Application streaming

Definition
Application streaming (commonly marketed as Games on Demand or GoD) is a broadband-only service where games application data is downloaded to a user's PC on a continual basis as and when needed. Often, the game interface is installed on the user's PC, giving the semblance of a full game installation and the actual game application is run on the local PC rather than on the server. The server therefore simply acts as a remote hard drive from which, for example, level information (layout, art, animation, artificial intelligence data, etc.), is drawn at the appropriate time just as the application would have done with a local hard-drive. Games on Demand services are run under a subscription business model.