Games — what runs and what doesn't

Anti-cheat limitations, pre-installed titles, and game-specific notes.

By Help Dmitry

• 4 articles

Why Valorant, PUBG, Genshin Impact don't work — the anti-cheat problem

Some popular games refuse to run on Loudplay. Valorant, PUBG, Genshin Impact, NBA 2K26, Escape From Tarkov, and Fortnite (on certain modes) won't launch — or launch and immediately close. The reason is the same in every case: their anti-cheat systems block virtual machines by design. This article explains why, lists what's affected, and tells you what to do before buying time for one of these. Why this happens Modern competitive games ship with kernel-level anti-cheat: Vanguard (Valorant), BattlEye (PUBG, EFT, Fortnite), and similar. These tools run in the operating system kernel and check whether the machine is a real PC or a virtual machine. If they detect a VM, they refuse to run the game. This isn't an oversight on our side. It's a deliberate decision by the anti-cheat vendors. From their perspective, cloud gaming services and VMs are higher-risk environments for cheating, so they block them outright. They'd rather lose a small percentage of legitimate cloud-gaming users than have a single new attack vector. There's no setting we can flip to make these games work. The block happens in the game's own code, on launch, before we get a chance to do anything. What's blocked Confirmed not to work: - Valorant (Vanguard anti-cheat) - PUBG: Battlegrounds (BattlEye) - Genshin Impact (mhyprot) - NBA 2K26 (kernel-level anti-cheat) - Escape From Tarkov (BattlEye) - Fortnite — Battle Royale and competitive modes (BattlEye / Easy Anti-Cheat) - Riot Client games broadly (Riot uses Vanguard across their lineup) - Call of Duty: Warzone / Modern Warfare III (Ricochet anti-cheat) - Apex Legends (Easy Anti-Cheat in some modes) - Rainbow Six Siege (BattlEye) The list grows over time as games update their anti-cheat. If a game you want to play isn't in the Catalog, that's usually the reason. What's not blocked Most single-player titles, co-op games, MMOs without kernel anti-cheat, indie games, and many F2P games run fine. If a game is in the Loudplay Catalog, it's because we've verified it runs. If a game you're interested in isn't in the Catalog and you're not sure whether anti-cheat is the issue: search the game's name plus "anti-cheat" online. Vendor and forum discussions usually make it clear within the first result. Before you buy time Don't buy a Loudplay package specifically to play one of the blocked games. Time spent discovering this isn't a refund-eligible reason — see "Refunds — when we issue them and how to request one" — because the limitation is documented and not a service failure. If you're unsure whether a specific game works: - Check the Game Catalog — if it's there, it works. - Search the title in the catalog's search. No result usually means it's not supported, often (but not always) due to anti-cheat. - Email help@loudplay.io before buying time if you have any doubt. We'll tell you straight. "Are you working on a fix?" This is a known issue we keep an eye on. We can't promise a fix because the change has to come from the anti-cheat vendors — the choice to allow VMs (or specific cloud-gaming providers) is on their side. Some vendors have started supporting specific cloud platforms; if and when they extend support to general-purpose cloud gaming, the games unblock automatically with no work from us. In the meantime, the list above is the practical reality. If your main interest is competitive shooters with kernel anti-cheat, Loudplay isn't the right service for you yet. What about VPN tricks or VM detection bypasses We don't support workarounds that hide the fact that the game is running in our environment. Beyond breaking each game's terms of service (which can get your account banned, not ours), most modern anti-cheat detects spoofing attempts as easily as it detects the VM itself. The risk is yours and the success rate is approximately zero. Stick to the games that are documented to work.

