I really dont know why I have to keep posting this. But please read impressions of the beta before you call things snake oil.
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Engadget: Xbox is fighting Google, not Playstation
- Thread starter 12Danny123
- Start date
I really dont know why I have to keep posting this. But please read impressions of the beta before you call things snake oil.
It's not a question of sourcing, it was speculation based on what seemed really obvious, extrapolating on what MS was saying publicly about their XCloud intentions.
I'm not sure I buy your V1/V2 breakdown, but regardless, we know that Stadia is effectively launching as a next-gen platform this year. Their "V1" could very possibly be more powerful (at least comparable) to PS5 and Scarlett. That's a really big difference in trajectory. I'm skeptical of the "Xbox One motherboard in the data center" solution for exactly this reason. It doesn't seem smart to launch with significantly outdated bespoke hardware in their data centers.
Yeah i understand that BUT it was a Beta that was restricted to limited numbers (thousands not millions) and can no way be comparable to the amount of users that Stadia will have to deal with upon release
Scaling is not really a problem for Google. If any company can solve that it is them.
I doubt they will have actual Xbox One motherboards in their data centers, more probably PC development units that are beefed up/comparable systems surely??
It's an issue of sourcing. I don't know why you think it was obvious that Infinite would launch this year after being teased last E3, but that was never the case. Infinite was always much further out than that. Having some sources at Microsoft or 343 would have revealed that. It wasn't exactly a state secret either. Have a drink or two with a 343 employee some time!
V1 largely exists to address out-of-home use cases at a low cost and (much more importantly) to get real world usage data before the next gen begins in earnest. A trial run, of sorts. A way to figure out what exactly has to be built for developers before the next generation begins.
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its definitely going to be interesting to see what in home performance is going to be like thats for sure, exciting time never the less.
Nope. They have an updated photo of the server blade setup in their GDC talk, linked below to the time just before the image shows up. Something to keep in mind, in the server rack thermals, noise and power draw are less of a concern so they could run that Xbox One S hardware a little higher to get more out of it.
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Well, since *your* sourcing is rock-solid, then I'm inclined to say that it's going to be a while before XCloud is competitive with Stadia.
Short of Amazon suddenly throwing their hat in, Stadia looks like it will have both next-gen performance and the highest quality streaming implementation well in advance of the other major players. Possibly a year head start. If they've actually got the goods this could be an Xbox360 situation all over again.
When the next generation begins, Microsoft will be there in full force with a competitive cloud product.
Amazon is also working on a cloud streaming product, but it is further out.
The 360 being a year early wasn't what won Microsoft the generation. It was everything else - vastly faster, technologically superior (the dashboard, Xbox Live, etc) half the price and a much better first party lineup. I don't think it matters that Google is launching first. Google doesn't have studios pumping out AAA content that is exclusive to their platform. It'll be like the generation hasn't actually started yet.
One thing separates video from gaming:
- Videogames can be designed to be addictive. So,e game companies act more like tobacco or casino companies in that they seek users susceptible to addiction, and then exploit them. the most profitable way of doing this is to provide no or low cost entry fee in order to reach widest possible audience, then build in systems to exploit human psychology. This dynamic makes 1:1 comparisons untenable. And no, those systems don't necessarily have to be pay2win. Cosmetics and collectibles can tap into that too.
But, yes, the market of people willing to pay for their video content gives us shows like Deadwood and Game of Thrones (and my new favorite, Rilakkuma :) ). Free to air tv would never have made those. And i could be wrong. Maybe sub services will have to make quality content to attract users, just like video. Mobile gaming makes me pessimistic though.
Yeah I wonder that if cloud tech is the type of thing that doesn't totally work, but Microsoft and Google pump enough money into to keep it alive and keep devs interested. Without getting way too inside baseball, it's not unlike a certain console publisher propping up VR because they're bullish on it's longterm prospects........... to the tune of paying a lot of money to get developers to port big name titles for it.
