Two of the biggest names in tech are planning to get into the game streaming business soon. Microsoft began testing its Project xCloud service last year, and this year Google unveiled its own upcoming game streaming technology called Stadia.
Now Microsoft has revealed a few more details, while Google… has announced it’s going to have some announcements, I guess.
According to a tweet from @GoogleStadia, we should have information about the pricing, game selection, and launch information for Stadia this summer.
Microsoft, meanwhile, says Project xCloud already has the technical capability to stream more than 3,500 games without requiring developers to do a thing.
That’s because xCloud can basically handle any game that can run on an Xbox One… and that not only includes Xbox One titles, but also some older Xbox 360 and original Xbox games, thanks to backward compatibility.
Microsoft also says there are also more than 1,900 new games in development for the Xbox One, and they’ll all be able to run on Project xCloud.
Game developers that want to optimize titles for streaming can do that though. Microsoft says it recently added new features to its Xbox Developer Kit that are aimed at streaming — enabling features like bigger font sizes for smaller displays or allow multiplayer games to be hosted on a single server in order to reduce latency.
Even with the fastest metro Fibre/5G connections (~110Mb/s), and the leading streaming/tech companies (Google, MS, Nvidia)…. Game Streaming isn’t that viable.
Definitely not for fast-twitch games like All Fighting games, All First-person shooter, Most mixed/open-world games, and Some Racing games. I guess it could work if you had a super-fast connection, and the server (ie/ your Home PC) was running it optimally, say like in your backyard.
However, gamers are getting more and more games that rely on latency and response, and the games themselves are getting more and more complex, making streaming more difficult. It would work for slower-paced games like Some open-world games, Many Racing games, Most Narrative-driven games, Most MMO type games, and All Turn-by-turn games.
Does MS plan on support PC games as well?
If game streaming succeeds at some point, I’m guessing MS will more likely be the company behind it rather than Google given Google’s track record with releasing half-baked products/services and killing them. Just imagine the resources wasted with the even larger amount of services/projects that don’t even get the chance to be released and then killed off. Just that will prevent me from even trying Google’s Project Stadia.