Never.
Userbase is too little to care for such big companies, sadly.
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Microsoft Begins Testing xCloud Game Streaming Service in Browser for iOS and iPadOS
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Userbase is too little to care for such big companies, sadly.
Stadia works great for me. I have a really good internet connection though, but eventually everyone will so I totally see game streaming being the future of gaming.
lol Maybe you are experiencing user errors? All those services work fine for me and for many others.
This could be huge if it works well — what's stopping any game company now from launching their own creation via a browser?
This could hit Apple's bottom line.
This could hit Apple's bottom line.
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How do you know that Microsoft isn't using Xbox One X based hardware server side? Xbox One X is such a leap over the original Xbox One and S, as well as the PS4 and PS4 Pro, that it could have been considered it's own new generation. But I mean, if they're targeting mobile devices and laptops, then 1080p is fine. There's not a reason to go higher when you're designing a product that's meant to stream over cellular networks to a small screen. There's not really a lot of reason for them to focus on higher resolutions for streaming for larger screen devices when local play on an Xbox is far better than streaming.
When was the last time you used an Xbox? The UI for the Xbox One hasn't even remotely resembled Windows 8 in years. As it stands right now, it's the best console UI experience (I own a PS4 Pro, Switch, and Apple TV 4k too). On the Xbox One X it's fast, its easy to get around, it's incredibly fast to get to all of your games and apps after boot. It definitely offers a lot more customization and advanced options than the Apple TV. Unlike the PS4 Pro, I can at least download a game in the background and not have the UI slow to a crawl. Unlike the Apple TV, I get real fast forward and rewind commands. I get multi-button input so I don't have to hold buttons down. Unlike the Apple TV I can choose which audio output I want, different video output options.
I have PSNow on my PS4 Pro and use it on my PC as well. I have no problem with input lag. Also using Spectrum, 400Mbps plan provisioned at 465Mbps.
Monopoly relates to control of a “market”. The market can be defined sensibly (smartphones) or absurdly (Sesame seed bun for the McDonald’s Big Mac). The absurd case is generally used when a company doesn’t have an effective more broad monopoly to speak of, BUT people want to use monopoly to describe their displeasure at the situation. (It’s like presenting that mom has an unfair “monopoly” on “cabinet where the cheesy snacks are stored”. Of course she does, it’s her house, but YOU DON’T HAVE TO LIKE IT!!!) In both cases, you can reasonably define what “market control” means, but as your market definition trends toward the absurd, your chances of winning decreases tremendously.
In my reckoning, whenever defining a “market” includes the trademarked name of a product that a company makes, you’ve stepped over the line of absurdity. No court is going to rule that a company has an unfair monopoly of a product they make as that would run against and upend years of precedents. So, all you have to do is ask someone to define the specific market the monopoly they describe covers. If it includes a trademarked name of a product that a company makes, you can disregard
I think that says something about the service though. “Hey guys, we just REALLY don’t think there’s enough in this whole STADIA thing for us to make games for, but YOU should totally keep making games. What differentiates our service from others? Well, it’s called Stadia, not many other services out there called Stadia! And the pricing is different, orrr, maybe the same we haven’t really checked. We just know that WE aren’t going to make games for OUR system.”
While that would be a bad customer experience, I absolutely understand Apple’s position there and support it. If there weren’t another another way to accomplish this such as the in-browser method—then we might have an issue... but since there is, imo there isn’t a problem. I would rather an app, but webapps are going to become much more common and will accomplish very much of the same things. I can almost guarantee Microsoft will mess something up with this in their own, without Apple’s help.
Sure hope it does
Imagine trying to demand a 30% cut for a game that
- was made by other companies
- was published by other companies
- is running on said companies’ dedicated hardware
- literally everything happens off of Apple’s servers except for hosting a relatively small client for handling IO
Imagine getting a different app per movie for Netflix and having apple take 30% cuts from sales of a product they had literally nothing to do with.
apple’s rules are garbage and anti-competitive and the people defending them in here are really getting openly diddled by a corporation and they’re somehow proud of it
I’ve put about 45 hours into Assassin’s Creed Valhalla using GeForce Now and coupled with an Xbox controller I couldn’t be happier.
And this weakens Epic's case even further showing that there are indeed alternatives to using Apple's App Store.
I’m wondering if it will work on macOS... says it will work on a chrome browser, so I’m thinking it should...
Some people are sensitive to it. I cannot play at 60Hz since I experience input lag that I notice. I need 120+ Hz and FPS
Because people walk around with their consoles and plug in to nearby TV's for casual gaming?
Mobile gaming is the LARGEST growing gaming sector taking in approx 51% of ALL gaming and this is expected to continue growing. There are 2.2Bn mobile players and the current mobile market is worth approx 70Bn per year from the $150Bn total gaming market.
