Microsoft Microsoft is bringing next-gen Xbox games to the Xbox One with xCloud

[Brian]

 

[Keyser_Soze]

Good news for @best3444

[JPDunks4]

The biggest benefit I see for this, is if you are able to instantly try games on Game Pass through streaming before downloading.

 

A lot of times, I'll look through the Game Pass catalog, and am interested in games, but then I have to decide, is it really worth downloading it.  If I can see the game, hit Play, and start instantly streaming it to try it out, then if I like it, download it for the full experience.  Same can go for multiplayer games.  Maybe a friend is interested in a game you're playing that has co-op, if they can instantly jump in to tag along without needing to download, that may get them to play and try more things.

 

This weeks 40 Indy Demo thing Xbox has going is another perfect example, as most of these demos are very short.  Jump in, stream the demo, and then most likely be done with it. 

 

For some reason the need to download something is a pretty big hurdle for me at times.

[crispy4000]

Yup, this was always going to happen.  They should have just led with this messaging out of the gate instead of saying all their games would be cross-gen in the first two years.

[best3444]

That is definitely good news. I am honestly pretty sad I won't own a next-gen console for at least another full year from now. God only knows when I could trade in my last gen consoles for a ps5 etc at Gamestop.

[Joe]

This is awesome, but what would be the point of getting an XSX? Not all games will be available I guess?

[Keyser_Soze]

4 minutes ago, Joe said:

This is awesome, but what would be the point of getting an XSX? Not all games will be available I guess?

 

Latency and fidelity is probably not as good as an actual Series X version.

[AbsolutSurgen]

36 minutes ago, Joe said:

This is awesome, but what would be the point of getting an XSX? Not all games will be available I guess?

MS doesn't care if you buy a console.  They are after the subscription revenue.

 

Locally rendered games will play/look better for the foreseeable future.

[Guest]

“Series S is an XCloud box in the near future” all people with any reasonable foresight said all along. Glad they are including the One X as I have a few scattered around the house that the kids will be able to use.

[crispy4000]

8 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

“Series S is an XCloud box in the near future” all people with any reasonable foresight said all along. Glad they are including the One X as I have a few scattered around the house that the kids will be able to use.

 

Depends on how much Microsoft stills believes in console generations down the road.

 

Based on what we’re seeing now, I don’t think they’ll drop it any sooner than Series X.

[stepee]

Being able to stream more demanding games is a good fall back for the SS, but I doubt anything currently in the pipeline is being designed that wouldn’t work on SS. I don’t think they care about the iq quality bar too much on that system, it would have to be a game SS couldn’t run scaled down at like 720/30 for it to be streaming only.

 

If it does happen it’ll be years from now if something like that started today even, the refresh consoles will be out, prices will be different, and xcloud should be running on new hardware and work better. 

 

[JPDunks4]

xCloud is being upgraded this year to Series X blades.  Supposedly the Series X was also designed for game streaming, and therefore the performance of xCloud will be significantly better, and I thought it was already performing very well.  They also have Orion from the Bethesda purchase which was supposed to be an extremely efficient way to stream I believe 4k or higher resolution gameplay.

 

For the Series S, I think the upscaling solutions will come into play first to help it on the more demanding games.  If there are games that start performing poorly, having the option to play at 720p 30, or streaming it at whatever they can produce from xCloud, having the option will be nice.  People can decide what they think is the better experience for themselves.

[XxEvil AshxX]

What would be the real shit would be if I could play local games on my Series S and it used "the power of the cloud" to leverage the extra computing power it would need to bump the games up to Series X specs.

[AbsolutSurgen]

28 minutes ago, XxEvil AshxX said:

What would be the real shit would be if I could play local games on my Series S and it used "the power of the cloud" to leverage the extra computing power it would need to bump the games up to Series X specs.

Only the original Xbox One that could do that....

[Xbob42]

4 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

Latency and fidelity is probably not as good as an actual Series X version.

One thing I don't like is that this now creates a financial incentive to not improve the streaming tech too much, so that people still want the new consoles.

[Guest]

40 minutes ago, Xbob42 said:

One thing I don't like is that this now creates a financial incentive to not improve the streaming tech too much, so that people still want the new consoles.

MS doesn’t want to sell you a console one time, a scheme in which they lose lots of money on for years. They want to sell subscriptions.