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Microsoft xCloud Game Streaming Service Launching on Safari in a 'Few Weeks'
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I've had the xcloud safari beta for a while. Its promising but there is big time input lag. So hopefully thats resolved when the official release happens. If xcloud works flawlessly on the iPad I will literally probably never use my actual xbox again and just delegate that to my kids.
Not in the US. You would first have to get affordable high speed internet to all the places you’d find a Walmart with the game in stock. And that’s not going to happen.
I doubt in browser game streaming will work fine.
I thought Apple should charge subscribtion services based on storing and distributing the apps on the app store, or make iOS only serve from their own cloud infrastructure. Like Amazon's AWS. They can write iOS in such a way that its apps only works from Apple Cloud Services and if your service or app is not on there then it won't work.
Yes I hate monopoly, yes I like more options, but what can we do when all we have is iOS and Android and no one is making a competitor? We have to bow down to Apple or Google and their terms.
I thought Apple should charge subscribtion services based on storing and distributing the apps on the app store, or make iOS only serve from their own cloud infrastructure. Like Amazon's AWS. They can write iOS in such a way that its apps only works from Apple Cloud Services and if your service or app is not on there then it won't work.
Yes I hate monopoly, yes I like more options, but what can we do when all we have is iOS and Android and no one is making a competitor? We have to bow down to Apple or Google and their terms.
I think xCloud is still in Preview mode. You can only get it if you have Game Pass. xCloud is coming to the Xbox PC app later this year. Android already has an app still in preview.
You’ll soon be able to try Xbox games before downloading them
xCloud on consoles will speed up jumping into games.
www.theverge.com
Xbox Game Streaming (Preview) - Apps on Google Play
Play Xbox games on your mobile phone or tablet.
I was referring to monetary benefit for Apple. They make no money from Game Pass used for XCloud.
Allowing Microsoft to run Game Pass is no different to Apple allowing streaming apps like Netflix etc on the platform.
Microsoft allowed iTunes to run on Windows at a time when the music industry was very competitive and it’s own Zune player was out. The original iPod was Mac only and with a tiny user base at the time and wasn’t a massive sales success.
You do realise Microsoft and Bill Gates helped Apple in part in its recovery from near bankruptcy. They injected a $150m investment and licensed Microsoft Office to the Mac. There was the infamous keynote when Bill Gates was introduced on the massive screen overlooking Steve Jobs.
Overall Apple vs MS is dead. They are both great companies with great products. I’ve hated on MS myself for years but recently having more involvement with Windows 10 it’s actually a very good OS.
If Apple had tried to strike a partnership for Game Pass and XCloud they could have been taking 30% as off now they make nothing from it as Game Pass subscriptions don’t go through the App Store.
Thanks! I’ll look into what benefit could be obtained from being a native app if all they’re dong is streaming. And, if the “app” is just a browser connecting to the streaming back end, I can see how from a marketing perspective, having a little icon would be cool… but you can do that with a web app, too.I think xCloud is still in Preview mode. You can only get it if you have Game Pass. xCloud is coming to the Xbox PC app later this year. Android already has an app still in preview.
You’ll soon be able to try Xbox games before downloading them
xCloud on consoles will speed up jumping into games.
Xbox Game Streaming (Preview) - Apps on Google Play
Play Xbox games on your mobile phone or tablet.play.google.com
Also it wasn’t MS that nearly bankrupted Apple. It was entirely self inflicted.
They tried to milk stale products for too many years and provided no innovation. They sold products at way too high prices. They focused on money and the shareholders not the customer and the products. Sounds like history repeating itself in recent years under Tim Cook.
When Steve Jobs returned that flipped and the company became all about customer experience and the products themselves. He stopped paying dividends to shareholders for his whole reign I believe, stating that the money is better used for future R&D. It was only since Tim Cook took over he started paying dividends again.
There are already apps that they’ve agreed with other companies not to make money from, so it’s not surprising that they would agree with this as well (especially since it falls under “streaming”). Maybe there WAS an option where Apple would make money, but Microsoft said, “no”. Still, Apple helped them to get it up and running, so in some cases, it’s not about the money.
I'm so confused by xCloud. Is it going to be the same games as Game Pass? If so, is xCloud really only for phones and tablets? Why would someone use xCloud on their Xbox unless it was a game not on Game Pass? And if that's the case, why wouldn't Microsoft just add it to Game Pass instead?
xCloud is just an option bringing in new Game Pass Ultimate subscribers to the billions of TV, phones, tablets, etc. There isn’t much use for xCloud if you have an Xbox, but it brings new software features such as previewing a game through the Cloud before you buy it. MS is making the push for Xbox as a service brand that you can play anywhere rather than relying on dedicated hardware. Right now not every game is on the Cloud, but there probably will be parity in the future. I have no use for an Xbox Series X or a gaming PC because of this since I can just subscribe to Game Pass and play on a TV app or on Safari soon. Best of all worlds with a PS5, Switch, and Xbox Cloud gaming on my Mac. I used to rely on having a Mac + a Windows PC solely for gaming, but this just eliminates that issue.