There are some here and in the US media that love pushing the "Sony is irrelevant" narrative it's hilarious. Streaming will be niche for many years, especially outside the US. They are all competing for the same audience and dollars. Nonsense article. They love to underestimate Sony.
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MS doesn't have the sole say in when the next generation begins, that's my point. If Stadia is as good as the E3 previews say, we may look back and say that next-gen actually began November 2019.
I don't know why it's so difficult to remember, but the Nintendo Wii was the best-selling generation 7 console , not the Xbox 360.
It wasn't even particularly close.
Sony is making billions of dollars every year through PS+ alone, what in the hell are you talking about? There are a few reasons Sony made more money in 2018 then they did during the entire generation where they sold the best selling box in videogame history. and box and game sales was just part of it.
Google surely doesn't have a say. Not without AAA exclusives, first party titles, the works.
I don't do numbered generations. I define generations on system power. The Switch is not as fast as the current generation consoles, so I consider it part of that family and not the family that is to come.
I'd say that's for sure going on. But all the major players at this level have to spend a lot of money to establish anything new. It's true in gaming, and it's true in the rest of tech, where major brands like Uber, Netflix, Tesla, etc lose money every year.
For Stadia, I do see one mitigating factor, which is that they already have a GPU-in-the-cloud service. AFAIK it's exclusively Nvidia parts, and they're intended for machine learning, not gaming. But they could conceivably dual purpose Stadia hardware for other cloud services. I'd be surprised if the cpu/ram/storage components of Stadia aren't just GCP (primarily based on the DF speculation that it's an Intel CPU). So where MS putting Xbox One motherboards in their racks is probably only useful for gaming, adding a ton of Vega56s to GCP could serve many purposes.
Microsoft's hasty, brave Project xCloud demo can't handle the pressure - Digital Trends
It will be a long time before streaming is huge, it will be niche for many years, especially in Europe and developing countries.
It will be a long time before streaming is huge, it will be niche for many years, especially in Europe and developing countries.
Yes, there is the one outlier opinion, as always. Impressions are generally very positive.
Thanks for making my point for me.....it will vary based on every person...Local play will never have that issue. Hardware will be the dominant way to play games for the foreseeable future.
I mean, if Call of Duty, GTA VI and FIFA become streaming exclusives there might be a chance. Well, either that or "1% of the Chinese population".
No, every single thing has strange takes. That there exists a person that thought the demo was bad is normal and does not prove anything or suggest anything of value other than that humans are humans.
LOL. Brad sams noticed lag and artifacting in a controlled environment...MS nor google can break the laws of physics. Streaming will remain niche for the foreseeable future, even matt at NPD says this.
To be fair (and I am all on board on the streaming future) you can pretty clearly see the lag in the hellblade video. I only played Halo 5 at E3 on XCloud and it was a perfect experience, but it is certainly possible it varies by game.
The laws of physics do not need to be broken. You optimize the rendering pipeline to reduce the latency already present* in every title. By reducing existing latency, you can allow for the latency of streaming from a local data center. This is what Google does, this is what Microsoft does. It works.
*This being one of many things done to make cloud streaming feel like local on-console play. There are others.
Yes, because they made the subscription essentially mandatory to use the console as users intended. But they're not investing in their subscription service to become a solo product, as Microsoft is with Game Pass & xCloud. PS Plus ultimately only exists as a service for PlayStation products, whereas Game Pass will ultimately exist as its own thing (that works best when paired with an Xbox console).
Sony's business next generation is dependent on selling you a console.
Microsoft's isn't.
I suspect that the Hellblade build was just a mess and shouldn't have been shown. Halo 5 is a far more demanding title in terms of input responsiveness requirements - it is a shooter after all.
I definitely agree Stadia needs to have that stuff, but what matters is whether Stadia is good enough to stop or delay people from buying next-gen hardware. They have about a year head start similar to MS in 2005. If Google can convince millions of people to buy into the Stadia ecosystem before the next consoles launch, how can you say that isn't the start of the next-gen? We're practically already in the "cross-gen" window with games like Death Stranding, Doom Eternal, Cyberpunk, etc designed to scale to the next consoles.
