures, we don’t have the constant burden that comes with the #startuplife: endless fundraising rounds, lack of resources, pressured demands for hyper growth...you get the picture. Instead, we can focus first and foremost on building a great product and experience for you that will be sustainable for years to come. OVHcloud relationshipWe also kicked off discussions with OVHcloud, who are now considered a sister company of ours. With their expertise lying in all things infrastructure and hardware, we put our heads together to understand how to best use our complementary forces to #MakeShadowGreatAgain. One thing’s for sure. With their help, we will be able to activate users at a faster rate, grow faster thanks to existing infrastructure and provide regular hardware upgrades, which was the founding vision for Shadow. Data migrationAs we begin to shape the new Shadow offer, it’s important all users are placed within our planned infrastructure to ensure a consistent experience. With this in mind, we began a migration process last week of additional storage add-ons to our new servers, which were previously hosted with old partners.   Testing new ways to connect with the communityLast week, we performed an initial test on Discord with their new “Stage” feature. We chatted about what’s been happening at Shadow lately and invited community members on the virtual stage to introduce themselves, ask questions, and share their experience with Shadow. With lots of positive feedback, we will be hopping back on the virtual stage soon. Keep your eyes peeled!Social Media Activity As Shadow’s reboot takes shape, we’ve decided to pause regular social media posts for now. During this transitional phase, we will reduce the noise and share information that is only essential: updates about the company and product. This means in the meantime, we’re relying on you to keep churning out the memes, battlestations and wallpapers. 

More than five years ago, we founded Shadow with the crazy ambition to change the way the world uses computers to work and play. Since then, we’ve continued to pioneer and innovate, guided by our community and mission to make high-end computing accessible to all.Today, we are pleased to announce a new offer that will stay true to our mission, and lay the foundation to propel Shadow to new, unforeseen heights. Why are we introducing a new offer? Over the years, we thrived in many ways - but being at the forefront of this computing revolution also comes with its unknowns and challenges. We found ourselves financially exposed with an unsustainable business model. Large operating costs and investments were not well aligned to our price point, inevitably dragging the company down to a cash strapped halt. With the risk of Shadow ceasing to exist, hubiC’s takeover of Blade breathed a new life into the company. This new chapter gives us the privilege to start on new, sturdy financial grounds, so we can continue to provide you with the best damn cloud computing service out there. But in order to do so, and ensure you can use Shadow for years to come, we are introducing a new offer, with an adjusted price plan, that will pave the way for Shadow to reach profitability. With this new change, you can expect Shadow to progress and evolve much faster. This is our commitment to a healthy, long term future that will accelerate all sides of our business. The new offer: what is it?We’re keeping things simple. There will now be one base offer called, “Shadow” - crazy, right? As first announced on Shadow News, the new pricing plan will be simple, too. Starting June 25, 2021, Shadow’s price will be readjusted to a $29.99 month-to-month plan, giving you the flexibility to cancel at any time.  With this new plan in place, it will set us on the right track to cover the costs of our investments, operations and development, so we can  grow a healthy business - and more importantly, allow you to continue gaming to your heart’s content.  Of course, we are carefully listening to our community to continually enhance the Shadow experience. New hardware, additional features, among other improvements, are on the top of our list as we transition to this new offer.This is a huge leap forward for us in all dimensions, and we firmly believe you will enjoy the new flexibility of your Shadow so you can continue to game for years to come.  Stay tuned, we’ll be back soon with more information. FAQQ: What happens to Shadow Boost?Shadow Boost as a name will be sunset. In its place we will offer you Shadow, which will feature a standard configuration.You can expect the new Shadow configuration to be improved regularly with highly sought-after features, as well as new hardware upgrades thanks to our new partnership with OVH Cloud. Q: I pre-ordered Shadow Boost, when will I receive Shadow and for what price?At this time we have paused all activations in order to properly map out how and where to distribute the machines. As soon as we have a clear plan in place, we will resume activations and expect a much faster pace than before thanks to our new partnership with OVH Cloud.The new price for Shadow will be $29.99.Q: I have a yearly/monthly contract, what’s the impact? By reintroducing Shadow, we will remove all commitments. This means that you will be free to cancel your subscription at any time moving forward. You will receive multiple emails to notify you about the new pricing plan. It will outline step-by-step instructions on how to cancel your subscription if you decide to leave Shadow.Q: Will there be additional costs with the new Shadow subscription?The price for the new Shadow plan is fixed at $29.99 and will feature regular feature improvements and upgrades to always give you the best cloud PC experience possible.Q: What will additional storage cost?The cost for additional storage will remain the same ($2.99 per month) for each add-on of 256 GBQ: When will we receive the new hardware and features of the new plan?Double screen, 4:4:4 improved coloring, and a new authentication system are planned to be released this summer. We will announce more details about hardware upgrades later this year. This includes upgrades to the Shadow base offer, as well as hardware you will be able to power-up with via your customer account. Q: Will sales remain open? Yes, you will be able to continue to purchase Shadow. Activation delays will vary depending on your location.Q: Will the referral program change?Not for now.

About two months ago, Shadow started an acquisition process involving four offers from external companies interested in joining forces with Shadow to push it to the next level. This process concluded last Friday with a decision from the French administrative judge declaring the bid of Jezby Ventures the winning offer.We will explain what all of this means for Shadow, our members and the future of cloud computing, so stick around and remain seated at all times!Reorganizing for the future - here’s how it happened. Revolutionizing and pioneering the world of cloud computing is complex. Over the years, We thrived in many ways - but we also faced challenges, leading us to an unsustainable business. With the need to regain new, sturdy financial grounds to get us back on the right track, we sought outside help to achieve our vision: make high-end gaming accessible to all.  On Friday, April 30th, the French administrative judge declared Jezby Ventures, the investment arm of HubiC owned by Octave Klaba, the winner. In the bid, the vast majority of employees remain, with a new CEO and President joining us (for now!). On the left: Eric Sele, CEO, in the center: Octave Klaba, President, on the right: Stéphane Héliot, co-founder of Shadow And this is how we celebrated our new beginning! Meet our new President, a reputed cloud expert  Octave Klaba, the newfound president of Shadow, happens to also be the founder and president of OVH. If you’re unfamiliar with OVH, here’s what you need to know: it’s one of the largest cloud computing companies with dedicated servers and other web services.Octave’s plans include bringing new financial resources, and an infrastructure partnership with OVH Cloud to provide Shadow with a capacity for growth. This will also provide renewed power of innovation to improve the quality of experience for gamers. Now that we know a bit more about our new owner, let’s take a look into… What’s Next?With a strong business plan in place, we will now put things into action and map out what Shadow will resemble in 10 and 20 years from now.We will start this process by taking some small and large steps, including meeting each other, creating a common mission, restructuring our company, and keeping your Shadow running, of course! When asked, Octave Klaba said: “Blade’s teams have done a tremendous job in the most demanding area of technology, which is cloud gaming. We look forward to sharing our areas of expertise and starting initial projects together, in order to quickly present our customers  with robust announcements and plans”So what does it all mean? In this very early phase, we cannot speak in too much detail about the steps ahead of us, since this process just started. What we can say however is that Shadow as a service will continue.We hope that you are as excited as we are by all the new opportunities that this acquisition will bring! When we’re ready, we’ll come back to you to share our vision and plans in detail.

