The recent reports regarding Microsoft are getting more and more interesting by the minute. If murmurs in the industry are to be trusted, the company is currently engaged in designing not one, but two next gen conoles - a stand-alone box as well as a dedicated cloud-based console codenamed "Scarlett". Certain aspects of gameplay such as the controls, collision detection and simple game logic could be processed locally while the bulk of the processing would be offloaded to Microsoft's servers, enabling end-users to purchase a significantly cheaper system at the cost of being always online. Rumour has it that Microsoft has been working hard to diminish the obvious problems springing from lag and managed to provide an acceptable player experience on their new low-power hardware, similarly to how Sony delivers PS3 games over their PS Now streaming service. While not necessarily appealing to hardcore gamers, such a low-cost alternative would provide an entry level gaming device for those who only play a handful of games.

What are your thoughts? Would you trade your stand-alone box for an online only console provided it gave you the same experience at a fraction of the price? Have you ever used any game streaming services? Discuss!

Source

 

[Deleted User]

MS is doing BC for OG Xbox discs from 20 years ago.... you guys make me laugh

I'm not sure why you would want to pay full price for a game thats 5 years old anyway, do you want this or are you just trying to prove me wrong for the fuck of it?

 

[Bladexdsl]

streaming consoles will never be successful not in THIS century!

 

[pedro702]

its really dumb to see people saying consoles will be digital only, and even worse streaming only, why in hell you even buy a console if it had no physical media option? that is basically useless, why don't just buy a pc and connect it to the tv and a controller and you got the same thing?

consoles can only live as long as they have something different, the time a console becomes streaming only why cant you just stream on your pc also? specially microsoft will obviously make the streaming on pc available too without needing to even buy a streaming only hardware.

THERE ISN'T A SINGLE CASE OF A STREAMING OR EVEN DIGITALLY ONLY CONSOLE THAT WAS MILDLY SUCCESSFUL.

Srs show me a console that had no way to read physical media and was a decent success story?

This all reminds me of steam boxes, when they were announced everyone said oh this is the end of the consoles, people will just have steam boxes on their living rom and no one will ever need a dedicated home console and guess what? they failed miserably.


People forget physical media is what the casual players get and they get them because they see them advertised in big letters on every electronic store, the free advertisement of a game being on a shelf all around stores in hundreds of countrys cant be compared to a digitally only game release on psn or xbox live store that is just there if you follow gaming websites.

Not to mention once there is no physical media the entire market is controlled by the console owner, oh you want this game it costs 70 even if it was released 5 years ago we dont drop the price because the only way to get it is on psn/xboxlive store so screw you and pay.

Also streaming games has proven to not be worthy investment, every streaming game subscription just led to cancellation.

 

[Deleted User]

its really dumb to see people saying consoles will be digital only, and even worse streaming only, why in hell you even buy a console if it had no physical media option? that is basically useless, why don't just buy a pc and connect it to the tv and a controller and you got the same thing?

consoles can only live as long as they have something different, the time a console becomes streaming only why cant you just stream on your pc also? specially microsoft will obviously make the streaming on pc available too without needing to even buy a streaming only hardware.

THERE ISN'T A SINGLE CASE OF A STREAMING OR EVEN DIGITALLY ONLY CONSOLE THAT WAS MILDLY SUCCESSFUL.

Srs show me a console that had no way to read physical media and was a decent success story?

This all reminds me of steam boxes, when they were announced everyone said oh this is the end of the consoles, people will just have steam boxes on their living rom and no one will ever need a dedicated home console and guess what? they failed miserably.


People forget physical media is what the casual players get and they get them because they see them advertised in big letters on every electronic store, the free advertisement of a game being on a shelf all around stores in hundreds of countrys cant be compared to a digitally only game release on psn or xbox live store that is just there if you follow gaming websites.

Not to mention once there is no physical media the entire market is controlled by the console owner, oh you want this game it costs 70 even if it was released 5 years ago we dont drop the price because the only way to get it is on psn/xboxlive store so screw you and pay.

Also streaming games has proven to not be worthy investment, every streaming game subscription just led to cancellation.

This is such a good point, that I didn't even think of.

