Microsoft Project xCloud (Game Streaming), now offering Fortnite free without GPU membership

eastmen · Jun 2, 2021

SmooTh said: ↑

What is meant by "have been enhanced even further"?
Click to expand...

No idea , i haven't updated the client or tried anything yet. Those games I listed are they the ones that got patches for xbox series hardware ?

cheapchips · Jun 2, 2021

eastmen said: ↑

No idea , i haven't updated the client or tried anything yet. Those games I listed are they the ones that got patches for xbox series hardware ?
Click to expand...

Couldn't speak to all of them, but there's a fair few on the list that are X|S enhanced.

Jay · Jun 2, 2021

cheapchips said: ↑

Couldn't speak to all of them, but there's a fair few on the list that are X|S enhanced.
Click to expand...

What I would like to see.
Still running 1S version.
Reasoning:

Virtualized 4 1S on a single XSX blade. Due to probably slower roll out, need to maximise blades.

80%+ are playing on mobile.

Load times are big issue which would be solved.

What could further enhanced mean:

I would like to see them fps boosted, as that would help latencies a hell of a lot, could make all the difference.

If they've finally got resolution boost working, could boost up to 1080p.

I would assume that the enhancements would be system level ones.
If detected was running on larger display could run XSS/X version or something.

AzBat · Jun 4, 2021

Variety did an article on xCloud & the competition...

EXPECT XBOX TO POWER MICROSOFT’S CLOUD GAMING DOMINATION

By Kaare Eriksen

Newzoo projects more than $1 billion in worth for the global cloud gaming market in 2021 and expects it to soar past $5 billion by 2023, a sign the video games industry may soon see its Netflix moment.

But cloud gaming is still in an early stage. Amazon, an obvious player for the cloud games space, only has its Luna service out in early access; it remains to be seen if Amazon will give other cloud players a run for their money when Luna eventually gets a full launch.

As such, Xbox currently has the best shot at becoming cloud gaming’s leader — here’s why:

Xbox’s cloud efforts are part of a larger, already successful subscription push.

A feature of Xbox Game Pass’ Ultimate tier, Xbox Cloud Gaming (formerly xCloud) launched in September 2020 and allows for the entirety of the subscription service’s catalog to be played in the cloud.

This sets Xbox apart from Amazon, Google and Nvidia, whose cloud services are standalone and marketed as gaming alternatives that skirt download times and save space on hard drives.

The cloud-only approach was also the case for Sony’s PlayStation Now service until 2018, when it began allowing downloads for select titles per complaints from players experiencing slower Internet speeds.

With Xbox Game Pass, all titles can be downloaded, and the Ultimate tier also grants access to EA games via the EA Play service. If players subscribe to Game Pass specifically for cloud gaming, they can still access whatever games they like in the event of an ISP outage.

Game Pass has reportedly reached 23 million subscribers, while PS Now’s count is 3.2 million per Sony’s most recent disclosure, a number well below the nearly 13 million EA has boasted for EA Play.

Amazon and Google are clearly aware of the advantage Xbox gained by bundling, as both companies struck deals with Ubisoft to have the publisher’s Ubisoft+ subscription as an add-on channel for Luna and Stadia, respectively, albeit at an additional expense for users.

The in-house cost to stream games is more than what these services charge.

Exclusive data estimates provided to Variety Intelligence Platform by Parsec, a streaming-software provider that often partners with publishers and event organizers to demo games (the 2021 Tribeca Festival one recent example), demonstrate that the estimated expenses of streaming AAA games cost companies operating cloud gaming services a pretty penny.

Utilizing public specifications info for Amazon Web Services as the backdrop for its internal calculations, Parsec’s estimates posit many AAA games are currently streamed at a loss, with many AAA titles costing more to stream than what the prevailing cloud and subscription services are charging.

At $14.99 a month, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate comes closest to matching the estimated $15.04 cost to stream “Call of Duty: Warzone.” But as is the case with these services, Xbox licenses many Game Pass titles from publishers, and those fees further retract from what can be made back via each monthly subscription.

Likewise, the reason Facebook charges players nothing for games streamed via Facebook Gaming is that those games are already free and ad-supported, unlike most AAA games.

Microsoft is making Xbox a robust home for first-party titles.