I just don't see your scenario happening. It is a thing that is possible, but it's unlikely. Google's big problem is that they don't have the publishers on board the way that Microsoft and Sony do. Is someone going to buy into a cloud streaming platform that doesn't have Fifa, doesn't have 2k, doesn't have Fortnite, doesn't have a strong exclusive line up? I doubt it.
Let's say that people delay buying next generation hardware. Unless those people sell their PS4s and Xbox Ones, they already own capable clients for next generation cloud streaming!
Your crossgen argument is valid, but unless I missed something....Doom Eternal and Death Stranding are not cross gen titles in any meaningful way. Doom Eternal isn't even visibly pushing against the bounderies of what these consoles can do in the way that GTA 5 360 was.
Death Stranding is unlikely to get a PS5 release - it is a single player title to the extent that I understand what it is at all. Doom Eternal scales all the way down to the Switch without complaint. It, too, is primarily a linear single player title releasing well before the next generation consoles launch. I would not expect a next generation release of either title.
Do you even own or follow playstation? You can already play Playstation games without owning a ps console with PSNow. And they are working on expanding and improving it.
PSNow isn't the focus of their efforts, though. They're not putting new titles on it. They're not having Now be central to their marketing efforts. It's for all practical purposes a supplementary service.
I'll just try the free version of Stadia and the free games, Won't be laying out any money until i know the whole thing is stable and is 1/1 like having hardware in you're house. No way would i pay £50 for a streaming game that's redundant and wont work offline.
I think the article wants to be clever, in terms of how it flips your expectations of the writer's thoughts with a few about-faces and red-herring lead-ins. That said, it kind of ends up being sloppy and arbitrary when it makes bold declaratives that are immediately undermined by subsequent descriptions.
I think the clearest example of this is making a big framing statement that, "The company must've felt it had no choice but to respond even if it had nothing concrete ready to show," but then go on to describe exactly how they had more substance than anyone else, showing more games, and had real, hands-on demos that anyone on the floor could try out on a variety of real phones.
Repeatedly complaining that the screens on the phones used for the demos were small compared to a Switch felt like someone complaining about the color of paint on the space shuttle. Especially when the writer then turns around and goes on about how much clearer the phone screens are than the Switch. Like, introducing a comparison point like this just ends up being brainless when it's tossed around so thoughtlessly.
Like, look at these two lines:
This writer is just saying contradictory things over and over in the same article.
No, the Nintendo Switch is part of console generation 8.
You can come up with your own definitions for anything you'd like but please don't expect the rest of us to understand what you're talking about.
The free version doesn't include any free games. The only games available for the free 1080/60 max streaming will be the games you buy.
Stadia is the start of next-gen, whether people want to admit it or not. And Stadia has at least a 1 year head start on Sony and MS. They just need content. If Stadia works as advertised by the time Sony and MS release their next consoles I'll have already been invested in Stadia for a year, so Sony will have to knock it out of the park with their console to convince me to jump back in to their ecosystem. Sony does have a strong 1st party, so I doubt that'll be too much of a problem, but I agree that Xbox is pretty much done for, at least for me. I can easily see Stadia becoming my multi-plat go to and having a PS5 for the exclusives next gen. It all stems from Stadia actually getting those games on it's platform though.
What's the newest title on PSNow? Meaning, what's the newest title by release date.
Well the destiny 2 one should be viable tho shouldnt it? As thats going F2P so least i could try that out, Albeit at crappy 1080p again not 4K. The game ownership is weird with that one, Whats it like with Xcloud do you know if you can download the game at least?
I see this happening for sure. There is no way they get any good numbers with the shit internet infrastructure in the US. Google does this every year. They release something and if its not adopted at a high rate, they abandon it.
90 Million PS4 owners, And PSnow is at 700k users i believe? We tried PSnow but the library did nothing for us, As in was more a novelty playing saints row again or Resistance but got bored. It worked though but felt there was some imput latency. Newer games like Sniper Elite you could download so was fine.