As promised, we continue to advance forward in this time of transition. Speaking of advances, let’s talk about how we make our technological advances happen with our release process. Does this introduction seem far-fetched to you? Rest assured, the rest of the article could not be more serious! Today, we have the honor of welcoming Arnaud Sourioux aka Six. (because he has the mental age of a six-year-old? Or because he has six fingers? The mystery remains…). Deputy CTO, he knows everything related to release processes. When a new update or bug fix appears on your Shadow, we first have an entire process to manage and set up. Our updates typically go through phases of "Insider", "Alpha", and then "Beta" before moving to "Official" and being visible to everyone. Now that you know the basics, let's move on to our question-and-answer session (Q&A), where we will go into more detail on these different versions and give you a lot more explanation on all the rest of the procedure:Q: How does the release of an update for Shadow work? Has it always been like this?No, it wasn't always like this. We are changing the way of doing things. 2 years ago, when I arrived at Shadow, we released the updates pretty much ... as soon as they were ready! Then we tried to synchronize the versions between the application, the client, what the user sees, and the services in Shadow. We industrialized a lot and we used tools to help us do that, such as Gitlab.Then came the JB era, where he decided to only do one production release per month so that each week we could focus on a different aspect of Shadow. For example, week 2 of each month is dedicated to the "client application" part, which is the desktop, box, mobile, and TV version. Week 3 focuses on the components in Shadow: the streamer and all the services that keep Shadow running.Regarding the release of an update: the first thing to do is to define what features we are going to put in the first version. As for the bugs, we fix them as we go so that all those that have been fixed so far will be included with this version. We decide on our content in advance to be sure to include them.Q: What are the Insider, Alpha, and Beta versions for?In the testing phase, we always start by sending our update to Insider. The perk is that we can send them directly the code that a developer has just made, we don't need to make a “real version” for them. Thanks to this, they can access a version just 20 minutes after a developer writes it.The Alpha is a frozen code (not a test), but we can send it 3 times a day.For a real Beta version, we have to go through a QA phase. QA has to test everything and tell us if it works, if it is ok for the Beta, or if it is not acceptable enough based on the bugs found.To go from Beta to Official, it’s the current Beta that is re-tested in more depth. We are much stricter on all the behaviors and bugs found during the testing phases.These versions are used to ensure that step-by-step, as we move up from Insider to Alpha, to Beta, and to Official, we ensure quality. Since we do not have the same volume of users, the impact is not the same. When we send an update or a patch in Beta, only 10% of users are impacted, and they can choose to switch to Alpha or Official if needed. Q: How does a new feature go from the Insider version to the official version (concrete steps)?Each time a new feature is upgraded, its finishes and the user experience must be improved. The requirements are not the same in Alpha as they are in Beta or Official.For example, today in Alpha we have the arm64 application for Mac. It's in Alpha because there aren't all the features like Quick Menu, Display Management or others that work with it yet. It was able to be available very quickly in Alpha because it’s not representing a problem, but for the Beta version, it requires a minimum of functionalities. And for the Official version, that's another story.Q: Is there a fix date/day for the releases? Like Friday night because it's Shadow?There is what we talked about earlier, the weeks of release depending on which component we are going to update. The higher the scope (Official> Beta> Alpha> Insider), the more it will be released at the start of the week.For the Official version, we try to do that on Monday or Tuesday. For Beta, we allow ourselves until Thursday. And for Alpha, we do it whenever we want. Even if we have very fast feedback, we still need time to fix problems before the upcoming weekend because this is where we have the most connected users, hence our constraints in terms of the days of the week. When we release the update on Monday or Tuesday, it allows us to make fixes before Friday, which allows our users to have a Beta or an Official version that is relatively stable or free from the bugs found in the meantime.Q: What is the biggest challenge the team faces in launching a new update?The more we have teams that are involved in developing a feature, the more difficult it is going to be. Because it means that we will have to work more together and synchronize, and it will make things more complicated: we have to agree on how to do it.Today, there are a lot of features that seem simple but actually aren’t. When we have a feature on the Quick Menu, we need that at the moment when the user clicks on the Quick Menu, it must be sent to the Shadow by the local application. For example, when you change the resolution on the Quick Menu, it sends the information to the renderer which transfers it to the streamer. The streamer applies the new resolution and confirms to the renderer as well as to the Quick Menu that it is correctly applied. This whole flow that seems very simple as a user is ultimately not that simple.In addition, when we add the virtualization / orchestration part - For example on the dynamic shutdown, it takes even more time because all the components must be able to talk to each other for things to go well.Q: Why is it so complicated?What’s complicated is that we start from a product specification that is a need for the user, that we have to transcribe it technically, and make sure that we know how to do everything. Sometimes you don't know how to do it and you have to figure out how to do it. How long it will take. And make sure with everyone that you can do it a certain way. The point is not to pile up things that kind of work on their own but not with the rest, or not with the next feature. The goal is to find lasting solutions.Why are there all these steps and why can it take a long time? So that it can be as qualitative as possible, because users are more and more demanding. When the product first launched, our members knew they were testing something that got started, in the “I made my product in my garage” vibe. Now, when you buy Shadow it’s like when you buy a subscription to anything else, so you expect a similar quality.Before, we only had Insider / Beta / Official and we figured we needed the Alpha version. We were asked for the same quality in Beta as in Official, which was not possible without an intermediate step. 15 insiders didn’t allow us to reach 10% of users in Beta right after in a correct way. Even now when we have bugs in Official, it’s because we sent it to Beta and that we didn’t get any feedback (because one or 2 people must have had it in Beta) and when we go to Official, the impact is not the same: the 2 people can turn into 100, 200, 500 or 2000 people on the first night. The consequences can be dramatic.The worst that can happen to us with a bug we put in Official is that the user no longer has access to Shadow. That's why we try to pay as much attention as possible to the front phases.When you update to Beta or Official, it is depending on the number of users affected that you decide what to do next. Depending on the bug, we study it, find a solution, check that we can resolve it before sending a patch to everyone who is impacted (and not just to the person in question). If we go back to the previous version, there is no longer the bug but that means that we are still stuck somewhere.Q: Do you deserve a raise? And what are your last words (for this article of course)? Our teams are the ones that deserve the most. They're the ones doing the job, we just organize everything that’s around.I think we've really made a lot of progress in 2 years. Because the team is bigger, because we did things differently, because we have new people with us. At times we are less agile and slower but we have gained in quality. That's why we wanted to show that we were actually still agile and able to do great things by releasing the dual screen on the Box V1 for Christmas (available in Beta). It was as important to our users as it was to some of our staff members!

You’ve always dreamt of having an epic and exhilarating pen pal? Especially since you learned that Shadow sends a newsletter every fortnight (no, not like the game. Meaning we send it every 14 days)? We understand you… These emails, sent with love by our community managers, are our bi-weekly updates that spotlight each month’s interesting, and fun news.It's all well and good to describe the newsletter with a string of flowery adjectives, but what is it really about?And most importantly, how can you subscribe to it if you don’t already receive it? Spoiler alert: just scroll to the end of the article to join the chosen ones… or click here!What’s all this fuss about?Before getting to the heart of the matter, let's introduce our authors: as we were saying in the intro, every two weeks, our community managers are in charge of sharing our latest news with you. In the U.S., Brittaney handles this responsibility, in the UK, Luc, in Germany, Malte, and in France, Elfamoso! You can also connect with this great team on our Discord and on our Community Forum. Don’t hesitate to send them messages (cute ones) - those always make their day! In our newsletters, we like to discuss various topics. Do we know what will make the news ahead of time? No. And that’s what makes the magic of our newsletters: letting ourselves be surprised, marveled by the latest news… (/sentimentaltear). Here is a non-exhaustive list of the type of information you can find in our bi-weekly emails: Our latest developments: what we are currently working on, our latest releases and improvements. It can be related to new features, updates, bug fixes, additional storage, or anything else. Long story short: there is something interesting for everyone!Company news: we explain how things are going internally and we inform you of developments, expansion plans, new key hires, and more.Answers to the community: we answer the most frequently asked questions by #TeamShadow (whether it’s from Discord, Reddit, the Community Forum, or other social networks)IRL: this year with COVID it was complicated to have in-person gatherings, but otherwise, in normal times, we share invitations for exclusive events. And by exclusive, we mean “the best events in the world” (being very objective, of course)Sharing your content: your wallpapers, your setups, your Tweets ... sometimes (very often) you blow our minds... And we can't help but share all of this with the rest of the community!And much more! We also share our live streams, recaps, previews of new features, blog posts, and all kinds of other information that we think might interest you.I want to subscribe! What do I have to do?Nothing more simple. Just… If you subscribed to Shadow, you should already be receiving our newsletter (check your spam folder if you don’t see it)If you are waiting for your Shadow access, you will receive your newsletter once your account is live! And if you aren’t subscribed yet… What are you waiting for? - jokes aside (well not that much because you’re definitely missing something!), you can also subscribe and we will send you emails once in a while (but not that often). We hope that you’ll enjoy reading our news and we can’t wait to keep this pen pal relationship for many years… And know that it doesn’t have to be one-sided! You can always write back, either to share your suggestions (about the newsletter) or to tell us how much you love getting our news, that always makes us happy!Talk to you soon via email!

In any startup, you never know what’s ahead of you -- otherwise where would the fun be! But at Shadow, with such a strong community, one thing always remains certain: we have a bright future! Lately, you overwhelmed us with heartwarming messages and amazing stories. While reading them, we realized one more time that Shadow is truly a beautiful project. Because it helped you realize your dreams, because it supported your projects, because it gave you access to tools you otherwise wouldn’t have been able to. You showing us that we’re on the right path definitely helps us keep our spirits up! Thank you!Here are a few stories, picked mainly from Reddit and Twitter. « In all seriousness, I'm a dad of 2 school aged boys and you guys made me look like a hero. There's four of us at home and we can't afford a gaming pc for all of us. When shadow came along I was able to get us some chromebooks that worked perfect with shadow.We couldn't believe how well it worked, I didn't expect too much because of stuff I've read online. However Shadow was great and was never a problem for us, even all playing at the same time. My kids love it and get to play games they couldn't before.2020 was a tough year, but because of you guys we were able to play together as a family slaying monsters, exploring new worlds and building stuff along the way.You guys rock! » u/purpleWheelChair« Shadow has given me a chance to game again! More importantly I have rekindled friendships with school pals I haven’t spoken to in nearly 20 years. Taking us back to the countless weekends in the LAN Cafe and reminiscing. It’s been amazing to be able to play the latest releases and really has been a life line for me over the last three years. I think now is the best time to say thank you. If things don’t turn out quite as we all hope, understand that your mission and what you delivered help at least one old bloke gamer relive his youth with his friends. » u/Mullzy« Shadow has been nothing short of amazing for me. I was a die-hard PC gamer in my teens/early 20's but with adulthood comes life, family and responsibilities. Now that I am able to play games like GTA5, No Man's Sky & Skyrim on my iPhone/iPad, all the nostalgia and excitement I had all those years ago is back in full force. Thank you to the entire Shadow company and team for making this guy a gamer once more. » u/rseeley85« There are few things in tech that are as magical as Shadow! I'm in it until the end and give you permission to raise my infinite tier to 50.00 per month haha. It's one of the few things I will go out of my way to bring up to people how amazing it is. Innovation and cost are very hard things to balance, but anyone who uses Shadow for 15 minutes knows it's the future and truly AMAZING.We are all rooting for you guys in a big way. All we ask is if you have multiple offers, try to go with the one that keeps the vision of what you guys are doing alive. You made a company that can change an industry and how people use a PC and that's incredible. It would be a shame to ever see that die in any way. » u/Edg1931« I have watched the service grow and jumped on board years ago, shadow never failed me, and opened up avenues I could not have considered until then (graduated from a bsc in aerospace with a flamboyant project in artificial intelligence made possible with shadow, wouldn't have even considered it otherwise). » u/lv3llios« Thank you guys so much for giving me an awesome experience, if it weren't for Shadow, I never would have gotten a nice PC for myself and gotten into PC gaming. Even though I don't currently use Shadow, I still browse the subreddit and stay up to date with it. And I always recommend it to people when I can.So thank you, even if Shadow doesn't continue on, I'll still remember all of the good times and opportunities it provided me. » u/RickyR0lled« Even if the worst happened to Blade, I truly think you set a revolutionary and healthy ground for cloud gaming. Without you, we would have to be satisfied with rudimentary cloud gaming solutions such as St… stuff made by others.As Victor said more than once on the Shadow News, it may not be profitable right now, but there's a market, and you've got the technology.In this way, I truly believe you impacted not only individual lives, but the whole gaming universe. You set the keystones, the expectations.You gave the industry a solution we normally could have hoped for at least 2030, because you shared a vision.Love you, team Shadow ! » u/Von_Trear« I am so excited for this. I truly hope it'll be a positive step in progress to an already excellent service. You guys are truly the best, and have allowed me to develop my YouTube gaming channel. » @BathtubElm « Your service has been amazing! I have been using it for 2 years now and absolutely love it. I really hope you stay around (and I’m confident it will!) there is so much potential… » @dj_nabs We would’ve loved to add all your kind words here but all good things must come to an end (except Shadow!) - If you haven’t already, feel free to join us on our social media channels, and on our Discord and Community Forum to share your own Shadow story! And again…  Thank you!

