Cloud gaming changes a basic assumption behind hardware identifiers: the machine running the game is no longer the machine in front of you.
The game runs somewhere else
With services like GeForce Now or Xbox Cloud Gaming, the game executes on a server in a data centre. Your device just streams video and sends input. That means an anti-cheat running with the game reads the data centre machine's identifiers — not yours.
What the anti-cheat sees
On a cloud server the anti-cheat reads the server's disk serials, network identifiers and firmware values. Many of these belong to virtualised or shared infrastructure. From the anti-cheat's point of view your personal PC is invisible — it never ran the game.
Why some games block cloud gaming
This is exactly why some games and anti-cheats restrict or block cloud play. If a banned user could simply rent a fresh cloud machine, hardware bans would lose their meaning. Some publishers therefore disallow their games on cloud platforms, or partner with providers so cloud sessions are still accountable.
Bans still land on the account
One thing does not change: your account. Cloud or not, you log in with the same account, and account-level bans follow it. Cloud gaming can shift which hardware an anti-cheat sees, but it does not detach a ban from the account you signed in with.
The takeaway
Cloud gaming separates "the hardware you own" from "the hardware that runs the game." That breaks the usual HWID assumptions — which is why publishers treat cloud play carefully, and why account-level identity still matters even when the hardware is someone else's.