Following a studio acquisitions spree to match Sony Interactive Entertainment’s suite of first-party developers, Microsoft shocked the games industry by acquiring the parent of prominent publisher Bethesda Softworks last fall, a move meant to bolster Xbox Game Pass as much as promise more exclusives for the new Xbox Series consoles released in November.

This puts Xbox Cloud Gaming at a tremendous advantage, unlike its Big Tech competitors.

Less than two years after launching Stadia and without ever having released one exclusive or disclosing subscriber numbers, Google announced the closure of its internal game studios while assuring Stadia is here to stay. Amazon is still developing games, but it has yet to find a hit amid reports of internal strife.

Given the increasing probability that new games from Bethesda’s biggest franchises like “The Elder Scrolls” and “Fallout,” plus new property “Starfield,” will be exclusive to Xbox and Windows, Xbox Cloud Gaming will have substantially more AAA games to offer players without requiring them to pay extra to add channels to their subscription.

PlayStation 5 may be outselling Xbox Series to the same degree PlayStation 4 did last gen against Xbox One, but if it Xbox continues to build its cloud component on the success of Game Pass, it could very well see itself as the predominant force in cloud gaming.
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https://variety.com/vip/expect-xbox-to-power-microsofts-cloud-gaming-domination-1234987368/

Tommy McClain

eastmen · Jun 10, 2021

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2021/06/10/whats-next-for-gaming-highlights/

Xbox is working with global TV manufacturers to embed the Xbox experience directly into internet-connected televisions with no extra hardware required except a controller.

Xbox is exploring new subscription offerings for Xbox Game Pass so more players around the world can experience the most immersive and fun games across devices, geographies, and financial realities.

Xbox is building its own streaming devices for cloud gaming to reach gamers on any TV or monitor without the need for a console at all.

Click to expand...

Now xcloud / game pass gets better

Malo · Jun 10, 2021

How do you connect a controller to the TV?

BRiT · Jun 10, 2021

Malo said: ↑

How do you connect a controller to the TV?
Click to expand...

BluTooth most likely?

eastmen · Jun 10, 2021

BRiT said: ↑

BluTooth most likely?
Click to expand...

Maybe also usb as a lot of tvs today have them ?

Anyway I wonder if the fire stick / chrome cast competitor is going to make an appearance at e3

AzBat · Jun 10, 2021

The odd device on the right kinda looks interesting. Something like the Nvidia Shield or a laptop?

Tommy McClain

see colon · Jun 10, 2021

There's nothing preventing Microsoft from integrating Xbox wireless connections in a TV. The existing USB receivers for Xbox controllers/headsets are pretty small, and part of their packaging includes a built in antenna which takes up 15-20% of it's length. Honestly, I'm surprised that Microsoft hasn't included the wireless receivers built into at least the Surface and first party devices, or worked with other vendors like Alienware or ROG. I know you can sync Xbox controllers via bluetooth, but Xbox wireless headsets and other first party and officially licensed accessories use the Xbox wireless and it seams like a missed opportunity to sell more Xbox stuff. Also, bluetooth in my experience has more input lag than using a wireless receiver.

eastmen · Jun 10, 2021

AzBat said: ↑

The odd device on the right kinda looks interesting. Something like the Nvidia Shield or a laptop?

View attachment 5552

Tommy McClain
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I know they are coming out with a fire stick competitor ( unless its canceled since the last time i talked to anyone) maybe its more of a fire tv / shield device in its first iteration .

see colon said: ↑

There's nothing preventing Microsoft from integrating Xbox wireless connections in a TV. The existing USB receivers for Xbox controllers/headsets are pretty small, and part of their packaging includes a built in antenna which takes up 15-20% of it's length.
Click to expand...

Since the xbox one s came out all the xbox controller also have bluetooth so you can connect to any phone or computer without the dongle

see colon · Jun 10, 2021

eastmen said: ↑

Since the xbox one s came out all the xbox controller also have bluetooth so you can connect to any phone or computer without the dongle
Click to expand...

I was editing my post when you replied. It's not just about controllers. It's headsets, other branded accessories, and having an "Xbox certified" marketing label that I'm surprised they aren't leveraging.

eastmen · Jun 10, 2021

see colon said: ↑

I was editing my post when you replied. It's not just about controllers. It's headsets, other branded accessories, and having an "Xbox certified" marketing label that I'm surprised they aren't leveraging.
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maybe but they might come out with xcloud certified or another brand for this.