We’re entering Spring of 2021 soon and we have a slew of new developments and features we’re more than excited to share with you!In this brief recap, we’ll be covering Multi-Screen, improved color information and accuracy (4:4:4), Chromebook with gamepad support, and something called PerfV3.If you want to hear about any of these features in-depth, please check out the most recent Shadow News stream!So strap in and let’s go!Multi-Screen (Dual Screen)​ The infamous dual-screen experience is getting closer to the Beta stage!  Soon, you’ll be able to use two monitors and move applications from one screen to another in the same Shadow instance for both desktop and iOS!We showed the demo for both desktop and iOS on our most recent Shadow News stream. Check out the Desktop version here: In regards to iOS, the iOS version is evolving quite a bit and we’re adding numerous features that are only present in the desktop version so far.  Oh and yes, in case you haven’t heard, the iOS application is back in the Apple App Store!Check out the iOS version here: Want to learn more?  Check out the Multi-Screen section of our stream!💡 Status: in Beta for Windows/Mac/LinuxImproved Color Information and Accuracy (4:4:4)Another long-sought-after feature is often just referred to as “4:4:4”. With this, you’ll be able to stream Shadow using 4:4:4 color subsampling, improving your Shadow’s color information and accuracy.  This is very important for rendering text and graphics, especially if you’re using Shadow for graphic design, office automation, bureautic activities (or just Discord), or other similar activities.  Ever had trouble reading red on Shadow? This should improve it!Just for your information, 4:4:4 is still in the development stage and has yet to reach Alpha. But since you’ve been asking about it quite frequently, we wanted to show you a sneak peek of our early in-development results!  (click to enlarge)Want to hear more?  We discuss 4:4:4 in more detail here!💡 Status: in Quality Assurance (In development)Chromebook Support​  Our team continues to ramp up development and support for the Android client, most notably with the most recent release of our Version 3.6 client.In addition to a large number of improvements like new settings, feature parity compared to desktop, and better support for Android TV, the Android application now works on Chromebooks!  Furthermore, we have been working on better compatibility with Gamepads for the Chromebook!Here is a demo of what playing on a Chromebook (with a controller) can look like.Spoiler alert: it’s a lot like playing on any other computer or console 😱 Want more detail?  Check out the Chromebook section of our stream!🏆 Fix : Reduced input-lag / Controller (PS/Xbox) / Works on all supported Chromebooks💡 Status: in Beta (V3.6.2)PerfV3What is PerfV3? It’s a new optimization patch for the virtualization process on the server-side which will increase the performance and efficiency of your Shadow. This is done by better balancing the virtual machines on the server. This should greatly benefit some games and desktop applications, more notably on Shadow Ultra and Shadow Infinite. Specifically, software relying on more CPU power will see an increase in performance.Here is how PerfV3 compares to our previous virtualization process*:Shadow Ultra and Shadow Infinite- 6% increased optimization on Final Fantasy- 17% increased optimization on Starcraft- 8% increased optimization on Borderlands 3Better performance even when many users are online simultaneouslyBetter non-gaming experience (calculation/rendering/etc.)To learn more, check out the PerfV3 section of the stream!💡 Status: live (deployed)*results of internal testing, your results may slightly vary.To catch all of these developments and features in detail as well as the Q&A, check out our most recent Shadow News stream!  We’re excited about these updates and we hope you are too!As always, we host Shadow News streams every other Thursday so if you want to check up on the newest Shadow updates, make sure to follow us on Twitch!  See you there!

Shadow is entering a new era. In the near future, we will make a major strategic decision for our company, team and development of our business that will change our course.Together, five years ago, we founded Shadow with the crazy ambition to replace all computers in the world with a more efficient, more accessible and more sustainable technological model. Together, we developed the best cloud PC for all, which pools maximum computing power with minimum latency.  Together, we freed the computer from its physical constraints and made the product a smashing success, carried by a global community that embarked with us in this collective exploration. And history proved us right. In step with the times, the craze and need for Shadow becomes more and more clear as the world evolves: growing demand for computing power, rapid deployment of high-speed networks, increased search for more efficient shared consumption, not to mention the acceleration of technology in the wake of a health crisis. Shadow stands away from its competitors in a league of it own, thanks to its technological performance, and more ambitious approach: in 2020, 4 out of 5 GAFAM launched a “cloud streaming” service and propelled this once-obscure word into mainstream conversations, allowing Shadow to stand out with its pioneering technology and promise of freedom.So much so that Shadow became a victim of its success. Over the past five years, thousands of users, two-thirds of whom are based outside of France, have been convinced by subscribing to our service. Thousands more are waiting their turn, as demand continues to increase despite lengthening delays. Shadow's potential has never been greater - we now need to make sure it becomes a reality by regaining new, sturdy financial grounds to build a sustainable and profitable business.This new stage requires a fresh new start. We will undergo a reorganization in order to free ourselves from the debt holding us back to continue the development of our bleeding-edge technology. This investment process goes through the inevitable stage of collective proceedings, in France and in the United States, which will give us the best chance of achieving the dreams and ambitions we set out to accomplish since day one. Strengthened and emboldened by our experience, we now have a better understanding of the conditions for success. Thus, Shadow's adventure will continue. Even more, this operation gives us the opportunity to grow at a rate faster than ever. During this transition period, we will continue to develop our technology and provide the best service to our members and community, who are key to Shadows’ long-term success. To learn more, check out our Shadow News stream on Twitch with our co-founder, Stéphane. --To answer your most pressing questions, we prepared an FAQ with  additional information you should know:I'm an active member. What will happen to my Shadow subscription?Your Shadow subscription will remain fully functional, as usual. There are no impacts on the service.I have an active Shadow Boost subscription and a pre-order for Shadow Ultra or Shadow Infinite in Europe. What will happen?For now, preorders are maintained. The arrival of a new investor will allow us to have more clarity on the deployment plan. As a reminder, preordering a Shadow Ultra or Shadow Infinite is free, and you can always cancel via your account page.What will happen to the planned release of Shadow Ultra and Shadow Infinite in California and New York?While we await for new ownership, the release of these new configurations is put on hold for now. We will update you when we have information to share.I preordered Shadow Boost, will I still be able to access it?Yes, nothing changes. You will be given access according to the date displayed on your account page.I preordered Shadow Boost but I would like to get reimbursed. Is it possible?Yes, absolutely. Simply click "Cancel my preorder" on your account page. You will be reimbursed in 5 to 10 business days.Why didn't you communicate earlier about the delays regarding Shadow Ultra and Shadow Infinite in Europe?We had multiple options regarding the development of the company, but no certainty. We know more about Shadow's future now and as soon as this ownership change is complete, we will be able to communicate more information regarding the future of these offers in Europe.What are the next steps of the investment process for Shadow?This process should take a few weeks. As soon as it is done, we will communicate all the details and next steps.

A month ago, we talked about what can cause lag: from connection to hardware, we tried to talk about as many factors as possible. In today’s blog article, we will focus more in-depth on hardware and how you can make the most out of your computer to avoid lag. As easy as it is to go years without updating your hardware, you will find a significant improvement to your lag issue by updating a few key hardware components to your PC.Let’s see what our secrets-that-aren't-so-secret are on this subject, now. Key components RAM The minimum RAM you will find as a requirement for pretty much any game is at least 4GB. Most games recommend at least 8GB and you will find semi optimal performance at around 16GB. RAM is one of the cheaper components to increase (and installation is not nearly as difficult as people would think).  CPUThe CPU is still important for gaming, although not nearly as important as it once was. We would say one of the most influential components to your CPU’s effect on gaming is whether it is a quad-core processor or not, so if you are using an old CPU, it could help to get a new one. The only thing to take into consideration is that updating your CPU is the most difficult task when it comes to computer upgrades because it almost always means needing a new motherboard, RAM, and then reinstalling Windows afterward. Video Card Probably the best way with computer hardware to take your gaming experience to the highest heights of flawless visuals and less lag is  with your video card. These are often one of the most expensive components of hardware to your PC; however even a decent boost to your card will make a massive improvement to your lag and overall gaming. PC optimizerA PC optimizer program is exactly what it says: a program that will optimize your PC’s performance capabilities. There are several programs that directly increase gaming performance. What these optimizers do is defrag your game folders and pause non-essential background processes (as well as perform other optimizations throughout). If you already maintain proper care of your hard drive and close background programs, this most likely won’t create a substantial impact, but since it is easy to just go into gaming without optimizing, a PC optimizer program can give you consistent performance. What else?  Did reading this article make you feel tired about the idea of upgrading your hardware? Well then you can always get a Shadow! It's a computer that will allow you to always play your games to their full potential, and you won’t have to worry about outdated or broken hardware. You will just get to enjoy a PC without the hassles of owning one!   

