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Hands-On With Microsoft's Browser-Based Xbox Cloud Gaming Service on an iPhone
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Likely the same reason Microsoft is not promoting Google’s streaming service on Xbox.
the experience is going to vary from household to household and even day to day and time to time.
it is all dependent on your connection at the time.
any hiccups in the internet will translate into hiccups in your game feed.
Remember Netflix can buffer. Games can't.
it is all dependent on your connection at the time.
any hiccups in the internet will translate into hiccups in your game feed.
Remember Netflix can buffer. Games can't.
I have 1 Gb Xfinity internet with WiFi 6 mesh routers at home. Tried several games on the iPad. Overall, it worked better than I expected, but was not perfect. Input lag was noticeable but generally did not interfere with gaming enjoyment as long as the game being played did not require super fast reaction times. The gaming was mostly smooth although I did experience occasional brief video or audio stutters. The colors seemed a little bit muted.
I know using hardwired ethernet could provide better performance, but I'd have to sit next to my router and that would severely limit my gaming mobility and convenience. Seems completely counter to the point of mobile gaming.
My prior experience with Remote Play was pretty mediocre, and this was quite a bit better. Despite the occasional glitch or little bit of lag, it was infrequent enough that I had fun and played games for a good length of time this way. I did notice that after the stream initialized, load times were better than my Xbox One X at home, since Microsoft is using Series X hardware in their datacenter. I could tell that the performance was snappier.
I could certainly see myself playing certain types of games this way. When MSFS 2020 releases on the Series X, I think this would be an excellent way to play it. Age of Empires is another game releasing in October for which a little input lag would not be an issue.
I know using hardwired ethernet could provide better performance, but I'd have to sit next to my router and that would severely limit my gaming mobility and convenience. Seems completely counter to the point of mobile gaming.
My prior experience with Remote Play was pretty mediocre, and this was quite a bit better. Despite the occasional glitch or little bit of lag, it was infrequent enough that I had fun and played games for a good length of time this way. I did notice that after the stream initialized, load times were better than my Xbox One X at home, since Microsoft is using Series X hardware in their datacenter. I could tell that the performance was snappier.
I could certainly see myself playing certain types of games this way. When MSFS 2020 releases on the Series X, I think this would be an excellent way to play it. Age of Empires is another game releasing in October for which a little input lag would not be an issue.
Usb-c -> ethernet dongle, if you bought one for your MacBook it will work with your iPad, for the iPhone theres a lightning to ethernet dongle as well.
Works better on my MacBook Air M1 vs my iPhone 12 Pro Max for some reason, both on Wi-Fi in the same room with wireless controller. On my wired PC though with wired controller, besides video compression, it runs super smooth.
And while Stadia does feel better you also have to remember that Stadia makes you buy games while Game Pass Ultimate includes hundred of games making it a much better value proposition.
And while Stadia does feel better you also have to remember that Stadia makes you buy games while Game Pass Ultimate includes hundred of games making it a much better value proposition.
I have a decent ping on my gigabit connection and it’s just not fast enough for many games. Forget shooters, I’m just talking about the platformers and racing games I’ve tried so far. It’s just enough to foul up my timing. They should've kept it in beta. I haven’t noticed much improvement from the beta to now.
Laggy on M1 iPad Pro with Xbox SX controller. Video quality was good, but lag was constant(meaning the lag didn’t cut in and out, it was smooth; just a bit behind). I’m on Cable, with 12-16ms response; tried connected to an Ethernet hardline(USB-C to ethernet adapter), and WI-FI… slight difference, but there is too much lag overall for most game pass games to be enjoyable.
Not surprising if you’ve ever played an online PvP (human vs. human) match in a game such as Madden NFL. Passing and kicking requires the same early button press timing adjustment as described in this review. Basically, online (Xbox) gaming is extremely sensitive to latency whether the console is local or in a data center.
Nope. Latency is the trip time of a packet (round trip being important here), while speed or bandwidth says how many packets can be sent per second. The thing is that computers can and will send multiple packets in a row and not wait for the response to send the next one. Some protocols don’t even rely on the concept of an acknowledgement packet, and use a fire-and-forget approach. UDP based protocols have to build any ACK behaviors themselves.
There are practical limits to this, but generally latency and throughput can be decoupled from each other.
Wow this is amazing.
Been playing Titanfall 2 on bootcamp. You all should try playing this game one of the best FPS I've ever played as a single story. Innovative is the best way to describe it.
Been playing Titanfall 2 on bootcamp. You all should try playing this game one of the best FPS I've ever played as a single story. Innovative is the best way to describe it.
i switched to wifi ac on ps4 pro after i noticed no differences with cable (600mb connection)
Why are they even bothering with this? You probably have to live next door to the data center, maybe it works for turn based games.
I have seen people complain of TVs that have "low" latency and you have to turn on "Game Mode"...the game's hardware is literally connected vida HDMI to the TV, but thats still slow it seems.
how can I have stable and low latency internet?
