Microsoft Hints at Turning Xbox Into an App For Your TV (theverge.com) 24
Microsoft is in the early phases of rolling out its xCloud streaming service on mobile devices, but TVs are the next logical step. From a report:In an interview with The Verge, Xbox chief Phil Spencer has revealed we'll likely see an Xbox app appear on smart TVs over the next year. "I think you're going to see that in the next 12 months," said Spencer, when asked about turning the Xbox into a TV app. "I don't think anything is going to stop us from doing that." Spencer previously hinted at TV streaming sticks for Microsoft's xCloud service last month, and this latest hint suggests we might see similar hardware or an Xbox app for TVs during 2021. Microsoft is currently working on bringing xCloud to the web to enable it on iOS devices, and this work would naturally allow xCloud to expand to TVs, browsers, and elsewhere. Microsoft was previously working on a lightweight Xbox streaming device back in 2016, but it canceled the hardware. Microsoft has been testing the idea of streaming and TV sticks ever since the company originally demonstrated Halo 4 streaming from the cloud to Windows and Windows Phones all the way back in 2013.
Probably just waiting for TVs to improve (Score:3, Informative)
Plenty of TVs have fairly powerful Android (or other) devices in them, and could probably already provide this service with just an app.
Microsoft doesn't want to have to produce their own product AND the software to go on it if they can avoid it. And they probably can.
Re: Probably just waiting for TVs to improve (Score:2)
Plenty of TVs have fairly powerful Android (or other) devices in them, and could probably already provide this service with just an app.
Microsoft doesn't want to have to produce their own product AND the software to go on it if they can avoid it. And they probably can.
"How to access the PlayStation Now service on the TV" - dated by the PS3 controller
https://www.sony.com/electroni... [sony.com]
TVs have been able to do this for a while (Score:2)
The display device (a TV, laptop, tablet, phone) doesn't need to be powerful. It just needs to be able to decode an h.264 video stream, while pretty much everything built in the last 15 years can do. To the TV (or the Roku o
Pure mind (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
When screens are everywhere, all screens can sell you all services complete with advertisements to stimulate additional consumption. Then you will have access to all services on all screens. When screens are everywhere, then we can achieve screen mind. Then everyone's minds will be clean, and we can achieve screen mind. Screen mind will change society and human interaction forever.
Or to paraphrase, when screens become hammers, everyone looks like a nail -- or something like that.
There's no reason they can't do this. (Score:4, Interesting)
The real winners of an Xbox app would be PC users who would now be able to run Xbox games on superior hardware.
Re:There's no reason they can't do this. (Score:5, Insightful)
But streaming games takes local hardware out of the equation, other than screen size/resolution. All the CPU and GPU work is done on the server side. It's nothing more than an interactive Netflix.
Re: (Score:2)
The real winners of an Xbox app would be PC users who would now be able to run Xbox games on superior hardware.
..having spent over $1000 on hardware just to run the games in a web browser with the same quality and FPS as those who've plugged a cheap $40 TV stick into their TV. So yeah you'll be running it on superior hardware but hardware which will be offering you no advantage because it's a streamed service.
Re: There's no reason they can't do this. (Score:2)
One problem is latency. Press a button to jump, for example, could cost you 100 milliseconds or more. Doesnâ(TM)t sound like a lot, but it's enough that you'll notice. Also, non-streaming peeps in multi-player games will have an advantage.
There are ways to mitigate the effects like teaming up with a content delivery service like Akamai. CDNs put a crap ton of work and money into creating low-latency, high-availabiliy services. Guessing most have a cloud component these days.
Hrmmmm, seems to me that Mic
Re: There's no reason they can't do this. (Score:2)
You can already play PlayStation games on your superior PC, winner
https://growngaming.com/featur... [growngaming.com]
Yeah, that'll work well (Score:1)
After all , Smart TV hardware is really high end cutting edge stuff with a killer GPU and not a low powered SoC running a 5 year old version of Android at all.
And even for streaming you'll need something better for games than the jerky crap these devices manage for video.
They're already there now (Score:2)
They just got the infrastructure setup and running for iPhones and Androids.
As I've said elsewhere here - TVs are now nothing more than 50"+ iPads (minus the touchscreen, of course because fingerprints bad!) A LOT of TVs are already running android in the background. The only thing holding them back is probably bluetooth interaction and more likely business contracts!
The question is... do you WANT to go this route as a business? Once you've turned XBox into a service there's really no need to buy the con
Graphics Cards (Score:3)
So now that $400 TV is going to require a $500 "3d graphics card?"
Re:Graphics Cards (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
So now that $400 TV is going to require a $500 "3d graphics card?"
Yup, and you'll have to replace it every 6 months to play the new games. /sarcasm
Actually, "Computershack" is probably right in that the rendering, or most of it, will be done on the server-side, at least in the near term. Over the longer term, vendors might embed advanced graphics cards into the TVs and, if they're smart, will make them upgradeable.
Re: (Score:2)
Game Streaming Wars (Score:2)
We now have
Playstation Now (has existed 6+ years)
xBox Cloud (I think ~ 1 year old?)
Google Stadia (Launched earlier this year)
Amazon Luna (Launches later this year)
Key questions:
- Can the market support all of these?
- Why should consumers buy the next-gen consoles when they can just subscribe to one of these services?
Re: (Score:2)
- Why should consumers buy the next-gen consoles when they can just subscribe to one of these services?
Bandwidth and latency requirements are the two big reasons. Latency you can get down to a certain point, but it's still a problem for fast paced PvP and FPS games. Latency is something that has hard physical limits, so you can only push it so far. As for bandwidth, you need around 10mb/s bare minimum for 720p game streaming. Yea, Microsoft and others have lower baseline requirements, but those will usually get you something that looks worse than playing an Atari game on a old CRT. Maybe OK if you want to pl
Not likely (Score:3)
If my "smart" tv is never connected* it can't get this crap.
* I don't yet own one of these piles of cruft, but will be forced to in the near future as my current tv, used only for playing DVDs, goes away.
Looks like I'm out of luck (Score:2)
The real reason it remains a dream in 2020 (Score:2)
The main reason it remains a concept in 2020 is the original 2013 demo had a Windows phone.
Ubiquitous hardware (Score:2)
We have an nvidia shield at home (the old model). With some tweaks, it can remotely run games on my PC (Steam), access several different cloud gaming systems, and I think I saw one YouTuber hack the Xbox Streaming app to run it as well.
Not to mention it being more capable than the older Xbox 360, and plays many games locally. And of course with emulation, many other systems too.
It is not too difficult to see having an even more versatile version in the next years, possibly with native Xbox, PS Now, and PC s