Ever wonder what goes behind the scenes of our Forum?  Look no further!To begin, our CMs, staff, moderators, and helpful regulars browse the forums reading discussions, answering questions, and engaging with the community.  But you’ve guessed it, that’s not all that’s about our Community Forum, there is more! In the wake of reaching 10k members on our Community Forum, we thought we’d share a little bit about our thoughts and ideas.Why is this place so popular?Are they serving the best pizza in town?  Or is it something else?  Well, let us tell you a little secret that isn’t quite so secret: people love talking about Shadow and themselves! And we love reading all about it!We started the Community Forum as a place to receive help from our community so questions wouldn’t be drowned out in real-time conversation as it can sometimes happen on our other fast-paced community platforms. We wanted our members to come together to share workarounds, debate the best device to run Shadow on, and even troubleshoot rare issues. This allowed any Shadower to contribute their thoughts and knowledge in interesting discussions such as a Surround Sound workaround, Red Dead Redemption 2 compatibility, and even showing off their own Shadow Battlestations.We even created a section dedicated to the development of the Shadow VR Alpha application, gathering your thoughts, insights, and feedback in our first ever collaborative production.  Fun TidbitsInterested in a few fun facts we gathered since the launch of our Community Forum?  Over the course of 8 months since our launch in 2020, our community has answered 882 inquiries, asked 1284 questions, and given 5095 likes.In fact, the most popular threads on the Forum are Welcome to the Community: Please Introduce yourself and Welcome, #TeamShadow! Then, obviously, since it’s a big topic, Shadow Ultra/Shadow Infinite in the US.We also reward the most active members of our Community Forum with special badges you can earn depending on your activity in the community. We have unique badges for Product Pilgrims, Inspiring Seekers, Supportive Explorers, and Devoted Travellers, just to name a few. And members who joined on the first day received an exclusive Day 1 badge! Interested in one of these badges, feel free to join us!Introducing our Bug Reporting and Feature Request categories!We’ve loved getting to know all of you and seeing how much #TeamShadow has grown. We also love hearing your fantastic suggestions and thought this would be the perfect addition to our growing Forum.Now, you can have your voice heard and have a real impact on the development of Shadow. You’ll also be able to stay in the know with real time tracking of progress and a notification of when it’s done. Lastly, join in the conversation to see what other features or bugs Shadow members are submitting!Interested in learning more? Check these two new additions on the Community Forum!And with more members than ever on the forum, it’s the perfect time to join! Find answers to your questions fast, help others and get rewarded for it, and get information and news quicker than anywhere else.We love our community and we can never thank you enough for being a part of #TeamShadow!  Thank you!

Quick question:Would you rather have a powerful, but heavy, gaming laptop, or a lightweight and portable laptop that can only play a certain Dinosaur Game?And if you could, would you not rather have both?A lightweight laptop that can play the latest PC releases. Something like a Chromebook with access to Shadow, for example.And would it not be crazy if you could use the latest next-gen controllers from Xbox and Playstation with it, while talking to your friends on Discord thanks to our newest microphone update for Android?Yes, that is crazy. Crazy, but true!Welcome to the family, Chromebook!Not so long ago, our developers released an update to Shadow’s backend, enabling you to use Shadow on your beloved Chromebook in Beta. Now, it’s released for good and we finally take the yellow tape off of it.This release brings us one step closer to our dream of making Shadow accessible to all of our members, through their device of choice.RequirementsIf you own a Chromebook and you’d like to power it up with Shadow, please make sure that it has access to the Google Play Store. This is the norm for most Chromebooks released after 2015, so if yours is older: double-check, just to be sure.A working Internet connection (ethernet is highly recommended) is needed. :kappa:Where to get it?You can get your hands on this new update through the Shadow Android Beta App which you can find in the “app section” of your account page.In space, they can (finally) hear you screamSpeaking of Android, we have another piece of exciting news for you!Alongside improving Shadow on Android-based operating systems, our developers had a major breakthrough when it comes to microphone support. 📸 Tim_Developer from the German DiscordSo no matter what you are doing on your Shadow, you are now able to do audio recordings of any sort with your Android device. This also means that by connecting a monitor and your peripherals of choice, you now have a fully functioning, supercharged, and gaming-ready computer at your Android fingertips!And next time you find yourself slicing up demons with your friends in a good ol’ space horror game, they’ll finally be able to hear you scream in your time of need... ahem "success".💡 Should you run into difficulties making your microphone work, please check out our dedicated help center article, or reach out to our support team!Console Wars: EndgameThe final big announcement of this week’s update is that Shadow is finally bringing an end to the console wars. But what does that mean? That means no matter which one of the new next-gen consoles you own (or controller of said console), it will work with Shadow and ergo your favorite game for Windows 10.But we don’t stop there. Of course we also still show our love to the last-gen and last-last-gen console controllers. So not only do those fancy Xbox Series X / S and PlayStation 5 DualSense controllers work, but also your trusty Xbox 360 will work as expected.While Shadow was already pretty good at recognizing the display settings of your local (host) computer, it now also checks and adapts your scaling preferences.One tiny addition:🎮 Full support for Xbox Series X / S and PS5 Dual Sense controllers via Bluetooth (except iOS) & USB (except macOS)And now, have fun and game on!

In the last update of 2020, our teams pimped your Shadow experience with an update that included better network quality and image scaling.Without losing any time in the new year, our CTO, JB and our Shadow Updater, Yannis, jumped onto Twitch to break down the interesting product developments in the pipeline for the first few months of 2021 and beyond. In case you missed it, here’s a full recap of all the must-know information that was discussed.More Monitors, More Screens That’s right, the highly-anticipated Dual Screen feature is now in Alpha for Shadow Box V1 and will be coming to Windows & Mac in Alpha later this month (Alpha only accessible via Discord).What does that mean for you?Well, it finally gives you a good excuse to buy a second monitor to play all your favorite games on Shadow while chatting with your friends on your second screen. Twitch clip: https://shdw.me/sn_dualscreenChromebook Support, yes please! Your low-powered Chromebook laptop just got a beastly gaming upgrade. Chromebook will now be compatible with Shadow through the Android App! You can expect it to be available in Beta later this month.Twitch clip: http://shdw.me/sn_chromebookArm support? Ohh ARM support! We’re bringing in ARM processor support to our macOS and Linux application!Thanks to this support, we’re also in the midst of developing a Raspberry Pi version for Shadow. This means you’ll soon be able to build your very own cheaper and just as powerful DYI Shadow Ghost.  Twitch clip: https://shdw.me/sn_armJBK and Yannis also answered some very in-depth questions from our community concerning live on stream.Looking for more info? Here’s video recap and round-up of some of the other most notable new updates from the stream.  PS5 and Xbox Series S/X Controller Support: At the moment, Shadow recognized these next-gen controllers as Xbox 360 gamepads. Our update coming next month will help you make the most of these innovative controllers with full native support. This means they will show up auto-magically the Quick Menu, without the need to remap the buttons. Dynamic Shutdown: At the start of the pandemic, we introduced an auto-shutdown mechanism to ensure space and resources for those actively using or logging into Shadow. Dynamic shutdown now takes this a step further by analyzing real-time datacenter usage and traffic to assess if your Shadow can be left on longer than the 30 minutes. Web app version: Shadow is soon coming to your favorite web browser. This means no need to download the Shadow app to game on your device and you can now use devices like Chromecast for example. USB over IP: The software that helps forward all your favorite peripherals from your local machine to Shadow is soon getting a performance update. More to come on this a bit later. This also ensures macOS Big Sur support. Microphone support: In the coming months, your favorite Shadow mobile apps - iOS & Android - will be receiving microphone support. If you want to find out even more information, check out our full Twitch stream here. You’ll be greeted with the smiling faces of JB and Yannis. And one more thing, don't forget to follow us on Twitch to be notified when we're live!

We at Shadow love doing things with our community, and we're grateful our community's feedback and constant support has helped us improve the product to where it is now.Today, we're happy to share our latest collaboration with our community: This article! We gathered some of the best tips & tricks that will help you enjoy the best Shadow experience ever. Back to basicsTurning off the lights after exiting a room and locking the door once you leave are some good habits that we have for our house (also if you want to save some money and avoid getting robbed). Your Shadow needs the same care too! In this section, we gathered some daily habits that will improve your overall experience. Shut down your Shadow after using itWe all need a break and so does your computer! It is true that it can seem easier to just lock your phone, clap your laptop’s screen, or just leave the room with your Shadow open. However, if you take this simple habit of shutting down your Shadow after using it, you will prevent it from experiencing any start-up issues in the future. Think about it as if you were running your computer 24/7... pretty exhausting huh? As a reminder, to shut down your Shadow all you have to do is to press Windows’ Shut Down button. How to use USB devices on your ShadowJust… plug it in! Yes, that’s it. This will work for USB mice, keyboards, or even PlayStation and Xbox controllers. To see if your device was detected, you can simply check the Controllers tab in the Quick Menu.If you are having trouble using another USB device (because despite everything, that can happen too), check out our Help Article here!How to use a microphone and webcam with ShadowIf it’s not automatically recognized by your Shadow, we would recommend you to pass your connected USB device through your computer to Shadow. In order to do so, all you have to do is: Log in to the Shadow launcher, then click Settings > My Shadow.Go to Use my USB devices on my Shadow > click Install drivers.When User Account Control (UAC) appears, click Yes.Shadow will install the drivers needed to detect your device. Start your Shadow and check the Quick Menu to see if your device is available, then you will be able to choose which devices you'd like to redirect to Shadow. Some devices may need you to install drivers on both your local computer and Shadow. Do not hesitate to see if your device manufacturer has additional drivers you need to install.And ta-dah! As always, if you encounter any problem, we invite you to check out our Help Article here!💡 The performance and usability of a USB device via ‘USB-over-IP” depends heavily on the local bandwidth. So make sure that your upload speed is sufficient to transfer data such as that from an HD webcam to Shadow.Bandwidth and graphics experienceNow that you have your basics right, let’s dive a little bit deeper into how to get the best out of your Shadow by optimizing your Bandwidth and keeping your Shadow up to date. Use our speedtest to determine what you should set your bandwidthIf you haven’t seen it yet, let us introduce it to you: we have our very own speedtest that will help you determine what bandwidth to use! And that will give you some extra tips depending on the internet connection you have. In general, we recommend using a bandwidth of 10-15 mb/s lower than your current download speed for the best experience so you aren’t throttling or maxing out your connection. You can also enable “Adapt max bit rate to network conditions'' in your Shadow’s settings so that your Shadow can automatically adjust your bandwidth consumption for you!  Improve blurry or pixelated resolutionUsually, a blurry or pixelated resolution can have 2 causes: bandwidth or hardware. If it’s bandwidth, you can try raising the bandwidth allocation in your launcher settings or quick menu settings and it should improve the quality of your stream and gaming experience.If it’s hardware, we would recommend trying with newer hardware as older devices can’t always support the stream properly. Keep your Shadow up to dateThis one pair well with the “shut down your Shadow after use”. In order for your Shadow to work properly, it’s good to take care of it <3 Why is it so important? Well because at a certain point, unless kept updated, Nvidia drivers will become outdated leading to both graphic and audio issues.  Enable “Keep my Shadow's graphics drivers updated” on the Quick Menu to prevent these issues from occurring.  You can also use Nvidia’s website to keep your drivers up to date or download Quadro Experience. The same thing applies to Windows updates!GamingMost of us probably got Shadow for gaming. Pretty convenient to have a PC in the cloud available anywhere for an impromptu game session! Now, let us help you improve those games. Lock your cursorWhile playing, we would recommend you to lock your cursor, especially if it’s an FPS game. Otherwise, your mouse will get out of Shadow’s window and you won’t be able to control your character anymore... and that might cost you the game!If you’re switching between windowed mode to full screen, it should adjust this setting automatically, otherwise, you can use the shortcut Win+Alt+M if you are on Windows, or Cmd+Alt+M if you are on Mac. Use shortcutsUsing shortcuts will make you gain so much time and will make your life so much easier. Also because you’ll truly look like a Shadow pro, and that’s pretty cool. Here is a recap of the most used shortcuts on Shadow:    And last but not least… Don’t forget to have fun when you play! We hope that his article was helpful and that will allow you to enjoy even more of your Shadow. If you didn’t find the answers you were looking for, it just means that our princess is in another castle: you can check our Help Center and our Forum to find what you were looking for, or go to the final boss and contact our support.