AzBat · Jun 10, 2021

eastmen said: ↑

maybe but they might come out with xcloud certified or another brand for this.
Click to expand...

Hopefully they rebrand xCloud or "Cloud Gaming". They need "Xbox Go" or something similar.

Tommy McClain

AzBat · Jun 10, 2021

Phil & Satya chat...

Phil Spencer:  I’m thrilled to be joined by Satya Nadella to talk about how Microsoft broadly can drive gaming forward. Thanks for being here, Satya. Why don’t we start by talking about why gaming is such a priority for the company?

Satya Nadella: Thank you so much, Phil.

Gaming has been key to Microsoft from our earliest of days. Our oldest currently supported software franchise is in fact our game Microsoft Flight Simulator, which we released three years before the first version of Windows, even. Gaming is fundamentally aligned and woven into our mission as a company. When you talk about Xbox’s mission to bring the joy and community of gaming to everyone on the planet, which I absolutely love, this is precisely what I think of when we think about Microsoft’s mission, which is to empower every person, every organization on the planet to achieve more.

As a company, Microsoft’s all-in on gaming. We believe we can play a leading role in democratizing gaming and defining that future of interactive entertainment, quite frankly, at scale. There are really three, I think, areas or key areas where we believe we have incredible competitive advantage. First is our leadership in cloud computing; second, the resources we have to build out the subscription value with Xbox Game Pass; and third is our overall focus on empowering creators. I’m really excited about the opportunity in gaming.

Spencer: How about we start talking about Azure? Here’s the thing when I think about it. Going back to the birth of personal computing in the 1970s, the ability to play games has been limited by the cost and power of the specific device you’re using, whether it’s an arcade cabinet or a PC, a phone, a tablet, whatever. And that cost and those requirements have always severely limited who can play, where they can play and who they can play with.

When I was a kid, it was crazy to think about having a Galaga machine or a Ms. Pac-man machine in your house. You had to go to the arcade. More recently, if you couldn’t spend hundreds of dollars on a game console, potentially thousands of dollars on a high-end PC, you simply couldn’t participate in the global gaming community in a significant way.

The cloud will allow us to completely remove these barriers to play worldwide. Of course, there’s still a place for consoles and PCs and frankly, there always will be, but through the cloud, we will be able to deliver a robust gaming experience to anyone connected to the Internet, even on the least powerful, least expensive devices, devices people already own. And with the cloud, gaming players can participate fully in the same Xbox experience as people on local hardware. We couldn’t do that if we weren’t part of Microsoft.

Nadella: That’s so well said, Phil. I mean, the cloud and Azure have sort of fundamentally allowed us to truly put people at the center of gaming, enabling them to play the games in high fidelity, as you said, wherever, whenever they want on any device. Cloud gaming is truly a breakthrough experience. I mean, for me, you just go to Xbox.com/play, and I’ll tell you, it’s a really fast, easy way to get into gaming. It’s been a game changer for me. I love that I can go from my PC to my Xbox to my Duo, picking up on any game right where I left off and even using the touch controls on Duo. That is super well done, and I can use my controller, of course, on my PC.

You also see the power of the cloud when you look at the evolution of some of our first-party games, like Flight Simulator. It exemplifies, at least for me, what uniquely we can do by bringing together the power of all of Microsoft tech stack, right, from Azure AI to Bing maps, and even spatial computing, which came together to create essentially literally a digital twin of the entire planet.

And as you know, Phil, we’re also seeing tremendous traction when it comes to game development on Azure with companies like Pearl Abyss scaling their gaming, using the power of our cloud. And of course, game development doesn’t stop when the game is launched. In fact, one of the things we have learned from all of the work you all have done is in some sense, it starts after the game is launched because you want to be able to experiment, learn through analytics and continuously change gameplay.

And one of the things I’m most excited about is how we are enabling game developers to do just that with Azure PlayFab, which now holds more than 2.5 billion player accounts. It’s being used as the backend for more than 5,000 games, so a lot of exciting things that the cloud can enable.

Spencer: Yeah, and the complementary piece is opening up access to the games themselves. And that’s where Game Pass comes in.

Nadella: That’s right. With Game Pass, we are truly redefining how games are distributed, played, and shared. The content is the driving force behind Game Pass’ growth, which is why I’m so excited about our acquisition of ZeniMax, which brings some of the world’s most iconic, beloved games to the service. With Game Pass coming to the browser, the value of the subscription is going to transcend from the console to the PC to mobile, and it’s great to see the progress.