How do Apple justify per-game reviews?
The games are video streams like those on YouTube. They can’t affect platform safety.
Is it about ratings? Worries of R rated games? But somehow YouTube has no such problem despite sometimes far more gruesome or naked videos than anything that appear here.
Apple just seem to want to protect their Arcade. They need to tread this ground carefully though.
The games are video streams like those on YouTube. They can’t affect platform safety.
Is it about ratings? Worries of R rated games? But somehow YouTube has no such problem despite sometimes far more gruesome or naked videos than anything that appear here.
Apple just seem to want to protect their Arcade. They need to tread this ground carefully though.
Protect their Arcade… by working with Microsoft to bring xCloud to iOS devices? I SUPPOSE that’s one point of view.
No, they're not streaming individual games, they're streaming from a virtualized Xbox that is streaming the game. They're not using Safari, they're exporting the video stream from the xbox to the Safari app via WebRTC (kinda like how FaceTime now works on web).
The point of the native app is to integrate deeper with the APIs, so that they can have less latency with direct controller support, battery level check, faster direct drawing and so on. They can also choose to not support Apple's controller API and add their own specialized hardware support designed to reduce latency.
They cannot do this within Safari. So they have to compromise down to Safari's limitations.
No sane company is going to handle and deal with uploading/updating 200+ individual games just to deal with Apple's BS when they can just switch to a single web app.
MS shouldn't have to do anything here; there is ZERO reason that Apple is okay with Jump Desktop or any remote sharing desktop apps and not be okay with MS's Game Pass.
Apple's justifications here are all crap and hypocritical.
More like remote desktop sharing apps like Jump desktop; since you can use keyboard/mouse to interact with the remote desktop just like the remote xbox + game with Game Pass.
They're already losing the war against this. I hope the antitrust regulators around the world stump on Apple's BS.
Thanks! Yeah, I just bought an Xbox Series X (picking it up this weekend), but I'm wondering if it won't really be needed even within the year. I have Game Pass Ultimate (I got in on some ridiculous multi-year deal for cheap), but haven't had an Xbox to actually use it. If xCloud doesn't have every game, then I guess a Series X is still worth it. If it does end up having every game, then I don't see why anyone would buy the console (except to get 4K).
And if xCloud does end up getting every game, it seems like it would just replace Game Pass.
You’re right, sorry, I didn’t mean “using” Safari, I meant that they’re streaming through the browser, which in the case of iOS is Safari. I’d be interested to know how much latency can possibly be reduced given that you’re playing on a remote device. Sure, local latency matters, but if the stream is less responsive than even the fastest web implementation, then the improvement may be negligible.
From the Epic lawsuit:
”Apple's lawyers also pointed out that Apple actively helped Microsoft in its efforts to bring xCloud to iOS web browsers (Wright characterized this help as simply working out issues and bugs Microsoft encountered while porting the service for WebKit).”
That's also a way of Apple technically "changing the policy" without effectively changing the policy (kind of like "death by delay"). Apple never expected MS to actually submit a single request for any of the games (let alone all of them).
Few reasons I can think of aside from Arcade.
1. Parental Controls
2. Fair reviews based on individual games.
3. Potential IAP's Purchases which would set precedent for other Apps to do exactly the same thing.
An Xbox live App is really no different to what Epic was looking for - a store within the store, of which Apple would have no control.
Epic whined and sued, While Microsoft innovated and collaborated with Apple on a solution rather than break the App Store rules. Win/Win.
Just because Youtube doesn't curate properly, does not mean that Apple should simply turn a blind eye as well.
Should they really sit back and take the bad press if 10 year olds are caught playing R rated games via an App they allowed to be freely downloaded from their store ?
And there would be bad press.
Which they have now developed. And this is absolutely good thing, as the innovation is going to allow other developers in the future to offer similar services in the future for many resource heavy apps run directly from a browser with almost zero lag.
Imagine the entire Adobe CC served like this.
I think you'll agree, Most RD apps are not used for gaming (Outside of Shadow perhaps). They just give access to a remote machine where you "install what you want" - they not storefronts or game libraries.
Game Pass isn't a store either.
How about Moonlight and Steam Link which is allowed in the App Store, which shows you your games libraries and stream from your PC? What's the difference between streaming from your PC and an xbox in the cloud?
Game Pass is a subscription service where you're just given cloud access to a virtualized xbox that is launching the game for you.
First of all, what ten year old can sign up and pay for Game Pass and gain access to mature games and not be able to do the same exact thing with the Apple account?
Apple has a specific rule to allow NSFW only if the account has an setting on the website and must be turned off by default. It's how Reddit can still show NSFW content.
Same thing with Safari, you can go play any mature games you want, Apple doesn't block this.
So, no, this isn't the reason they're blocking Game Pass. Microsoft requires their games to go through the industry rating standard (ESRB), just like Nintendo and Sony. Apple can work with these companies to block adult games by default at the app store, forcing adults to enable it via account settings on their account mgmt site, just like other apps.
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