cageymaru
Fully [H]
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2003
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Gaming corporations have long flirted with the allure of game streaming titles instead of selling consoles to consumers as the hardware is sold at a loss in some cases. Microsoft and Nintendo are said to be working on streaming services where you can play a game on most devices as long as it has a screen. And some major game publishers are predicting the end of the game console as soon as next generation.
But is there really truth to this perception that game streaming can completely replace the game console experience? What about latency and video quality? The US government has been trying to convince ISPs to install some form of internet in many areas to no avail. The FCC wants to keep the definition of broadband capped at 25Mbps/3Mbps. Is that really fast enough to stream games at game console quality and low latency if you have others in your home consuming bandwidth at the same time? Some areas don't even have cellular service.
Phil Spencer, executive vice president of gaming at Microsoft, compared the evolution of moving games to streaming with the change we have seen in streaming video. Microsoft's goal, he said, is to move gaming to a medium where you can play what you want where you want. But, he pointed out, even though streaming video claims mindshare and market share, DVD sales still pull in billions of dollars per year. Big shifts like this, he said, don't happen as quickly as we all think they do. "It takes time," Spencer said.
But is there really truth to this perception that game streaming can completely replace the game console experience? What about latency and video quality? The US government has been trying to convince ISPs to install some form of internet in many areas to no avail. The FCC wants to keep the definition of broadband capped at 25Mbps/3Mbps. Is that really fast enough to stream games at game console quality and low latency if you have others in your home consuming bandwidth at the same time? Some areas don't even have cellular service.
Phil Spencer, executive vice president of gaming at Microsoft, compared the evolution of moving games to streaming with the change we have seen in streaming video. Microsoft's goal, he said, is to move gaming to a medium where you can play what you want where you want. But, he pointed out, even though streaming video claims mindshare and market share, DVD sales still pull in billions of dollars per year. Big shifts like this, he said, don't happen as quickly as we all think they do. "It takes time," Spencer said.