Microsoft Xbox digital events [E3 2020 Replacements]

Q&A on The Medium...

Q: “What excites you most about developing and bringing The Medium to life on next-generation hardware?”

A: The simple answer is that thanks to the next-generation hardware, we can realize our vision for The Medium at all. Of course, theoretically, you could rescope any game idea, but in our case it would mean completely changing the core game features.

Thanks to the power of Xbox Series X, we can develop the game the way we have always envisioned it. I’m not talking only about graphics, although certainly it helps create an immersive and disturbing atmosphere, but also about gameplay.

Q: In addition to benefiting from the power and performance of Xbox Series X for quicker load times etc. what Xbox Series X features were you most excited to explore leveraging in the development of The Medium?

A: The SSD and how it allows for no noticeable loading times is certainly a big deal for us. Thanks to it, you can create a more cinematic and atmospheric experience, and keep the player immersed in the game – with no immersion-breaking loading screens.

Also, the sheer power of the CPU and GPU lets you go a bit crazy with your gameplay ideas, and we believe the new hardware will quickly change how games are being designed.


Q: How will these enhancements impact a player’s experience with The Medium?

A: We’re putting a lot of effort into creating a heavy, disturbing atmosphere in the game. We’re using a variety of means to immerse the player into both our worlds, including music and environment, and thanks to no loading screens these methods are so much more effective. Before, it was a bit of an uphill battle to keep the game immersive and cinematic despite obvious breaks, and now the next generation simply makes that problem go away.

Q: Why did your development team choose to focus on 4K resolution and DirectX Raytracing as enhancement areas for The Medium?

A: These are the features that fits our game and its genre the best. The 4K resolution helps us showcase the art style and environment of the real and the spirit world, while Ray-tracing will add to the atmosphere of the game. In other words, these features make the game’s strengths shine even brighter.

Q: How do you expect fans of The Medium will respond to playing it on Xbox Series X with these enhancements?

A: I hope they will love it Unlike many cross-gen titles revealed so far, The Medium is a next-gen only game. We don’t have any porting plans for current-gen consoles, so the Xbox Series X will offer the experience we always meant for the game.

Q: What is it like developing on Xbox Series X?

A: It’s really exciting to be one of the first studios developing for Xbox Series X. This is truly a great piece of hardware, one that enables us to realize our vision of the game without compromises. I can’t wait for the fans to see what the console is really capable of.

Q: Which enhancement were you most excited about to explore leveraging for The Medium on Xbox Series X?

A: We’re heavily using the CPU and GPU for the interactions between the real world and the spirit world. We have still much to reveal about The Medium, including one of our core gameplay features. The marketing team will kill me if I say too much too soon, but we’re using the extra power to really push what’s possible gameplay-wise on the next generation, and I simply can’t wait for players’ reactions.

Q: What does Xbox Series X/next-generation development enable in current or future projects that you could not have achieved with the current generation of consoles?

A: As in the example with loading times, the next generation removes obstacles that until now consumed development time and resources. Now developers can devote more attention to creative gameplay. I also strongly believe that as we see more games developed specifically for the new generation, genuine breakthroughs and innovations will shortly follow.
Click to expand...

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2020/07/02/inside-xbox-series-x-optimized-the-medium/

Tommy McClain
 
Jay said:
Series X hardware hasn't been deployed into xcloud yet.
Click to expand...

That isn't fully true. XSX is in xcloud just not in enough quantity and not available for anyone that isn't currently working on xcloud. The servers that beta testers are using are all XBO based
 
eastmen said:
That isn't fully true. XSX is in xcloud just not in enough quantity and not available for anyone that isn't currently working on xcloud. The servers that beta testers are using are all XBO based
Click to expand...

Do you know in what capacity it's being tested? I assume the 4x base console for streaming would be a very good money and power saver for Microsoft.
But better quality streams? Better latency?
 
turkey said:
Do you know in what capacity it's being tested? I assume the 4x base console for streaming would be a very good money and power saver for Microsoft.
But better quality streams? Better latency?
Click to expand...

would u be okay if i just said all of the above ?

The XO would need an external encoder to handle the stream and sending it out over the web. XSX integrates a newer better one. So I don't know much about it but the latency your getting from sending it out to that external encoder is now saved since its done internally and never has to leave the board . The encoder is also better quality so the video stream should look better. I also believe they are using some beam/mixer tech to further improve latency.

The XO stuff was all a test with the real investment coming in with the XSX. They have been running xcloud internally for a 3 or so years at this point so they gathered a lot of good data to deploy in XSX.

But yea its best to think of it this way. XSX was made for xcloud as much as it was made for your home. They want you to have the best quality streams from their servers or from your home server. After all if they can just have you stream from the xsx in your living room instead of hitting their server hardware then its a win win for them. Meanwhile XO was designed for your home only and then they had to put band aids on it to get it to work for streaming.


