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
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Saturday April 13 2019, @09:21PM
I have seen a lot of people theorize about latency, ignoring the fact that people have already used the underlying technology, which was open for beta testing last year as Project Stream. People have already tried it. It works. Yes, there are limitations: professional competitive gaming is a no go. You need a decent Internet connection. But for most games and most players it doesn't matter.
One of the most popular games at the moment, Fortnite, can be played on a mobile device, which is objectively a horrible controller interface. Most people don't give a shit about a few dozen milliseconds of latency.
Some benchmarks showed that Stadia's latency is roughly equivalent to an Xbox with a TV screen (slower refresh/latency than a gaming monitor). Again, you're not winning any competitive tournaments on it, but for most games and players it's fine.
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