Method of and System for Controlling the Rendering of a Video Game Instance

A non-transitory, computer readable medium having computer executable instructions stored thereon, which when executed by a computer system, cause the computer system to control rendering of a video game instance by carry out actions, comprising:

• obtaining game state information and player inputs from a plurality of client devices participating in a video game session, each client device being associated with a respective participant of the video game session;
• identifying, based on the obtained game state information, a client device as having or being likely to render a video game instance with a quality that is less than a threshold quality;
• allocating a cloud game client to the identified client device;
• providing the player inputs received from the identified client device and the obtained game state information to the allocated cloud game client;
• rendering at the cloud game client, based on the obtained game state information and player inputs, the video game instance that has or is expected to drop below the threshold quality, and transmitting the video game instance rendered by the cloud game client to the identified client device for display at an associated display.

A cloud gaming system, comprising:

• a games unit operable to obtain game state information and player inputs from a plurality of client devices participating in a video game session, the games unit being operable to generate a virtual environment accessible by multiple concurrent players participating in the video game session;
• a monitoring unit operable to receive game state information for the video game session and identify one or more client devices as being likely to render video game instances with a quality that is less than a threshold quality based on the received game state information;
• wherein the games unit is configured to receive an input from the monitoring unit, and in response thereto, cause the game state information and player inputs to be provided to a cloud game client;
• a cloud game client operable to render video game instances for the one or more identified client devices based on the game state information and player inputs;
• and
• an output unit operable to transmit the video game instances rendered at the cloud game client to the corresponding client devices for display at respective displays associated with the client devices.