I've now tried all the streaming solutions out there and I can say they all suck compared to local gaming lol. however I'd rank them like this imo from best to worse. Geforce now, xcloud x86 (ethernet better than wireless) , stadia (wired) , xcloud andriod , stadia wifi , ps now (ethernet).

Hope that helps. Geforce now both the premium and non premium tiers were tested and it was all on my surface pro. Same with xcloud x86 so I had the option for both to be wired
 
eastmen said:
would u be okay if i just said all of the above ?
XSX was made for xcloud as much as it was made for your home.
Click to expand...

Yeah i remember a quote from a video with Jason Ronald talking about how they made a huge bet by "Virtualizing the display controller" in the XSX .. They wouldnt of done this if it wasnt for the tie in with xCloud ..

Ive been trying to find out the significance of this virtualization effort, but couldn't find anything

quote from this vid (14:17 mark):

 
DxCore said:
Yeah i remember a quote from a video with Jason Ronald talking about how they made a huge bet by "Virtualizing the display controller" in the XSX .. They wouldnt of done this if it wasnt for the tie in with xCloud ..

Ive been trying to find out the significance of this virtualization effort, but couldn't find anything
Click to expand...

If I were to guess, I'd think this is one of the things that enables one Xbox Series X-based xCloud server to stream 4 Xbox One titles simultaneously.
 
mrcorbo said:
If I were to guess, I'd think this is one of the things that enables one Xbox Series X-based xCloud server to stream 4 Xbox One titles simultaneously.
Click to expand...
Could be misremembering, but I'm sure they said they developed it for xcloud but it had benefit on xsx of lowering latency.
Part of their controller to display lowering latencies ecforts.

Be interesting to see if it all adds up to demonstrably bigger difference.

As lower latency is important for xcloud and useful for consoles
 
Last edited:
mpg1 said:
So is the expectation that this event is mostly about first party titles?
Click to expand...
For July 23 I believe it is only MGS titles yes
The other days I think are ??

the Summer fest with game demos of WIP games is July 21-27.
 
RobertR1 said:
So basically this is the event that puts the XSX either as a front runner or a participant.
Click to expand...
From a messaging perspective, probably more critical to showcase they are serious about making some good games. As that would apply to their whole ecosystem and not just XSX. So nailing the right type of games and marketing them correctly is going to be paramount.

But i agree that a goal should be to put XSX As the front runner for next gen.
 
iroboto said:
For July 23 I believe it is only MGS titles yes
The other days I think are ??

the Summer fest with game demos of WIP games is July 21-27.
Click to expand...

I've seen on Twitter from lots of sources that there will be some 3rd party like Cyberpunk. Don't expect just 1st party.

Tommy McClain
 
eastmen said:
Speculation is that lockhart stuff was moved to August after sony's state of play.
Click to expand...
I don't buy this. Multi-year project products cannot dance to the tune of a competitor's marketing. You don't want to announce on the same day or even in the same week but to move an event so that it's two calendar months apart? :nope:
 
DSoup said:
I don't buy this. Multi-year project products cannot dance to the tune of a competitor's marketing. You don't want to announce on the same day or even in the same week but to move an event so that it's two calendar months apart? :nope:
Click to expand...

It's not Sony that completely upended their marketing plans for the year.

Edit: To quote Eurogamer

"The original plan was to showcase the Xbox Series S as part of Xbox's big E3 2020 show, so the proposition of a cheaper next-gen option could be explained properly, sat alongside the graphical powerhouse provided by the beefier Series X, both playing the same next-gen games.

But when E3 was cancelled and remote working hindered progress on various internal game projects, it became clear Microsoft could no longer show both its boxes and next-gen games all at the same time. It had to rethink the timeline for all these plans, and instead opted to spread its reveals over a longer timescale - something the company publicly branded Xbox 20/20."
 
Last edited:
cheapchips said:
It's not Sony that completely upended their marketing plans for the year.

Edit: To quote Eurogamer

"The original plan was to showcase the Xbox Series S as part of Xbox's big E3 2020 show, so the proposition of a cheaper next-gen option could be explained properly, sat alongside the graphical powerhouse provided by the beefier Series X, both playing the same next-gen games.

But when E3 was cancelled and remote working hindered progress on various internal game projects, it became clear Microsoft could no longer show both its boxes and next-gen games all at the same time. It had to rethink the timeline for all these plans, and instead opted to spread its reveals over a longer timescale - something the company publicly branded Xbox 20/20."
Click to expand...
Also a key corner stone of the systems is price points. If MS went full steam ahead and announced something like $400/600 then sony could have slotted in at $400 or $500 making the series S a bad deal.

however if Sony announces pricing first And goes in at $500 then MS can put lockhart at $250 or $300 as a clear lower end machine and can price XSX at $500. Or just under cut them with both systems.

By having two events what they can actually do is show off a bunch of trailers and the like for the XSX like sony largely did and then drop longer game play looks at lockhart event and perhaps even switch between the two editions to show the lack of quality diffrence
 
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