As Xbox prepares for the launch of its next-gen consoles, the company might already have additional console hardware in the works to be released in the near future. Speaking to Stratechery, head of Xbox, Phil Spencer teased this possibility and more.

“I think you’re going to see lower priced hardware as part of our ecosystem when you think about streaming sticks and other things that somebody might want to just go plug into their TV and go play via xCloud,” Phil Spencer said. “You could imagine us even having something that we just included in the Game Pass subscription that gave you an ability to stream xCloud games to your television and buying the controller.”

In the same interview, Phil Spencer teased the idea of an “Xbox Game Pass Platinum” tier which guarantees access to new Xbox hardware.

As The Verge noted, this being Spencer’s first public mention of streaming TV sticks for xCloud implies that such devices might soon be released.

What do you think of the idea? Would you get a streaming stick for xCloud?

SOURCE

 

[Teletron1]

I work in the cloud industry and the cloud gaming concept blows my mind in the worst possible way.
They are basically saying they are happy to absorve 300+ watts of power consumption and heat generation for every single gaming session in the world, just because they can? This is many more orders of magnitude the power consumption per user of existing non-gaming cloud systems - for simple comparisons purposes, these same 300 watts could otherwise serve 10 to 100k users, if not more, on your average traditional non-gaming cloud system.
Soon these companies will be buying most of the world's energy resources, holding all of our intellectual property, and controlling all aspects of your social life, just because they can!
This concept should be made illegal, I'm not joking... there must be caps on how big and wide these corporate blobs are allowed to grow.
This is insane...

plus the device you use to stream with = 2 devices
maybe they plan to go full nuclear it’s the 80’s again it would not surprise me

 

[Aew4life]

I'm 100% in I use gamepass on my note 20 ultra 5g with a ps4 controller hooked up to TV with a USB c to hdmi with their hardware It would be so much better. And a much higher resolution cause the games look to compressed the way I'm doing it and I'm using dex mode btw

 

[Jayro]

As a physical game collector, fuck all this game streaming garbage. The latency alone should be enough for us all to tell them to fuck off, like we did with Google Stadia.

 

[Deleted User]

From the very begining, the 'subscription business model' was an unsult to consumers.

Paying not for owning a product nor effectively using a service, but for accessing it for a limited time, whatever the use you made of it. A permanent leasing, une 'Mort à crédit', lol.

Another small step down the road of insanity, the herd is mature for this new gimmick, now give it quick or they may bite.

 

[Aew4life]

As a physical game collector, fuck all this game streaming garbage. The latency alone should be enough for us all to tell them to fuck off, like we did with Google Stadia.

As a digital collector fuck all these discs and $70 games lol

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

From the very begining, the 'subscription business model' was an unsult to consumers.

Paying not for owning a product nor effectively using a service, but for accessing it for a limited time, whatever the use you made of it. A permanent leasing, une 'Mort à crédit', lol.

Another small step down the road of insanity, the herd is mature for this new gimmick, now give it quick or they may bite.

Make your own digital copy of said game and you own it easy concept some people like digital takes up less space and im not trying to store hundreds of discs in my house everywhere. Take my blu ray and dvd collection i have them all ripped to hdds and stored in boxes

 

[Jayro]

As a digital collector fuck all these discs and $70 games lol

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------


Make your own digital copy of said game and you own it easy concept some people like digital takes up less space and im not trying to store hundreds of discs in my house everywhere. Take my blu ray and dvd collection i have them all ripped to hdds and stored in boxes

Yeah, but it's magine needing an internet connection just to play games. I'm a gamer on the go, so my Switch is my go-to console. Having carts means that if I uninstall a game, I can still pop the cartridge in and play it (without updates, but still playable).

 

[Kadji]

Yeah, but it's magine needing an internet connection just to play games. [...] Having carts means that if I uninstall a game, I can still pop the cartridge in and play it (without updates, but still playable).

I guess I am the only person here on gbatemp that thinks that Stadia is actually very fine, though I have very stable and fast internet without any data caps. It works for me (and many other people that are a vocal minority) and I am very happ that I will be able to play Cyberpunk 2077 on launch day without buying a new PC or a new Console.

Most of the Games I play do require Internet anyway. Without Internet connection I can't play Dota 2, LoL, the Battle Royale Game of the Month or the cool new eSports game everyone is hyped about.
Seriously though: Even Genshin Impact, which by all means is 99% Singleplayer with 1% Co-op slapped on top of it requires a internet connection to work.

To your Gamecard argument I just want to add that there are some games (mostly collections) where only a part of the game is on the Cartridge and the remaining data has to be downloaded as an update. And it's not only the Switch with smal cartridge space that has this problem: THPS 5 is unplayable without a huge patch you have to download first (Otherwise you can only play the Tutorial I think). But who would want to play that piece of garbage anyway...

Still, I don't think that gamestreaming will replace digital / physical games in the near future. Not many people have reliable, fast internet with no Datacaps. But I see it as a nice addition to digital / physical games, and it is here to stay.

 

[pedro702]

As a digital collector fuck all these discs and $70 games lol

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------


Make your own digital copy of said game and you own it easy concept some people like digital takes up less space and im not trying to store hundreds of discs in my house everywhere. Take my blu ray and dvd collection i have them all ripped to hdds and stored in boxes

you cant make a digital copy of any streaming service exclsuive, since its streaming you have no assets to make a copy, also who buys games at full price anyway? you go so many promotions on retailers like amazon and such, i havent bought a single full priced game in 5 years lol either local retailer promotions or amazon.