Today, we're exploring our Moderation team, aka Saviours of the Modern World, and taking a look behind the scenes. Who are those heroes who selflessly devote their time and effort from answering questions to making sure everything is being run smoothly in our communities?We wanted to take the time to introduce them more thoroughly and talk about what they do behind the curtains: everything from how they’re selected to how they operate. All the questions you always wanted to ask them will be answered in this article.Now onto the show!What is this thing called “moderation” and who are your moderators?First things first, if you haven’t visited our social media channels yet, please do so. We have an active Forum, a Discord server, a Subreddit, and we even have a biweekly Shadow News Twitch stream. You got it: the Shadow community is quite populated and quite extensive, active on all platforms. Thankfully, to take care of #TeamShadow, we have our moderators to help us out!With cloud gaming and cloud computing being so new to this digital era, many Shadowers often reach out to ask questions on how a certain software runs well, if VR is possible, or even if Red Dead Redemption 2 is playable on Shadow (the answer is: yes!). With so many people seeking answers, volunteers emerged from the woodwork to help. With every answer they gave, they leveled up with Shadow knowledge to the point where they became our superstars. One thing led to another and these superstars became our moderators, who focused on keeping our community safe and well supplied with answers.  Our communities kept growing to the point where we needed multiple teams of moderators to help support and foster its growth. This included expanding our timezone and social channel coverage.Due to the many communities we have through Reddit, Discord, Twitch, and our Forum, we have moderators from all over the world: US, UK, France, and Germany, to name a few. Each moderator contributes specific skills, whether it's helping users resolve general technical issues to moderation (ie. making sure each user is following our rules), informing the community about our latest developments, or even sharing special cooking content.Ok but, why them? What are their qualities and responsibilities?We said volunteers, we said superstars, but we can give you more specifics on the roles and qualities we expect. First of all, moderators are trustworthy members who are also part of the Shadow community. They help ensure the safety and success of the community by monitoring members’ behavior, content, and taking care of reported content. They also have a deep understanding of Shadow, Shadow's community rules, and communication policies.They are chosen based on activity, knowledge, and disposition. And also because they are among the coolest kids on the block: they are friendly, understanding, and conscientious. Technically, they are knowledgeable about Shadow and understand our values.Our moderators hold a few responsibilities on our channels. Primarily, they maintain and enforce rules and etiquette of that channel and ensure that our community is healthy and active. They also help report on the status of the server and community, giving CMs and Shadow staff insight into issues Shadow members may be experiencing. Last but not least, they help engage with our community, providing community help and support if necessary and will happily jump into the fray, conversing with other Shadowers about the latest game developments.  #GamersFTW For moderators new and old, enforcing the rules is a key part of the job that you need to have a good grasp on. Depending on the server, there are different scenarios you may face on a daily basis. Each situation is never the same so it may be difficult to determine the best course of action.Below are some questions they ask themselves:Is there something happening on the server? Does this need moderator attention?What is the context behind this situation? What is the motivation behind their actions?How do I best respond to this situation?Then, depending on the situation, they work with other moderators to determine the best course of action or resolve the conflict on their own. Either way, the moderator team is informed of the situation and its response. Their purpose is always to keep our channels as friendly and informative as possible. They are our eyes and ears, in a way, some could say they are… our Shadows. Wink, wink. Let’s get a bit more personalOk, but what do our moderators actually think about all of this? What motivated them to join us? What games do they play, what application do they use the most? We wanted to have a bit more of an insider point of view. So we asked them. And as always, they delivered!Most Played Games:Rocket LeagueRed Dead Redemption 2Cyberpunk 2077World of WarcraftMost Used ApplicationDiscord (duh!)SteamInternet BrowsersAnd most important of all, here are some of the reasons why they joined our moderation team:“I joined Shadow back in 2017? And fell in love with it ever since. It's an amazing platform and offers the flexibility to play the games I love almost anywhere I wish. I helped the community when I could and as time went on I figured once Shadow offered me the position I couldn't say no. Since then, I’ve been with Shadow and haven't looked back.”-Razorline#1024“In the beginning, I especially wanted to be able to help more easily and efficiently. I had no pretensions to get in, I was offered this [position] one evening while I was coming back from basketball training and I had no reason to refuse. It's a great experience even if it's not always easy but it has the advantage of having improved my spelling and knowing how to calm myself and others #DuCalme”-Van Hohenheim#3966“Since my arrival in the community, I felt good in it and it has made me want to get involved. I helped other users as much as I could . Then, I joined the Insiders on to help the developers and then I met the Staff Shadow at events in Paris, they were amazing ! It was a great pleasure, and I always wanted to do more. Elfamoso opened the moderation registration because more and more users were joining the Discord, and they needed people they could trust to help them (TL:DR, I was asked to join moderation almost 1 year after my request)”-RAZhkoh#9361“Because I was asked 🤣 I loved the German Discord community from the beginning and I was one of the first greeters and Shadow Gurus. After a few months of helping Shadow users and being an active part of the community I was asked if I want to be a moderator for this community and I directly said yes. At this time Shadow wasn't officially released in Germany and there were only early bird users in this community and because of users who were very sad because they were a bit too late and had to wait for the official release at the end of 2018. And we were a small and very lovely community with different kinds of users. Now the German Shadow Discord Community is much bigger and we moderators have much more to moderate as at the early bird time but it still makes a lot of fun to be part of this great community and the best Community Manager we could ever have - Malte. (sorry but he's the perfect German CM hehe)”-Gentle#5042As you can see, we usually notice those who stand out by helping others, and offer them a position on our moderation team. But there are also recruitment sessions. So if you ever feel like this is your life goal, please feel free to apply whenever we open up our moderation applications - we’ll keep you tuned in our social media channels’ announcements sections. They say the more the merrier, and we couldn’t agree more!We hope that all of this information gives you a better understanding of what our amazing moderation teams do. Last but not least: For all the tasks you do on a daily basis, for your timeless help, for your commitment, for everything, and from the bottom of our hearts: THANK YOU! 

It has now become a tradition...THE moment that everyone’s been waiting for. 2020’s cherry on top: Yes, we’re talking about this year’s best setups! Ok, we might have gone a bit crazy with the emphasis in this blog introduction, but we promise you that this selection won’t disappoint! As always, our community went above and beyond to share as many creative and good looking setups as possible. They see me rollin’, they hatin’What could be a better setup than this to play a racing game? None.  We mean, probably none. If you have a better example, like where you actually play soccer with your car while playing video games (don’t do that, it’s too dangerous, but you get the idea), please go ahead and share it with us; we would be very curious to see that! In the meantime, JsM & DaRkMiLiS set the bar really high with this one! The car, the iPad, the PlayStation controller, the environment... everything is on point. Killing me softly with this song...How cool would it be to bind the actual in-game commands to a music keyboard? Pretty cool. If you read us insrecords, please make this dream come true and provide us with a video of you killing your opponents softly with your songs! Wink, wink.   Keyboard aside, the overall setup looks quite neat and aesthetically pleasing. A music creator’s dream comes true!Please don’t stop the music!Since we’ve been talking about music, let’s directly take a look at this setup sent by Patisserisl: Our member launched Shadow on a HiBy R6. We absolutely love seeing such creative experiments!For those who wouldn’t know, the HiBy R6 is an Android MP3 music player… well, it’s not just for music once you launch Shadow! In fact, because it’s Android, it allows you to download apps available on the Google Store, Shadow included.  Our good old Walkmans came a long way for sure!When the past meets the futureYeah, we gave up on the song-related headers for this section. I guess all good things must come to an end! Just not the creative experimentations we were talking about previously. Check out this contribution sent by Webandme: It’s Shadow on a Retroid Pocket! Or “How to get a gaming PC for just a bit more than $100.” Crazy!  All the retro games and the future of gaming in the palm of your hand. One of our definitions of true beauty! Retro gaming forever in our hearts… and handsDid we say that we liked it when the past meets the future? Yeah, we have to admit we have a thing for retro gaming. And new technology. Good thing these 2 aren’t incompatible with each other!  Tekonus seems to share this passion of ours with his setup that couples an iPad to an 8bitdo controller that reminds us of the good old SNES one… but without the cord. This type of setup makes being old(er) cool. Thanks. Sticking with the winning formula! Same setup, different place. Looks like Peanutismint is same-minded as our previous contributor. Why did we want to add it if it’s quite similar? Just because we missed being out in nature.   And that jedis are cool! An apple a day keeps the doctor awayWe had lots of Apple setups this year. But what about the other tablets? Well, we do not discriminate. And neither does our community! Proof is with this setup from dolphinmachine. It looks like this year our mobile setups were the most popular ones. Might sound surprising knowing that most of us were working from home, but who can fight against the comfort of playing from bed?  Clean as a Dex-ter setup (a Dextup?)The pun was slightly (!) lame but the setup is definitely the opposite! Our member yarp1000 shared this picture of his setup on our SubReddit r/ShadowPC. Why do we think it’s unique? Well first, it has a foldable keyboard and an ergonomic mouse but most importantly, it runs on Samsung Dex!  We’ve seen more and more of this type of setup this year. Coupled with the screen’s side, it has nothing to envy from home setups! Doflamingo, is that you? Yeah, that’s what flamingos evoke to your humble author since One Piece happened. Is it the case for this setup’s creator, Auxny, too? Good question.  For now, we don’t have an answer, but we know one thing: Flamingos are beautiful creatures. Now that we stated this, let’s just take a moment to admire the beauty of this clean setup: an xBox controller and a huge screen is all you need to dive into the game and get immersed by it. Boom, headshot!If you successively achieve an actual headshot with this setup, we say GG WP you deserve all the respect in the world and probably have the best eyesight. If not, you’re still pretty amazing. That’s the case for Niclasnomis who shared this picture with us. After all, he must have one of the most portable gaming setups in the world! And that’s pretty cool.  What games does he play on this tiny smartphone setup? You can ask him directly by joining our Discord! We hope you liked this year’s selection of our setups! To be featured in next year’s, all you have to do is share yours on our social media channels. Our community managers like to gather them all year long for this traditional article. Thanks to everyone who contributed and… See you next year! 