Retailers are going to put up one hell of a fight. How many consoles would MS/Sony sell if they only sold them on the websites and not available in stores because retailers boycott? game sales bring sales of other products.

 

[pedro702]

This is such a good point, that I didn't even think of.

Retailers are going to put up one hell of a fight.

people forget advertisement is Gold, and physical media is basically free advertisement, how many times do you see a teen on a store begging the dad to buy a game he just saw there? i work on one and its many many times, srs its free advertisements, AAA games even get huge posters and cardboard's, if it was a digital or streaming only service most causal players wont even know the game exists because they aren't going to gaming websites...

And eletronic stores do alot of promotions every other month they here do 15% off on all games and people buy them alot, on psn your screwed to get any promotions on games that arent 1st party most of them sit there years before even a small price drop.

People dont realize teens and kids dont have money so when they are on a store and see a game in promotion they can ask their parents to buy them, and alot of sales are done this way.

 

[mightymuffy]

the next generation will be the generation of native 4K, each virtual console will require access to resources in excess of 6 Teraflops currently provided by the Xbox One X, probably around 10-ish, 12-ish

I hope not.... I've got a 4K TV myself but yes, realistically we're gonna get a maximum of 12TF, if we're lucky, with the next gen, assuming it arrives in 2020.... even 12TF is only gonna be enough to render current gen graphics at 4K, especially if we factor in the push for 60fps... I would prefer to see a PS4 Pro checkerboard style, and up the graphics, otherwise what's the point of next gen? (Have both a Pro and a One X - the difference, in a living room setup, is almost zero on games like The Witcher 3, where the X offers the higher resolution)
But that's for another topic....

Streaming Xbox? I've got a good connection, and a good network rig, and tried PS Now - what a crock of shite... But while this in turn means I'm not keen on this idea either, I'm not gonna grab the pitchfork like many on here are doing... let's just see how good (or bad) it actually is when it comes out... A rumoured sub-$200 pricepoint, perhaps less still, is always good news, and IF they can sort the lag issues, what's the problem?

 

[pedro702]

I hope not.... I've got a 4K TV myself but yes, realistically we're gonna get a maximum of 12TF, if we're lucky, with the next gen, assuming it arrives in 2020.... even 12TF is only gonna be enough to render current gen graphics at 4K, especially if we factor in the push for 60fps... I would prefer to see a PS4 Pro checkerboard style, and up the graphics, otherwise what's the point of next gen? (Have both a Pro and a One X - the difference, in a living room setup, is almost zero on games like The Witcher 3, where the X offers the higher resolution)
But that's for another topic....

Streaming Xbox? I've got a good connection, and a good network rig, and tried PS Now - what a crock of shite... But while this in turn means I'm not keen on this idea either, I'm not gonna grab the pitchfork like many on here are doing... let's just see how good (or bad) it actually is when it comes out... A rumoured sub-$200 pricepoint, perhaps less still, is always good news, and IF they can sort the lag issues, what's the problem?

well microsoft releases most of their games on pc, why would you pay 200$ for a streaming box? your pc can stream and play just fine without having to worry about gaming specs lol.

 

[sarkwalvein]

people forget advertisement is Gold, and physical media is basically free advertisement, how many times do you see a teen on a store begging the dad to buy a game he just saw there? i work on one and its many many times, srs its free advertisements, AAA games even get huge posters and cardboard's, if it was a digital or streaming only service most causal players wont even know the game exists because they aren't going to gaming websites...

That is a good point actually.
But sure you could just sell digital codes in boxes and get the "free advertisement", like they already do for PC, PS Vita, etc.

 

[pedro702]

That is a good point actually.
But sure you could just sell digital codes in boxes and get the "free advertisement", like they already do for PC, PS Vita, etc.

well electronic stores have sections dedicated to gaming, and all those code only have a tiny shelf on a corner, so even if they only carried the card codes they wouldn't have a gaming zone, to put 20 or 30 small cardboard things, they would just put them on a tiny corner with little exposition, because dont see entire shelves littered with cardboard codes smaller than your hand really.

