Alienware Concept Nyx just redefined gaming for the home — here’s how

I think we’re all sick of waiting for PS5 restocks, Xbox Series X restocks and RTX 3080 restocks. Why can’t we just have one single piece of hardware in our home that streams AAA games to any screen we want?

That’s the idea behind Alienware’s Concept Nyx, and I got a chance to see it in action ahead of CES 2022.

Think of Concept Nyx as a cloud gaming service like Xbox Game Pass, Google Stadia or Nvidia GeForce Now. Except instead of streaming over the web using distant servers, all the processing would happen locally via a central server in your home and high-speed local networking. You wouldn’t need one of the best gaming laptops or best gaming PCs to play, either, since the gameplay would be streamed to your screen. Even a slim Dell XPS 13 would do the trick.

Alienware uses this scenario to describe the potential of Concept Nyx. You could be playing CyberPunk 2077 in your bedroom on a desktop or laptop and then switch the gameplay to your 65-inch TV in the living room when you go downstairs and pick up right where you left off. All the while other gamers in your abode or playing Rocket League on their own laptop or tablet, and yet another person is playing Minecraft on their phone.

The Concept Nyx device looks like a black monolith that would sit somewhere in your house and connect with your Wi-Fi network, presumably Wi-Fi 6E for the best results. And there’s an intuitive game launcher interface so you can jump right into the action. This simple app would be loaded on each device, providing instant access to all of your games.

The coolest part of the Concept Nyx demo was seeing two different games streamed to the same TV at once, which is serious multitasking but is a realistic scenario when you think about how big the best TVs are getting. It’s like DirecTV’s Game Mix feature for the NFL but for video games. In fact, Concept Nyx is looking to eventually power four game streams simultaneously.

During our demo, I noticed a bit of glitching during one sequence, but since this is a concept that’s understandable. It would just be awesome to look around the room and see gameplay pass from one screen to the next with minimal fuss.