We’ve all played games in different situations. And we’ve all been in situations when we realized the game isn’t performing like we know it could. Everything moves slower, inputs are missing their timing. You are just certain you clicked on a spot but your character just won’t respond. Your shot was dead on, but it doesn’t register as a hit. And as more and more things happen, you begin hating everything and want to just throw your computer away. We get it. Been there. Done that.  The good news is: This isn't a skill problem. The bad news? Looks like you have a lag issue.  There are two major contributing factors of lag that need to be taken into consideration: hardware and network. In today’s article, we’ll go through different factors that might contribute to making your computer lag.  Bandwidth & LatencyTo know what causes high latency, it’s first crucial to understand the difference between latency and bandwidth. Bandwidth and latency have a lot to do with one another but are not 100% the same thing.  To understand the difference between the two, there is an analogy we have seen that works well. Think of your Internet connection as a solid pipe that’s transferring data. Bandwidth (measured in Mbps) is the actual size of the pipe. If you have low bandwidth, you would have a smaller pipe that cannot carry a lot of data at once. This would be the exact opposite if you had high bandwidth. Latency (measured in ms), on the other hand, is how long it would take the data to go from end to end of the pipe in question. This is referred to as a delay or the ping rate.  CPUA weak, potentially outdated CPU can overheat easily and cause high CPU usage (which you can check in your Task Manager). This can create lag in the form of lag spikes on your computer. To think about it on a basic level, the stronger your CPU is, the better your PC performance is.RAMThere are two ways your RAM may be causing lag: not enough RAM or corrupted RAM. If your RAM is not up to the standard minimum or is corrupted, your PC cannot handle processes that help the system function. Due to its inability to manage its process load, your computer will lag, most notably in extensive tasks like gaming or editing.HDDYour hard drive is vital when it comes to loading times, what you would call the “speed” of your hard drive. Now, imagine you are playing a game on a computer that uses the traditional mechanical hard disk. If the game is demanding, your computer will lag (even has the potential to completely stall momentarily).Operating SystemThe operating system is often overlooked as something that needs to be maintained. You think of your Windows as something that simply functions properly on its own and is the constant foundation for everything. But your operating system needs to be taken care of just like all the other aspects of your PC. If you don’t maintain your operating system regularly, including making sure its configuration is correctly set up, there will be a lot of programs cluttering your PC as well as the need to proper updates. This will cause your computer to lag, regardless of how “powerful” it is. Now it’s time to check if all of these aspects work properly on your side in order to solve your lag issues and never miss a hit again. And if the problem wasn’t the lag but more your own capacities then well… you can still say it was the lag, or just have an excuse to play even more!

It has been 3 months since we welcomed our new CEO, Mike Fischer, in an introductory blog article. As much as we were excited by this news and gave a brief explanation of his plans for Shadow, it was a bit too early to dive deep into our new CEO’s vision, thoughts and goals. The good news is that Mike Fischer had the opportunity to virtually sit down with tech enthusiast and podcaster Neil Hughes during Tech Talk Daily Podcast to discuss all things Shadow: Just click here to listen!You’re more the literary type and would rather read the answers? Your desires are our command. Here is the entire podcast, transcribed for your reading pleasure:Q: Can you tell the listeners a little about who you are and what you do?Absolutely. My name is Mike Fisher. I’m the president of Shadow which is our cloud gaming service and cloud pc service with all around support for any use. We’re based in Paris with a large office in Silicon Valley as well.Q: Can you tell me the story behind the company and the overall mission there?Our three co-founders in Paris came out of a successful startup built around mobile phones and still had ambitions to carry their entrepreneurship dream. And they landed on this idea of using the power of cloud computing to liberate people from the limitations of physical devices. And it was a huge challenge because, you know, a decade before, companies like OnLive and Gaikai had made this promise that cloud gaming was powerful enough and fast enough to deliver games online. And they were not able to deliver and the companies ultimately failed. So they jumped into a space that had been fraught with danger before but the improvements in the internet over time and some of the really unique technological innovations that they created have made it possible to deliver that dream of high speed, complex, visual computing that you need for games, deliver it over the cloud with no latency problems. It really is a miraculous breakthrough that they created.Q: Can you expand that? (vision to free users from the constraints of physical hardware so that all they need is an internet connection on any device)The benefits to using Shadow as your cloud computing solution are different for different people. For some, it’s wanting to save money because they don’t want to make an expensive upgrade to their device; for others, it’s just the convenience of being able to access their PC from wherever they are. And for other people, maybe folks who have a high-end Macbook for example but want to play a PC game or a PC application. It all really depends.  But, I think, the most interesting breakthrough for me was, when I was still on the board of directors, before I took the leadership role at the company, I was showing my wife how it worked and I just said “look, you know, you connect to the internet, and plug in a monitor and keyboard and mouse to any device and you have access to this high-end PC.”  She just looked at me and said “Why would anyone ever buy a PC again?” And it really highlighted for me what a fantastic solution this is. So yes, if you have an older device, a Windows, an iOS, or an Android device, anything up to including a tablet or even an iphone, you can access a high end Windows PC and have that full functionality. So in that respect, your devices never become obsolete, your harddrive never breaks down, you never need to worry about updating your drivers, because it’s all there and taken care of and ready for you when you need it.Q: Can you tell me how Shadow offers this fully realized, constantly upgraded Windows 10 machine in the cloud and up to 2 TB of storage that is accessible by any device, desktop or phone, as long as it has Wifi access?It’s a really simple thing to explain because it’s not “like” a Windows PC, it is a Windows PC in the cloud. So you take any device you have, from a Mac or a mobile phone or an old PC, you click on the Shadow app and you’re presented with a screen that is your new Shadow desktop experience and you can do anything you would with any other brand new PC. You can store your files on it, you can use it for gaming or design or Word processing or any application that you want. The difference is that the PC’s in the cloud, so when you travel or regardless of what device you’re on, all of your files, all of that compute power is there when you need it. So you don’t have to learn anything new or do anything new, it’s just a PC in the cloud. So it’s funny people ask for a demonstration of how it works, and I’d be like “it’s your PC, it’s not any different experience than the PC experience you’ve always known”.Q: It’s just got the specs you could only dream of, right?Right, exactly. We offer a number of tiers, from a Shadow Boost, which is a 1080 PC up to far more powerful configurations. The thing that, I think, surprises most people is how we’ve been able to overcome this challenge of latency; the thing that’s held back a lot of compute, but especially for gamers.  Now obviously, Shadow does much more than just play games. In fact, I think, about half of our users spend a significant amount of time doing non-gaming applications which we can talk about. But a little bit of latency is not a big deal if you are a big enterprise managing hotel reservations. But if you are playing Fortnite, a few milliseconds can be the difference between life and death. And that is, I think, one of the unique solutions that we’ve been able to bring so your cloud experience for the vast majority of users, the vast majority of time is totally indistinguishable from a desktop experience.Q: If you’ve haven’t got a machine that isn’t capable of that kind of spec (rendering videos using a lot of resources like RAM), then Shadow would be appealing too, would that be right?Absolutely. For some people, it’s a long term, permanent solution for their high-end PC needs and for other people, it may just be a service that they need for a short amount of time. And because this is a monthly subscription, you only need to pay for it when you need it. Obviously we hope people try it and stay with us forever but we recognize that for some people it is a stop-gap solution until they upgrade their PC or just as long as they need to, say, play Cyberpunk 2077 and then maybe go back to another platform. Because we’re an open-platform device, we’re not trying to sell your games, we’re not taking a 30% cut of anyone’s transactions over our platform. We’re an open platform because it’s your PC and you control it and you can do whatever you want.Q: Who are your services aimed at, do you have any use cases you can share that just help us to understand how it could work in their world too?That is, to some degree, one of the hardest questions to answer because we definitely are focused on gamers because of two reasons: 1 is that they are an audience that is opened to new experiences; sometimes, maybe financially constrained with the challenge of buying a $2000+ high-end gaming PC. But if you look back, historically, the two major drivers of any new tech adoption are games or pornography. We felt that games were a safer place to go. That being said, if you can prove yourself to the gaming audience, then you’ve really proven yourself to almost any other application because high end games put more demands on a PC performance than just about any other application. So our feeling is that having proved ourselves with games, then we’ve demonstrated our ability to run whatever kind of application you may need. And that’s where we’ve seen people use us for very powerful applications like Autodesk or Unity or Unreal Engine because they’ve just found that it’s a really convenient way and also a low cost way to get that high-end PC performance, even if it’s not a game.Q: How have you gotten around the latency issue?So I’m not an engineer. I dropped out of engineering in university and probably saved thousands of lives by making that career choice. So I’ll explain it in simple terms because they’re the only way I can understand it. We don’t try to beat the speed of light. In other words, we aren’t trying to overcome the natural latency that it takes for a signal to go from your home to a datacenter and back. You can’t beat the speed of light. And we’re not trying to brute force it by putting big-edge computer datacenters in every neighborhood because that would be billions of billions of dollars. Instead, what we’ve done are found different shortcuts, all throughout the processing and the signal that’s moving around inside your device at home. And we shave a millisecond here, millisecond there, between your monitor and your device or your keyboard and your mouse and through a lot of those “latency workarounds”, we’re able to compensate for the natural time it takes that signal to go back and forth to the datacenter. So the result is you won’t feel that difference at all when you play on your device. Now every signal to the home has its own unique situations so I can’t promise that you’ll never experience lag or latency but it is remarkably consistent. That being said, your mileage may vary.  If you’re living on a farm in a rural area with a very old copper wire, that may not be the best fit but we have a speedtest at the front of our website so it’s easy for you to use that to connect to the nearest datacenter and see how it works.Q: Has there been a big increase in gaming this year due to the pandemic and people spending more time at home?Yes and it’s kinda a mixed blessing for us. Because there’s a greater need than ever but if you see on social media, there’s a waiting line to get into our service. We cannot fulfill the demand as fast as we would like. It also means that for the people who are using our service, they’re using it more and more hours a day and they’re using it at greater levels of currency which puts more and more stress on our system, on our network, so it’s harder work for our engineers.  I wish we had the unlimited resources to stand up even more servers and to support all the people who want to jump in. But yes, there has been an amazing spike in our usage. And we see it in different ways.  The first spike of COVID, there was really across the board rising level of usage. For the second wave, it seemed to be even more particularly focused on weekends. Which is strange because people are staying at home anyway but I guess our premise is that the folks even who were working from home would still go out on the weekends but as the lockdowns became stricter, even the weekend activities were off the books for them so there was even more time spent online. So yeah mixed blessing, good things for us in terms of more people wanting to use our service but definitely more stress on our infrastructure and our services.Q: Can you tell me more about Shadow Ultra and Shadow Infinite and when are they coming to Europe?Shadow Ultra and Shadow Infinite are our higher spec tiers that offer even more memory and even higher level processing power.  It’s been harder than we thought to roll it out and more time-consuming. And I think we did probably announce it earlier than I would have liked.  It’s coming out, even in the US, to limited regions starting this month and then early next year we’re expecting to roll it out in Europe as well. But if you look on social media, we definitely built up people’s expectations a little too soon so the last thing I want to do is over-promise it now because we already have a long queue of people waiting in line to get that added memory and to get those even more powerful processors.Q: What’s next for Shadow? Any teasers?Yeah, I always remember being the marketing guy at a number of gaming companies and the CEO would get excited and pre-announce something. It would just drive me crazy so I would never want to be that guy. But I think the interesting thing about us is it’s not so much that we’re constantly rolling out headline-making, new features and services because, again, at the heart, what makes our service great is that it is just that Windows PC you love but it’s in the cloud.  What we’ve done recently is even more important to our users which is that we’re constantly rolling out new improvements to the user experience. Now, for the first few years, it was just getting that latency down, getting that visual fidelity high, and making it a better technical performance. If you tried Shadow two years ago and you tried Shadow today, it’s an incredibly improved experience. A part of that is because the internet and infrastructure keeps getting better but a big part of it is a lot of small improvements we’ve continued to make behind the scenes. Some of the things we’ve done more recently is, as I mentioned, we’ve put out a speedtest on our website so you can ping our servers and make sure you have quality of service before you sign up; we’ve rolled out things like dynamic bitrate; we’ve even added mouse and keyboard support for iOS so you can operate on an iPhone, a windows desktop PC experience, using a mouse and keyboard. We’ve even rolled out an alpha for VR so if you have an Oculus headset, you can try our alpha and have that experience. We have even more improvements coming out in the weeks and months ahead and I think if you go to social media and you look for the features everyone’s crying for, you’ll get a pretty good sense of the new things that we’re working on that we hope to be announcing soon. We listen to our users, we listen to our fans, we’re very active across Discord and Reddit and all of our social media and we take that feedback very seriously. I don’t post very often but I read all of those comments. Sometimes they’re inspiring, sometimes they’re heartbreaking. But those comments and that feedback is really important to us.Q: Where is the best place for interested people to learn more about Shadow or keep up to date or even contact a member of your team?The best place to start is our website, Shadow.tech, but we also have a very active Discord community as well as a great subreddit, ShadowPC. So I think those are great ways to find us and to get involved with our community and our community members and many times our employees and executives are also active on that. We have a great Twitch stream, JBK, our CTO, often goes on that stream to talk about our new improvements and innovations and breakthroughs there.And voilà! We hope you enjoyed reading this transcript. Until next time, take care!