Last updated on Apr 27, 2026

Pre-installed games versus games you own

Loudplay rents you a powerful gaming PC. We don't rent you the games — those you bring with you, the same way you'd bring them to any other PC. This trips up some users who see a game in the Catalog and assume it's free to play. This article clears that up. What "pre-installed" actually means Many titles in the Catalog are pre-installed on the virtual PC. Click the tile, the game's launcher (Steam, Epic, Rockstar) opens, you sign in to your own account, and you play. Pre-installed means we've put the game's files on the machine so you don't wait for a 100 GB download. It does not mean we've bought the game for you. The licence belongs to your launcher account. Practical consequence: clicking a pre-installed game tile, then signing in to a Steam account that doesn't own that game, won't let you play. Steam will show "Add to library" or "Buy" — same as on a regular PC. What you need to bring For most games: - A Steam account with the game purchased (for Steam-distributed titles) - An Epic Games account with the game in your library (for Epic-distributed titles) - A Rockstar Social Club account for GTA V, Red Dead Redemption 2, etc. - A Ubisoft Connect account for Ubisoft titles - An EA account for EA titles If the game requires a launcher we don't pre-install, you can install that launcher inside the session, but it won't persist between sessions — see "Installing your own games from Steam and Epic" for the persistence rules. Free-to-play exceptions A handful of games are genuinely free to launch — no ownership check needed. Examples: - Dota 2 - Counter-Strike 2 - Path of Exile - Warframe For these you still sign in to a Steam (or relevant launcher) account, but you don't need to have purchased the title. A new Steam account with no games still works. Some F2P games still won't run on Loudplay because of anti-cheat — see "Why Valorant, PUBG, Genshin Impact don't work". Free-to-play and runs-on-Loudplay aren't the same thing. Why we don't sell game licences Two reasons: - Licensing. Reselling Steam, Epic, or Rockstar games requires deals we don't have, and those companies generally don't sell wholesale to third parties. - Account ownership. Your save files, achievements, friend list, and purchase history live in your launcher account. If we bought the games, they'd be tied to a Loudplay-owned account that you'd lose access to the day you stop using us. That's worse for you, not better. Renting the PC and letting you bring your own games means your library, progress, and achievements survive whether or not you keep using Loudplay. What about games I bought on Loudplay before Loudplay has never sold game licences. If you have time on your account, that's hours of PC rental, not games. There's nothing to migrate to a launcher account because nothing was ever owned by Loudplay on your behalf. Putting it together The mental model: Loudplay = a fast PC with a game library shelf already loaded. The games on the shelf are the box-art catalog of "we've installed these for you". To actually play one, you sign in to the same account you'd use on any PC and prove you own it. If you don't own a game on any launcher and want to try it, the cheapest path is buying it on Steam (or wherever it's sold) — that purchase travels with you to any device, including Loudplay.

Last updated on Apr 27, 2026

GTA V RolePlay (FiveM, RageMP) on Loudplay

FiveM and RageMP are third-party multiplayer modifications for GTA V. They're not part of GTA V itself and not officially supported by Rockstar. People ask whether they work on Loudplay all the time, and the honest answer is: usually yes for the launcher itself, but we don't promise the experience. What you can do You can install FiveM or RageMP inside your Loudplay session and try to connect to community servers. The Catalog doesn't ship a tile for them, but nothing prevents you from running them: 1. Start a session with GTA V available (you need to own GTA V on Rockstar Social Club or Steam). 2. Open Steam (or Rockstar Launcher) inside the session, install GTA V if it's not already there. 3. Download the FiveM or RageMP installer from the official site, run it inside the session. 4. Connect to a server. Both launchers are technically capable of running on the virtual PC. Many users do play this way. What we don't promise The "third-party launcher" part matters. We don't QA FiveM or RageMP on every release. If the launcher updates and breaks something, or a specific server's mod pack misbehaves, or the connection between the launcher and the server is unstable, we usually can't help you debug it — we don't run those servers. Specific limitations to be aware of: - Voice chat through the mod's plugin. Some FiveM servers use third-party voice plugins that depend on local audio devices in unusual ways. These don't always work over the streaming protocol. - Custom controllers and peripherals. RP servers often expect specific keybinds; if you've bound something to a peripheral the streaming protocol doesn't pass through (side mouse buttons, racing wheels), you'll need to remap. - Anti-cheat on individual servers. Some FiveM servers run their own anti-cheat in addition to FiveM's. Those occasionally flag VMs the same way kernel-level anti-cheat does. If a specific server kicks you out repeatedly, that's the server's choice — try a different server. Persistence FiveM and RageMP installations do not persist between Loudplay sessions. Steam and Epic installations persist; everything else gets wiped. You'll need to reinstall the launcher each session. To save time, install once at the start of a multi-hour session and play in the same session. If you play roleplay regularly, factor reinstall time into how you plan your packages — a 3-hour session is mostly play time, but reinstalling FiveM eats 15–20 minutes of it. Refunds for FiveM/RageMP issues If a session was technically fine on our side (good streaming, fast server, no Loudplay outages) but FiveM crashed, the server you joined was misconfigured, or the mod pack didn't load — that's not a refund-eligible reason. Our service worked; the third-party software didn't. If a session was bad because of our infrastructure (lags, disconnects, stuck queue) and you couldn't even reach the FiveM launcher — that's a normal refund case, see "Refunds — when we issue them and how to request one". When to use Loudplay for GTA RP Reasonable use case: you have a fast home connection, want a higher-spec PC than your laptop, GTA V already in your Rockstar/Steam library, and a server with a moderate mod pack. Plays well. Less reasonable: serious competitive RP on heavily modded servers expecting sub-30ms latency. Loudplay's added latency from your device → our server → the game server makes that less viable. For tournament-grade RP, a local high-end PC is still the right tool. Vanilla GTA V Online GTA V's standard Online mode (without FiveM/RageMP) works without these caveats. Sign in with Rockstar Social Club, launch GTA V from the Catalog, play. Rockstar's anti-cheat for GTA Online doesn't block VMs.