Also psn codes and such doe basically tiny margins for stores, they barely make any money if you buy a psn code or xbox code really, they wouldn't even bother to expose any particular game code with posters and such on the front of the store to gain afew cents compared to physical media exposure where they wins basically half of the price almost.

 

[Foxi4]

Don't worry guys, you can sleep confident that we'll contact you on your pagers as soon as this console rolls out to give you our impressions. With some luck we'll catch you after you come back from the record store, it would be a shame to interrupt your horse ride home. Worst-case scenario we'll send you a fax, or better yet, a telegram.

All jokes aside, it's pretty clear that retailers wouldn't be the least bit happy about such a turn of events, however contrary to what you might think, it's not the new software that they get good margins on, but pre-owned software. Moreover, retailers do sell digital credit and they'll continue to sell it, as well as merchandise and the odd physical release that has a simple scratch card or code inside, plus some game-related goodies. You can stand in the way of progress all you want, but at the end of the day, a physical release is a logistical nightmare in this day and age, a nightmare that can be easily avoided.

You're right about Xbox backwards compatibility @ip60, it's a neat little feature when you have that retro itch you need to scratch, but it's mostly a publicity stunt, a good PR move. Microsoft themselves admits that most users ignore it. According to their own statistics, while 50% of users have used the feature at some point, BC games account for a mere 1.25% of total play time. That's not significant. People try it out of curiosity and then ignore it going forwards.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017...games-are-less-than-2-of-xbox-one-usage-time/

 

[sarkwalvein]

well electronic stores have sections dedicated to gaming, and all those code only have a tiny shelf on a corner, so even if they only carried the card codes they wouldn't have a gaming zone, to put 20 or 30 small cardboard things, they would just put them on a tiny corner with little exposition, because dont see entire shelves littered with cardboard codes smaller than your hand really.

Also psn codes and such doe basically tiny margins for stores, they barely make any money if you buy a psn code or xbox code really, they wouldn't even bother to expose any particular game code with posters and such on the front of the store to gain afew cents compared to physical media exposure where they wins basically half of the price almost.

I guess that is how they normally do it in the rest of the world.
But at least here in Germany, in Saturn, they had full boxes with art and all, with a paper card inside the box that holds the code.
Actually the box looks the same as a physical game and are next to physical games, but they state in the front "contains digital code only" or something like that.

 

[pedro702]

Don't worry guys, you can sleep confident that we'll contact you on your pagers as soon as this console rolls out to give you our impressions. With some luck we'll catch you after you come back from the record store, it would be a shame to interrupt your horse ride home. Worst-case scenario we'll send you a fax, or better yet, a telegram.

All jokes aside, it's pretty clear that retailers wouldn't be the least bit happy about such a turn of events, however contrary to what you might think, it's not the new software that they get good margins on, but pre-owned software. Moreover, retailers do sell digital credit and they'll continue to sell it, as well as merchandise and the odd physical release that has a simple scratch card or code inside, plus some game-related goodies. You can stand in the way of progress all you want, but at the end of the day, a physical release is a logistical nightmare in this day and age, a nightmare that can be easily avoided. You're right about Xbox backwards compatibility, it's a great little feature, but mostly a publicity stunt. Microsoft themselves admits that most users ignore it. According to their own statistics, while 50% of users have used the feature at some point, BC games account for a mere 1.25% of total play time. That's not significant. People try it out of curiosity and then ignore it going forwards.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017...games-are-less-than-2-of-xbox-one-usage-time/

dont worry i will call you on your smartphone when ps5 and xbox2 have physical media and the streaming only console will just flop big time lol.

consoles even more will support 4k blurays because people buy them to see on their tv, nintendo will never do a digital only console even becuase their target audience is kids and kids dont have credit cards and rely on asking their parents for games on game stores, if a game isnt there most kids don't even know of its existence.

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

I guess that is how they normally do it in the rest of the world.
But at least here in Germany, in Saturn, they had full boxes with art and all, with a paper card inside the box that holds the code.
Actually the box looks the same as a physical game and are next to physical games, but they state in the front "contains digital code only" or something like that.

the saturn? the saturn even had digital downloads?