I’m looking forward to how we continue to invest in Game Pass to add more content and bring the service to even more geographies as we make progress.

Spencer: Yeah, I’m so excited about the potential here. We continue to build value proposition of Game Pass through building our first-party game studios. As you said, the recent acquisition of ZeniMax is something I’m really proud of, where we’re bringing an amazing catalogue of games into Game Pass, just like you talked about.

For the first couple of decades, the only way you can play the game was to buy the game outright. And for many players, this can be an investment that limits their ability to play. That cost, the retail model have limited the audience for creators and the entire industry. That’s why we created Game Pass, to open up the ways that players can play more games with their friends, ultimately bringing in more players, making games more accessible to everyone.

Earlier this year, we announced that our Game Pass subscription had passed 18 million members. And what’s really surprised us is that it’s transforming how our entire industry thinks about Xbox and how we can reach a wider audience. And we’ll hear more about that later.

Let’s wrap up by talking about creators, which I know is a huge priority for you and the entire company.  

Nadella: Yeah, absolutely. When you step back and look at the next decade and the evolution of technology, I think one of the most defining trends will be how the balance between consumption and creation is achieved and the changes it brings about. Already, more and more people are creating something new and magical every day. You see that in all sorts of platforms, and there are growing communities who want to discover, explore, and build on other’s creations.

I believe we will need that virtuous cycle between content consumption, commerce driven by communities for everything we build. And there’s no better example of this than gaming. That’s why I’m so excited that so many games are evolving into these metaverse economies and societies, just like Minecraft, right? It’s one of the leading platforms in the creator economy.

Some of the coolest things I’ve seen over the past year is how people have used Minecraft to create new worlds in order to maintain even a sense of community and belonging that’s so important in times like these. They’re creating entire college campuses on Minecraft. They’re expanding that economic opportunity, too. In fact, creators have generated over $350 million from more than one billion downloads of the mods, add-ons and other experiences in the game. And that’s fantastic to see.

And when I think about our new platform, Microsoft Mesh, which enables you to interact holographically with other people with a true presence in a very natural way, one of the most exciting applications, I think, will be gaming. Niantic, for example, showed a great demo Pokémon Go using Mesh at our recent event. We’re very excited about what creators can do going forward with the platform shifts that we are going to have in the next 10 years.

Spencer: Yeah, and we’re actually going to hear a lot more about creators in our first group discussion coming up next. We’ve created an entire organization dedicated to empowering the game industry and developers of every size. But you’re right, we see the health of creators in and around our games as one of the key barometers for our overall business health.

Thanks so much, Satya, for joining us today.

Nadella:  Thanks so much, Phil. It’s so great to see how we’re working together as One Microsoft to bring the joy and community of gaming to everyone on the planet.
Click to expand...

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2021/06/10/satya-nadella-and-phil-spencer-on-gaming-at-microsoft/

Tommy McClain

iroboto · Jun 10, 2021

https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/10/22527461/xbox-xcloud-game-streaming-try-before-download-feature
Try before you buy on Xbox... is game changing for game discovery.

This is huge support for those who want the ability to have game pass, but wanting to only buy the games they like. It's good support on both fronts here.

Seanspeed · Jun 10, 2021

The fact that they say "Try before you download" and not "Try before you buy" sounds to me like they want to position this as a Gamepass-specific feature.

eastmen · Jun 10, 2021

https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/10/22527420/microsoft-xbox-tv-app-streaming-stick-xcloud

So looks like we will know at e3

Guess I was a year too early last time i brought it up

iroboto · Jun 10, 2021

Seanspeed said: ↑

The fact that they say "Try before you download" and not "Try before you buy" sounds to me like they want to position this as a Gamepass-specific feature.
Click to expand...

They will likely allow try before you buy, because people will buy, download and try and refund. May as well lower the barriers on both sides to decrease player pain, and decrease the costs of labour for MS.

AzBat · Jun 10, 2021

Seanspeed said: ↑

The fact that they say "Try before you download" and not "Try before you buy" sounds to me like they want to position this as a Gamepass-specific feature.
Click to expand...

Makes the most sense & probably the easiest to integrate. Creating a trial service for non-Game Pass games could be problemsome from a technical & business point of view.

Tommy McClain

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