For many companies, targeting this market with streaming services is going to be extremely lucrative and allow players to continue playing casually, where they left off on their console. This is going to be a lot more than a "side thing".....this is going to legitimise the entire mobile gaming industry even further.
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This is why I think Apple are reluctant to allow game streaming right now. I have a feeling that their plan involves the M series Macs, M Series Apple TV's and iOS devices coupled with Apple Arcade. Being able to move from living room to Mac to iPad/ iPhone and back again with full continuity. Given that Apple stated in the "State of The Union" address that the thing they were most excited about is their custom GPU's, I think we'll be seeing performance high enough for AAA games in coming hardware.
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I have an AppleTV that I use every day, a Switch I use regularly, XBone One, I haven't turned it on in some time. The Switch UI isn't terrible, but it's still has a lot of wasted space. Googling the new Xbox UI shows they haven't fixed anything. It's mostly wasted space and ads.
Here is Window's 8 for reference. It's nearly identical, but actually uses more of the screen and has less ads.
The UI doesn't need customization. It needs to be a menu accessible with a button press and a grid of games I own. Nothing more. Don't tell me what my friends are playing, or what's on sale, or what updates are coming. That stuff belongs hidden in a menu someplace out of sight.
What do you consider 'real fast forward and rewind' because as far as I am concerned the Apple TV remote is hands down the best remote for navigating media content. You can't even buy a 3rd party remote for any platform that is more polished than the Apple TV remote because all of them have excess buttons and no glass trackpad.
You can choose different video and audio outputs on the Apple TV...
But maybe they need to fix content registration before they start dealing with UI changes? They still have games I tried for 5 min listed as owned even though I can't play them unless I resign up for Live. I can't even sync my Xbox to GOG 2 because it fills my library with content I can't play, but if I don't sync them I have to use a separate launcher to access my two Windows games. I guess I should just accept that the whole thing is a hot mess.
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My issue is that what I can do with xCloud feels like a novelty. Let's say they get a sub 10 ms input lag with 144 fps on any screen. That doesn't fix the problem that I only want to play immersive games sitting in a room with surround sound, or that I want to play social games in a room with my friends. I don't think people want to carry a bulky Xbox controller when they go out for the day.
The value of mobile games is that they accept the fact that you don't have to be invested in the game to get something out of it. You can pull it up, play, and toss it in your pocket as soon as something remotely more interesting is happening. You can't really do that with the traditional console or PC games that rely on save points or have real-time mechanics.
Now, travel... maybe... I can see the value for the gamer who takes a lot of business trips, and I can see some other fringe use cases. But that's not who has to use this service for it to take off. But then again this new lifestyle we have discourages recreational travel. I suspect that it's going to take at least 5 years, maybe 10 before we are dragging our kids on a vacation they won't want to be part of.
These aren’t “casual” games; they are AAA console and PC titles they are going after. If you don’t think the goal is “Gaming PC\Console replacement” you aren’t paying attention. It’s an unobtainable goal and the future of these services are being used as an “extra” or “included with”.
Take PS Now for example. Is it worth 120 a year? No. A free perk with PS plus? Sure.
I suspect that has more to do with it being a great game than the platform it's on. Because last I checked GeForce Now doesn't support HDR or eye tracking.
I don’t think they would really have an issue with this as long as it exists outside of the App Store. I personally appreciate the walled garden on iOS to a large extent. I actually just wish it was tighter when it came to things such as enforcing the new privacy labels. I would however love the ability to officially side-load unofficially supported apps without having to use the developer workarounds. I have no problem with Apple’s App Store approach and I feel that they should be able to take a cut(even if 30% is a little much).
The way I look at things, especially with Apple, is that I want them to be financially incentivized to do the right thing so it ensures they continue to do it & improve upon it—such as on privacy. I want them to market themselves as a privacy-oriented company that way they are more likely to focus on those features(M1’s phone home worries me however for the future). I will gladly pay a little extra for their products to keep from having an android-like experience. I used to want deep customization when I was younger—but the older I get the more I appreciate the “just works” way of doing things(especially when it comes to my phone). I also love MacOS too but I don’t currently use it because I do want that freedom/customization for my desktop. I just can’t afford to buy the Macs I would like to have AND a separate PC to game on. Now if one day soon I can afford a great Mac that can game and still gives me the ability to upgrade it myself & multi-boot into different OSes... I’ll be first in line because I love the seamless(more so anyway) nature of the Apple ecosystem and loved the workflow I had when my Late 2012 MBP was still usable for me. I just don’t want to make the sacrifices in other areas that it would require of me to go full Mac. I will mention that I do absolutely realize that my wants/needs don’t translate for everyone and other people have different requirements, but those are my personal priorities. Things could always change and even though I’m invested in the Apple ecosystem—I’m always willing to migrate over if things change or something better presents itself.
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