 

[godreborn]

I'm okay with buying digitally, but not for streaming services. I buy digitally for convenience and health reasons. I may not have physical copy, but at least I have a copy in some form. I have nothing if it's streaming. I did download every game I own on the switch in preparation for the switch shop to close. however, I have a feeling that the switch 2 will be a more powerful version of the switch and will be bc. that seems like the most likely outcome, so the eshop might not close for over a decade. the wii eshop was open for about 12-13 years from what I remember.

 

[neotank19]

You can still download games you bought on the wii shop. They "close" the shops so you can't buy anything new, unless you get the new system that is.

 

[godreborn]

you can? cuz I get a 404 error with the ticket and the ticket only. without that, the game will not run.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

I don't know if the wii works in this fashion, but the wii u will retain tickets even if you format the system, so theoretically, you could redownload content on that same system. the ticket is what's downloaded first, since it's used to decrypt the content. the moment you click purchase is when it's downloaded. however, if you were to buy a new system, I think you'd be sol even if it's the same account, since the ticket would not be on the system and there's no way to "purchase" a new one. I checked last night. the content is still on the wii servers, but the ticket is not.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

this is what happens:

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

lastly, if you choose not to decrypt the content, the content downloads without the ticket:

 

[zennoux]

I guess I am the only person here on gbatemp that thinks that Stadia is actually very fine, though I have very stable and fast internet without any data caps. It works for me (and many other people that are a vocal minority) and I am very happ that I will be able to play Cyberpunk 2077 on launch day without buying a new PC or a new Console.

Still, I don't think that gamestreaming will replace digital / physical games in the near future. Not many people have reliable, fast internet with no Datacaps. But I see it as a nice addition to digital / physical games, and it is here to stay.

As someone who played Stadia Pro for about 9 months, it's not close to the same. I have a 500 mbps connection with 0 data caps and use wired ethernet, but unfortunately compression technology still has quite a way to go before it can match the visual clarity of something that's rendering locally. Even with Force VP9 and Force 4K with the Stadia+ extension (on Stadia games that support 4K), you could see compression artifacts that are just a result of codecs currently available and not capped by your internet speeds. Not to mention the latency is fairly high, even with the Stadia controller (although it's noticeably lower with the Stadia controller). If it works for you that's great, but for me Stadia isn't better than Moonlight Internet Streaming for me (in terms of both quality and convenience) which I can use to play my PC games on the go.

 

[Kadji]

As someone who played Stadia Pro for about 9 months, it's not close to the same. I have a 500 mbps connection with 0 data caps and use wired ethernet, but unfortunately compression technology still has quite a way to go before it can match the visual clarity of something that's rendering locally. Even with Force VP9 and Force 4K with the Stadia+ extension (on Stadia games that support 4K), you could see compression artifacts that are just a result of codecs currently available and not capped by your internet speeds. Not to mention the latency is fairly high, even with the Stadia controller (although it's noticeably lower with the Stadia controller). If it works for you that's great, but for me Stadia isn't better than Moonlight Internet Streaming for me (in terms of both quality and convenience) which I can use to play my PC games on the go.

Yeah, picture quality could be better, I agree with that. I was also disappointed that the games do not run at max quality settings or with native 4k60. There is much room for improvement. Some games do lock very good though - Tomb Raider for example was a blast to play on Stadia. And I will take some visible compression artefacts (which are hard to see on my TV with the Chromecast anyway) over not being able to play the game at all.

And If I had a PC / Console that could play all the current AAA games I would not use Stadia. But for now this is the best solution for me with only minor drawbacks. If I go with MS for the next gen (still not decided) I want to give xCloud a try, too.

 

[Pokemon_Tea_Sea_Jee]

In the future, Internet will be fast and ubiquitous enough that game streaming will make sense.
It will still be bad, though. No proper mods. No ownership. No real fun.

 

[MachRc]

Ultimate gamepass is dope, 15 bucks, gets gamepass for xbox, PC, and xcloud.

I spent 1$ plus two 26 dollars 3 months passes so Im good til 2021 May for all first party games.

I wouldnt ditch the PC as I play most my AAA games on there. But I pre-ordered the Series X (fomo) and the gamepass ultimate fits perfectly for what I do. I never have time for games. But now I get in about 40 minutes EVERYDAY at work in my office. Finally catching up on halo 4 and soon halo 5 which most series x fans got for free https://www.trueachievements.com/n43652/halo-5-monster-energy-free (even though its on gamepass) And the cloud - cross saves and just the eco system I can depend on.

I wouldnt need a streaming stick, but having that method of playing at hotel rooms(ask for remote) or at grandmas house or anywhere internet exits is going to be a great subscription seller.

 

[luigirockz]

I think a streaming xbox stick sounds cool. They really want to be in front of "Netflix style" game streaming service. And I can see them raising the price soon and getting rid of their $1 Gold to Ultimate conversion sometime next year.

 

[pedro702]

You can still download games you bought on the wii shop. They "close" the shops so you can't buy anything new, unless you get the new system that is.

no you cant, that was during the wiiu time where you couldnt purchase anything but you could still download, now there is no way to redownload any game even if you payed for it, unless you hack your wii, hitting eshop just gives you an error code so nope, no redownloads.

 

[DarthDub]

I wonder if they'll offer to lay down fiber lines for people stuck with cable internet.

 

[ccfman2004]

I kept getting so many deals on game pass ultimate that I maxed out how much service Microsoft allows you have. 3 years max. I still have an extra 3-month left.

 

[Codemastershock]

Having carts means that if I uninstall a game, I can still pop the cartridge in and play it (without updates, but still playable).

I wouldnt say that to many Switch games though, which the publisher use a smaller NAND than the game allows to save some buck.