Want to relive the First Crusade? The Viking invasions? The conquest of England by William the Conqueror? Then this game is for you.Crusader Kings III is a strategy game set in 2 epochs of history: Either during the period of the Viking invasions in 867 AD, or just before the First Crusade in 1066.A little tip before getting to the heart of the matter: If you don't know the game, you should absolutely go through the tutorial to understand the numerous amounts of mechanics.Who am I to tell you to do a tutorial? Well, I'm Vincent, Marketing Project Manager at Shadow. And today I decided to take control of the blog to share my thoughts with you about this little jewel!The beginning of the game. Families, duchies, casus belli, and wars.Being a beginner, I had to go through the tutorial. That helped me tremendously in the discovery of Crusader King III’s incredible game system. The game is based on alliances, families, and the creation of casus belli (I'll explain what that is later) to invade your neighbors and make them your vassals.The following is essential information: A “family” represents a people and a territory. I, for example, chose a family in Ireland, that of "little king Murchad" from the "BRIAN" family. Was it the exotic climate (hum) of Ireland that appealed to me? Or its wonderful landscapes? To be honest, the reason I chose this family is simple: Its natural borders are sea and ocean, which makes it easier to play. And as I said earlier, I’m quite a beginner, so I needed something manageable. I wanted to secure my borders on the south of my territory, that’s why I started to prepare for war, going against my neighbor to the south Desmond. To start a war against another ruler, it is absolutely necessary to have a pretext, called a "casus belli". My casus belli? This territory was previously part of my duchy. That sounded like a good excuse to me, but you can probably be more creative.Therefore, I confidently went to war to fight my opponent and recover my due. Once the battle was won (so much skill), I besieged the capital and made it my vassal after negotiating peace. Genghis Khan himself would have been impressed!The game of alliances and familiesWith my southern border secure, I was finally able to take the time to think about my expansion. My aim was to form the great Kingdom of Ireland by bringing together all the different families under one banner.War is one way to conquer new territories, but there are others, such as diplomacy and family alliances.This is one of the aspects that makes this game so interesting: The political and family intrigues.Being single, I wanted to marry a powerful family who could support me in the event of future conquests. Marriage of love? Very little for me. Anyway, I managed to marry a person from the family of William the Conqueror of the Duchy of Normandy. This alliance allowed me to have a strong ally in France and England. I then perpetuated the alliances by marrying my family members with other strong allies in the area. Hoping they weren't dreaming of a loving marriage either.But I was still far from my goal: I wanted to bring together the people of Ireland under one unique banner. This is why, during a plot (an in-game event that the player gets to choose), I decided to create a casus belli against one of my neighbors to the north. Confident, I raised my army, attacked him, and... I lost several battles. But not the war! Well, not yet. To be completely transparent, I wasn’t feeling so confident anymore. That’s when I remembered the alliance system and decided to make good use of it. I asked for help from one of my allies, who quickly raise his army to help me win the war. GG WP, teamwork makes the dream work, we won! This allowed me to make the defeated family my vassal. But beware, with great power comes great dangers! As a king, it is very important to pay attention to the ambitions of your vassals. That’s why, on my side, I decided to keep the ruler of my southern vassal captive to avoid any possible rebellion. Yeah, I'm a pretty nice king.To expand, you have to play with alliances, diplomacy, and trickeries (my favorite field). By creating strategic marital alliances, we can foresee descendants who will have claims on coveted territories. It is also possible to create wars of succession by eliminating the heirs of another family in order to place your own there.To sum it up, in Crusaders Kings III, you have to play with diplomacy, strength, and authority (you’re the king after all) in order to make your kingdom grow and prosper. This game allowed me to make a dream come true (to be a king) without suffering its consequences (to be captured, killed, or worse)! If you like this type of game, don't hesitate: Get it now on Steam!

In last month's big update, we officially released dynamic bitrate, a nifty feature that helps you lose less packets for a smooth gaming experience at all times. This month, it’s all about communication and quality of life. And of course, we’re talking about your life that’ll be made easier with this fresh update.Hey you! Your network quality droppedWell obviously your network quality is decent or else you wouldn’t be using Shadow, right? Also, your Shadow should never ever talk to you like that. If it did, we would have to have a long and thorough conversation with you and your Shadow. And we know how that ends.To enjoy Shadow, the most important element is stable and sufficient bandwidth (>15 Mbit/s), but even the most powerful connection can have a bad day. Don’t think it’s possible? Well think again, because these seemingly innocuous situations can impact your connection: Someone in your household streams 80s action movies in 4kUnexpected, automatic updates from other devicesYour neighbor’s dog partially eats the ethernet cableThe apartment you live in has a busy internet dayYour significant other’s favorite shooter released another 500gb season pass update that needs to be downloaded right nowWhile one of the listed causes might require you to get an entirely new cable, the others can still mess with your online cowboy action bad enough.The dynamic duoSo at this point, let’s assume that your network has a drop in bandwidth and the dynamic bitrate already did it’s thing by auto-magically adjusting the overall allocation of your Shadow.With our newest update, your Shadow will warn you via a rapid notification that your network quality changed. Why the notification when the issue is already taken care of by the Dynamic Bitrate you ask? Because this way you’ll have a chance to manually improve your local connection in the long term (if possible) by knowing when a drop occurred. So this way you know when, or when not, to kindly ask your roommate to please stop binge-watching that series for just two hours. Just two hours, I mean srsly. It’s not too much to ask for, right?💡 When you experience bad network conditions, your Shadow will now provide you with tips on how you can improve your connection within your Quick Menu.Image scaling on your ShadowThis is not the only new feature Shadow’s 3.7 app version brings to the table. Alongside network notifications, we introduced better image scaling of your Shadow.What does that mean?If you are, for example, using your Shadow on a Linux, Mac, or Windows PC with display settings such as 1080p, 120hz and 150% in scaling, your Shadow will now not only recognize this, but also apply these settings for next time.While Shadow was already pretty good at recognizing the display settings of your local (host) computer, it now also checks and adapts your scaling preferences.One more thing before you leave:🎮 This update also introduces basic support for the new PlayStation 5 DualSense and Xbox Series X / S controllers. This means it will be usable like an Xbox 360 controller to play your favorite games. And now, have fun and game on!

