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Microsoft CFO: Google Stadia Lacks Content, Local Experience Will Remain Superior to Streaming Games

posted by Fnord666 on Saturday April 13 2019, @03:37AM   Printer-friendly
from the but-but-cloud! dept.

takyon writes:

Microsoft: Google Stadia Has the Infrastructure but Lacks the Content; Cloud Won't Match Local Experience

2019 will be the year that sees some of the biggest tech companies in the world diving into the cloud streaming business for games. Google announced its Stadia platform at the Game Developers Conference 2019 for a launch scheduled later this year, Microsoft confirmed plans to publicly test Project xCloud in the coming months and even Amazon is rumored to be readying its own cloud-based streaming service.

With competition often comes strife, and in an interview with the Telegraph (locked behind the publication's paywall), Microsoft's Chief Marketing Officer for Xbox Mike Nichols didn't pull any punches when he discussed the weaknesses of the upcoming cloud-based streaming platform.

While he admitted that Google has the infrastructure (7,500 edge node locations) to pull it off, Nichols pointed out that unlike Microsoft they don't have strong ties to game developers and publishers to deliver the content that fans expect.

[...]Microsoft CFO Mike Nichols also went on to reiterate that regardless of the availability Project xCloud, the 'local' experience users can get on an Xbox console or Windows PC will remain superior to the cloud in terms of quality.

Previously: Google and Microsoft Eyeing Streaming Game Services
Google Announces "Stadia" Streaming Game Service

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @08:22PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @08:22PM (#829083)

    I stated this in the last discussion: the target is chromebooks. Most chromebook platforms are underpowered, especially when compared to gaming laptops. Plus, the killer app for a huge chunk of the population is whatever AAA game they want to play at the moment. If Stadia takes off and works "good enough" on most chromebooks, then Google's percentage of the laptop market could potentially increase by a huge margin. Plus, the money from the service itself could become self-reinforcing with enough market buy-in, thanks to the vertical integration.

  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday April 13 2019, @08:41PM

    by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Saturday April 13 2019, @08:41PM (#829100) Journal

    Chromebook performance could be trending up soon:

    https://chromeunboxed.com/new-chromebook-zork-takes-amd-to/ [chromeunboxed.com]

    Where the AMD APU will gain some serious strides is in the GPU department. Intel’s integrated graphics have never been touted as very powerful and AMD’s integrated Vega 10 iGPU is in a prime position to take advantage of that fact. User benchmarks give the AMD’s GPU scores as much as 80% higher than that of Intel’s integrated 620 graphics.

    The AMD 15 Watt chips should be cheaper than Intel versions, with halfway decent integrated graphics (and could become much better yet again on "7nm" or later nodes). I'm not too interested because I prefer fanless, which means <10 Watts.

    But you are right. The majority of Chromebooks will continue to be lower-powered, yet supporting 802.11ac or better connectivity, suitable for being thin clients.

    --
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