Last updated on Apr 27, 2026

Where the servers are and what to do about ping

Loudplay's servers are in the United States. Cloud gaming adds latency on top of whatever ping you'd already have to a game server, so where you live affects how the service feels. This article explains what to expect and what to do about it. Latency you should expect The latency that matters is the round-trip time from your device to our server. The game then runs on the server with its own latency to the game's multiplayer infrastructure (if applicable). Rough numbers (network round-trip from typical users to our US-East data centre): | Region | Typical ping to our server | |--------|----------------------------| | US East Coast | 20–40 ms | | US West Coast | 70–90 ms | | US Central | 40–60 ms | | Canada (Eastern) | 30–50 ms | | Canada (Western) | 80–110 ms | | Mexico | 80–130 ms | | Latin America | 130–220 ms | | Western Europe | 100–140 ms | | Eastern Europe | 140–180 ms | | Asia | 200+ ms | Add the streaming protocol's processing time (~10–20 ms typical) for your felt input lag. So if your network ping is 40 ms, your perceived input lag is roughly 50–60 ms — comparable to a wireless mouse on a normal PC. What "good ping" means for different games | Use case | Comfortable up to | |----------|-------------------| | Single-player AAA | 100 ms — barely noticeable | | Casual multiplayer (MMO, slower-paced) | 100 ms | | Action RPGs, racing | 80 ms — playable, you adapt | | Fighting games | 60 ms — the lower the better | | Competitive shooters | 40 ms or less — and even then competitive players feel it | If you're outside the US, competitive PvP shooters at sub-50ms input lag won't be possible on Loudplay. Single-player and casual co-op work fine almost anywhere. Things you can do to lower latency Use Ethernet, not Wi-Fi. This is the single biggest improvement for most users. Wi-Fi adds 5–30 ms of jitter on top of your wired latency. A $5 ethernet cable beats any router upgrade. If you must use Wi-Fi, prefer 5 GHz. 2.4 GHz is shared with microwaves, baby monitors, and your neighbours; 5 GHz is cleaner and faster. In your router's settings, make sure the 5 GHz band is enabled and that your device is connected to it (not the 2.4 GHz network). Close other apps using your connection. A Dropbox sync, a paused-but-not-actually-paused download, a smart TV streaming Netflix in another room — any of these can spike your latency unpredictably. Restart your router. Routers degrade over weeks of uptime. A 30-second power cycle resets the buffers and often shaves 10–20 ms off pings. Streaming-side settings to try Inside the session, the floating Quick Menu has settings that affect latency directly: - Lag Resilience. Default: Low. If you're getting dropped frames or visual freezes, increase this — it adds a tiny buffer that smooths over network hiccups at the cost of a few extra ms of input lag. For high-ping users (>120 ms), Medium or High often plays better than Low even though the input lag is technically higher. - Bitrate. Lower bitrate = less bandwidth needed = fewer dropped frames on flaky connections. If your connection is stable, leave it on Auto. If it's marginal, drop to 5–10 Mbit/s manually. - FPS. Lock to 30 if your connection can't sustain 60 reliably — better stable 30 fps than dropping frames at 60. - Resolution. Lower resolution streams use less bandwidth and arrive faster. If your monitor is 1080p and your connection is borderline, try 720p in the streaming settings — your monitor will upscale. For the full streaming-settings reference and what each option does, see "Stream is laggy or blurry — settings to try" in the Technical issues section. Why all the servers are in the US This is the current infrastructure. We don't have European or Asian data centres at the moment. We hear the request from non-US users; expanding requires significant infrastructure investment that has to balance against the actual demand we see from each region. If you're outside the US and Loudplay's added latency is a deal-breaker for you, the honest recommendation is to wait until we have a closer data centre rather than fight a connection that won't be acceptable for your use case. How to test before committing real money The smallest Desktop package is 3 hours for $4. Buy it, run a session, play whatever game you actually care about, see how it feels. If the latency is workable, top up to a bigger package. If not, you've spent $4 to find out — better than a 20-hour package you can't use. For input-lag-sensitive use cases specifically, the first 10 minutes of any session will tell you whether Loudplay works for you in your current location.

Last updated on Apr 27, 2026