Hey everyone! My name is Lucas Zuege, and I am the founder of the Cloud Gaming blog, Luro.io. Shadow has allowed me to take over the blog for a day. I will be writing an article to reflect upon the time I spent testing out Shadow's new offer, Shadow Infinite, and other exclusive testers' experiences.If you are on Shadow's blog, I am assuming you already know what Shadow Infinite and Shadow Ultra are. If you do not, you can check out their recent blog post detailing the announcement of these new offers in the United States.As part of the Shadow Maker's program, I was one of the first to gain access to one of Shadow's new configurations. I was lucky and received a Shadow Infinite test machine. Here is my overall experience.First ImpressionsMy first impressions of Shadow Infinite have been positive so far. Within the first hour of using the new machine, I did take note of the additional storage space. Being able to download multiple games from my favorite game launchers is a significant win in my books.Then, I started to get into doing some work. When writing articles for my blog, sometimes I find myself opening 20+ tabs in the chromium-based browser, Brave. For those that use a chromium-based browser, you know how resource-hungry they are.On my home laptop and my Shadow Boost, I have to utilize tab hibernation to save on resources, especially if I am multitasking with video encoding, software building, and any other resource-intensive application. With Shadow Infinite, I did not notice any slowdowns, no matter how much I threw at it. This is thanks to the 32GB of RAM and the much faster CPU.So far, before I even started gaming, I loved Shadow Infinite.Gaming on Shadow InfiniteWhat would a review of these new offers be without a section talking about how well it runs games? Well, here is that section!At 1080p, with the highest possible graphical settings and RTX enabled in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the benchmark showed an average of 86FPS, with it spiking to 120+FPS in less cramped areas.Coming from Shadow Boost, this is a significant step up, especially with the ability to enable Ray-Tracing.Games that I have played on Shadow Infinite have managed to stay above 60FPS, with most of them in the 110-144FPS range. These same games on Shadow Boost could barely stay at 60FPS.More than just gamingOne of the best features of Shadow is the fact that the service offers you a Windows 10 PC in the cloud. You can do more with it than just gaming. Although you can play games on other Cloud Gaming platforms for cheaper, you would not be able to replace your computer with one of those services completely.I decided to do just that. I pulled out my Shadow Ghost and replaced my PC with it. To get into using these new offers, I forced myself to use the Shadow Ghost and utilize my Shadow Infinite for 100% of my daily computing. This includes my blog work, my day job, and gaming.I am amazed by how well Shadow Infinite has handled all of the tasks I have thrown at it. I have never had a computer nearly as powerful as this that I could access from most of my devices. It is truly remarkable how well Shadow Infinite performs.Plus, how awesome is it to say that you are running a beast of a rig in such a small form factor? I honestly love not having a large PC taking up space on or around my desk!What others have to sayI am only one of many that had the opportunity to test out the new offers. I have reached out to a few of the other testers on Discord and asked them about their experiences. Here is what some of them had to say."I feel very spoiled with the quality, I have played with some RTX supported games and it is really good." - @TheGamateers#6918"I love how fast [Shadow] the Infinite runs. The 32gb of RAM, the amazing CPU, the 1tb of SSD space, and of course we can't forget the RTX graphics card... all of these put together make for a very speedy machine. And the quality of the games that take advantage of the RTX capabilities? The games are gorgeous." - @Saphrym#0713"I tried playing some games back to back on [Shadow Infinite and Shadow Boost], and the lower frame rate and game graphics on boost became very evident. [Shadow] Boost is great, but [Shadow] Infinite, is well, infinitely better." - @Powell#1412"As for having anything else to say about the tiers, I hope they push them out to all data centers and regions soon because they're such a massive step up from the [Shadow] Boost tier" - @Hellhaven#0001Final ThoughtsFrom those that I have interviewed and from my personal experience, these new configurations have gotten mostly positive feedback. From an improvement to the CPU that many have requested, to a significant boost in graphical power from more modern Quadro GPUs, you cannot go wrong with choosing Shadow as your Cloud Gaming platform of choice.I am excited to see what Shadow will bring to the table in the coming years. With tech giants invading the cloud gaming space, it is good to see that a company like Shadow can hold their ground and provide a fantastic product to consumers.I can say that a few years ago, I never thought I would be using a computer in the cloud for all of my computing needs. But here we are, and I do not think I could ever go back to not using my Shadow.I want to say thank you to Shadow for allowing me to test out Shadow Infinite and write a guest post for their blog. You guys are awesome!

We here at Shadow believe that everyone should have access to an affordable, fully functional and powerful computer in the cloud, accessible on a device you already own. A computer that you can use for gaming, browsing, streaming, designing & more.  Shadow has a referral program To give new, interested members an easier way into the world of cloud computing and breathe new life into their devices, we have our very own Shadow referral program. The program is simple and gives both the referrer and the referred some much-appreciated cash savings. Ready to find out how it works? Then, let’s get right to it 🙌 How does the program work? Every Shadow member with access to their account details has a unique referral code just waiting in their “Referral” tab to be shared. So whether your Shadow is already accessible or not, as soon as you receive your order confirmation, you are ready to share your referral code. A referral code usually looks like this: Y2734OY95. 💡 In order to receive the benefits, new subscribers have to enter the referral code on the shop page before checking out.  What are the benefits of using the Shadow referral program? What a question. Money of course! And the love of sharing.  Sharing your referral code with friends, family, pets, or neighbors who are looking to upgrade their gaming experience is nothing but free money for both of you. And when we say free money, we mean free money:The referred member (ie your neighbor) saves $5 on their first month of Shadow The referring member (you) saves $1 on their bill each month for every referred member for as long as that member has an active Shadow subscription This is money you don’t spend. Money that you are completely free to use for whatever you like the most. Things like games, a coffee, or more storage for your Shadow. How do you want to buy games from that $1, you ask? Pretty simple. This $1 is per active referred member, which means the more active Shadow members have used your code at check-out, the more money you save on your own monthly subscription.  💡 Referred members receive their discount immediately while referring members will see their benefit around 20 days after the referred member received access to their Shadow. Do you wish to learn more about Shadow’s Referral Program? Then please check our dedicated FAQ. And now get out there!Share that Ref-Code!

If you’ve been following us since the start, it means you already know: even when we were just a handful of people in a tiny office with no product released, our ambition was to make our technology available across the globe. In 5 years, we successfully launched Shadow in France, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Belgium, United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands and the United States. One of our ambitions was to start expanding in Asia, and that is what we are doing right now with our South Korea launch! Our first steps in South Korea“You’re a French company, what would you know about the Asian market?” you might ask. Well, first things first, we recruited amazing co-workers in Korea (will talk about them later) and prepared this launch with our partner LG Electronics. Our first South Korean members will discover Shadow service as you know it, but with a bit of a different offer: They will have the opportunity to try Shadow on a laptop made by LG Electronics. This trial offer will be limited in quantities as we want to see how the community enjoys it. Once we collect their feedback, we will start our official launch next year. "We are focusing on increasing the value of our customers through cloud-based services," LG Electronics said. "We look forward to working with Shadow to provide differentiated experiences."And so do we! In a country where everyone has top-of-the-line Internet connections and where gaming has such an important place, we have no doubt that our cloud computing technology crafted for gamers will hit the spot! Asia, here we come!This is just the first step in the “Asia discovering Shadow” series. And it wouldn’t have been possible without our datacenter and Internet provider, KINX. Our components are stored in their datacenters, in Seoul, so that all of our South Korean members can enjoy Shadow without latency. And because we thought you might be curious to see how we installed everything, and what it looks like now, here are a few pictures:  Yes, these big boxes are full of components for our South Korean Shadow members!  We filled many racks like these. Ta-dah! This is the final look. All lit up and operational. We are very happy to see that everything is ready for our South Korean launch, and we cannot wait to see what the future holds for Shadow, in Asia, and in the rest of the world! Of course, none of this would’ve been possible without our new South Korean team members. Let’s get to the introductions. Who’s working behind the scenes? In order to make this ambition come true, we had to make sure we got the right people on our side. This is why we recruited Chris and EunYoung, who are based in South Korea, to join our team as the first step. Chris Chris was our first recruit in South Korea. He’s the General Manager of North Asia and led our partnership with LG Electronics. He loves all things high-tech and has deep knowledge in the IT and Game industry. However, he doesn’t spend all of his time behind screens: He also loves to spend his off time in nature. Before joining us, he lived in many different countries all over the world, which made him a perfect fit for our multicultural company. He is also the one who found us EunYoung! EunYoungJust like Chris, she is a multifaceted teammate who worked like crazy for this launch. Her career began as a content editor, and she is now well-known for her communication skills. Among her tasks, she launched a discussion hub for our new community members, here. If you clicked on it, we hope you practiced your Korean, because there’s no English translation for it. On a more personal note, she loves to play Fall Guys with her Xbox Controller on her MacBook (which is possible because she uses Shadow!). She is also known to be active on our Slack channels, especially when food or puppies are involved. Thank you EunYoung for being our reference in terms of Korean cuisine and traditions! Teamwork makes the dream work!Of course, our Korean counterparts weren’t alone on this adventure. Other team members from our Paris HQ and US office were also responsible for working with them on this launch. As always, teamwork makes the dream work. It is amazing to see our team and community grow, and expand across the globe. The more, the merrier! Yes, we used lots of expressions in this last paragraph but what can we say… they speak the truth. We have no doubt that the South Asian community will love Shadow, and we cannot wait to grow across the world!