I also find it ridiclous to say that 200ms is slow latency...like literally thats 1/5 of a second...a second...
I have seen people complain of TVs that have "low" latency and you have to turn on "Game Mode"...the game's hardware is literally connected vida HDMI to the TV, but thats still slow it seems.
how can I have stable and low latency internet?
I also find it ridiclous to say that 200ms is slow latency...like literally thats 1/5 of a second...a second...
So even in super reliable and fast Wi-Fi it still has some lag and not constant. That means if you don’t have unlimited 5G data plan you will encounter massive bill and still not constant. Therefore, you have to play this at home, which destroys the main theme that you can play AAA games anywhere.
And by the way, if you can play the game only at your home with state of the art Wi-Fi but with lags, isn’t it better to play games at your PS5 or Xbox or PC with zero lag and better graphics and can be played without any internet connection?
And by the way, if you can play the game only at your home with state of the art Wi-Fi but with lags, isn’t it better to play games at your PS5 or Xbox or PC with zero lag and better graphics and can be played without any internet connection?
I finished Celeste on Stadia without any problem. It requires twitch controls. I was using a ChromeOS device with Gigabit internet on Wifi. Also play F1 2020 on Stadia regularily and that has no detectable lag (to me). That is another very realistic game where lag or stutter would be end of a race. I play GeforceNow every day as well and that is smooth even on Safari on an ipad. Little more lag than stadia but not critical for 90% of games.
Perhaps this is an issue with XB Gamepass that will be addressed in the future, I've never tried it. I would say your experience with cloud gaming though is not one I share.
Not related to xcloud but for online RTS games such as Dota 2, anything above 100ms is slow while 30-50ms is the good and 0-30ms is the great. It depends if you have a data center near you and the network routes of the ISP is good.
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I live well over a thousand of kilometers from the nearest datacenter (and two countries away), and the experience is really neat when playing solo games, especially those with Touch Controls support. Online games such as Sea of Thieves have their issues.
Quick Edit: Interestingly enough, I have a slightly better experience when playing over 4G than 5G at the moment.
They don’t want to. It’s in Tim and Apples best interest for this to work, it demonstrates there is an alternative to the App Store for gaming services like this and helps them in their case against Epic. Don’t want to pay for putting your stuff on the AppStore? Fine, serve it up on the web. The Web is where Apple doesn’t control the content on the iPhone.
Maybe you don’t want to invest in a PC AND an XBOX AND a PS5.
Maybe you want to be able to play some games on the go, ones where latency isn’t an issue.
Maybe you are already subscribed and being able to play on your iPhone/iPad is just a nice bonus.
There are many reasons why this is something that’s useful for some people even though it’s still somewhat limited and not as broadly useable.
Doubtless Microsoft will work to improve the experience as well, more data centers, better caching, network optimizations, etc.
Plus as 5G expands it will help with latency and bandwidth issues.
So for some people, sure, this is not worth it, but for others it’s clear that it does meet their needs.
I suspect I won't win points with some people on here, but just because some people might benefit from a solution doesn't justify the existence of the solution. None of the reasons you listed are justifications for the product's existence. I don't doubt some people might point to them and say they agree, but that's insufficient for justifying it.
Now, Xbox is a weird product. It doesn't make Microsoft money, so it's not like this exists as some sort of self-fulfilling function because it turns a profit. It's also doesn't improve the experience. The core value of Xbox is made worse, but even at its best it only shifts the experience laterally.
From what I can tell this product only exists because the team responsible for it has little oversight and they have some friends in marketing.
It‘s a very double-edged sword to say the least.
While Microsoft seems to have done a decent job from a technological point, the reality is - and will prove to be for this services - that web apps for gaming are second-class citizens in the eco system. And Apple are again leveraging their power of being the App Store operator in an anticompetitive way to give their own service an edge over the competition for gaming subscription services.
Another way to look at it: How is this different from Netflix? Isn’t it basically just a video stream with some additional input controls? (and rather than only different audio languages and subtitles, a bit more dynamically generated video content?)
So why is Netflix allowed their own app in the store (that does allow for sign-up and subscriptions on non-Apple devices) and Microsoft isn‘t?
The reason seems obvious: Netflix has a dominant market position in online video streaming that that Apple can‘t (aren‘t willing to) ignore. And Apple themselves doesn‘t have a great position in streaming video on iOS.
Whereas they do control the market for gaming on iOS through they App Store walled garden - and try to shut down competition from game streaming services.
Nothing has to “justify” the existence of the service except to the people paying to make it (Microsoft) or the people paying to use it.
It doesn’t matter that YOU don’t see a reason for it to exist. Guess what? Not everything is for you. Very few things in the world NEED to exist. The computer/phone/tablet you are using doesn’t NEED to exist. The internet doesn’t NEED to exist.
If something doesn’t seem useful to you, no problem, don’t use it. That doesn’t mean it has no right to exist for the people who do use it. What an entirely self centered perspective to carry through the world, that things shouldn’t exist unless you feel they are “justified”, whatever that means.