 

[Deleted User]

Don't worry guys, you can sleep confident that we'll contact you on your pagers as soon as this console rolls out to give you our impressions. With some luck we'll catch you after you come back from the record store, it would be a shame to interrupt your horse ride home. Worst-case scenario we'll send you a fax, or better yet, a telegram.

All jokes aside, it's pretty clear that retailers wouldn't be the least bit happy about such a turn of events, however contrary to what you might think, it's not the new software that they get good margins on, but pre-owned software. Moreover, retailers do sell digital credit and they'll continue to sell it, as well as merchandise and the odd physical release that has a simple scratch card or code inside, plus some game-related goodies. You can stand in the way of progress all you want, but at the end of the day, a physical release is a logistical nightmare in this day and age, a nightmare that can be easily avoided. You're right about Xbox backwards compatibility, it's a great little feature, but mostly a publicity stunt. Microsoft themselves admits that most users ignore it. According to their own statistics, while 50% of users have used the feature at some point, BC games account for a mere 1.25% of total play time. That's not significant. People try it out of curiosity and then ignore it going forwards.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017...games-are-less-than-2-of-xbox-one-usage-time/

You keep making jokes with no substance, you still haven't convincingly argued why a game owned in a physical format is obsolete. This is exactly how MS/Sony want you to think they want you to believe somehow a game in a format you can hold in your hand is obsolete.

 

[sarkwalvein]

the saturn? the saturn even had digital downloads?

Yep, I've seen them for PC and PS Vita games only though.

 

[Foxi4]

dont worry i will call you on your smartphone when ps5 and xbox2 have physical media and the streaming only console will just flop big time lol.

consoles even more will support 4k blurays because people buy them to see on their tv, nintendo will never do a digital only console even becuase their target audience is kids and kids dont have credit cards and rely on asking their parents for games on game stores, if a game isnt there most kids don't even know of its existence.

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


the saturn? the saturn even had digital downloads?

Fortnite disagrees. You also don't necessarily need a credit card, games like PUBG or Pokemon Gold/Silver 3DS had a "physical" release in the form of a cardboard box with a code inside. No kidding, they're just a box. The same is true with the majority of PC games.

 

[pedro702]

Yep, I've seen them for PC and PS Vita games only though.

well here and in spain all you see is this

some have the specific game image but they are tiny and smaller than your hand lol

 

[sarkwalvein]

Fortnite disagrees. You also don't necessarily need a credit card, games like PUBG or Pokemon Gold/Silver 3DS had a "physical" release in the form of a cardboard box with a code inside. No kidding, they're just a box. The same is true with the majority of PC games.

Yeah, that's exactly what I mean.
I see those on Saturn Germany all the time, also for PS Vita games (well, when there still were PS Vita games available, not sure now).

 

[Deleted User]

Fortnite disagreed. You also don't necessarily need a credit card, games like PUBG or Pokemon Gold/Silver 3DS had a "physical" release in the form of a cardboard box with a code inside. No kidding, they're just a box. The same is true with the majority of PC games.

Fortnite is a free to play game....

Why do you think Pokemon Gold/Silver had a box with code in store? because it's eshop VC game that normally wouldn't get a physical release and they want to advertise it in store because they know it will sell WAY MORE.

 

[Foxi4]

You keep making jokes with no substance, you still haven't convincingly argued why a game owned in a physical format is obsolete. This is exactly how MS/Sony want you to think they want you to believe somehow a game in a format you can hold in your hand is obsolete.

It's obsolete from a technological and logistical standpoint, there's no way around that. I don't have to convince you of anything, the test of time is more reliable. I give physical media another generation, maybe two - once digital sales surpass physical sales, the next console will just ditch physical releases altogether.

 

[pedro702]

Fortnite disagrees. You also don't necessarily need a credit card, games like PUBG or Pokemon Gold/Silver 3DS had a "physical" release in the form of a cardboard box with a code inside. No kidding, they're just a box. The same is true with the majority of PC games.

fortnight is a free game... same for PUBG and they are online multiplayer games... and yes they released gold and silver and mario tipping stars that way, doesnt mean it sold well but was to increase awareness that the game existed.


every online only multiplayer game has no need to have a physical release because it only works online either way same for online only mmos.