CES 2022: Alienware’s Concept Nyx reimagines the way you move & play your games from your PC, TV, and beyond

Arif Bacchus

Dell’s Alienware is reimagining the way you play your games. Just revealed is Concept Nyx, a futuristic new way to simultaneously allow players in a household to easily access their full game library, and play it on any device, and even change screens during gameplay.

Though there are no current plans to bring this to market, Nyx is a project from the Experience Innovation Group at Alienware. The concept uses edge computing, and a home server where processing happens locally (and where your games are stored,) to send all your games (via an on-device app) across different devices via a Wi-Fi network.

It even has a central library of all your games, regardless of where you purchase them from. Dell provided us with this situation during a hands-on demo in New York City ahead of CES 2022.

Imagine you’re on your desktop in your bedroom exploring Night City in CyberPunk 2077. Your roommates are on their laptops and tablets in the living room, battling head-to-head in Rocket League. And your cousin is also over, casually building a new world in Minecraft on her cell phone. Now let’s say it’s time to prepare dinner so you head downstairs and pass the controller to one of your roommates – you can quickly switch to your CyberPunk 2077 experience on the 65-inch TV in the living room and let
them takeover exactly where you left off, advancing your game while you cook.

Dell tells us that Nyx even can let you power four game streams simultaneously on a big screen TV. That’s because, unlike Cloud gaming services, Nyx has its server in your own home, so it lowers latency, and greater bandwidth and responsiveness. That can equate to single-digit millisecond latency. “As we further develop Concept Nyx, we aim to use each step forward to benefit future products and enhance the user experience. We hope you’re as jazzed as we are to embark on this journey, and we look forward to keeping you in the loop,” said Glen Robson, CTO, Client Solutions Group, Dell Technologies.