Microsoft is Working on its Own Game Streaming, Netflix-Like Service (theverge.com)

Phil Spencer, Microsoft's gaming chief, revealed the company is building a streaming game service for any device. Our cloud engineers are building a game streaming network to unlock console gaming on any device, he said, adding this service will offer "console quality gaming on any device." From a report: "Gaming is now at its most vibrant," he said. "In this significant moment we are constantly challenging ourselves about where we can take gaming next." He said that Microsoft is recommitting and harnessing the full breath of the company to deliver on the future of play. That includes experts in Microsoft research working on developing the future of gaming AI and the company's cloud engineers building a game streaming network. He added that the company is also in the midst of developing the architecture for the next Xbox consoles. Further reading: Microsoft Acquires Four Gaming Studios, Including Ninja Theory, As It Looks To Bolster First-Party Catalog.

Comments

100% DRM. Always Was.

[Kunedog]

This is how I always explain streaming games to people who can't immediately see the horrible problems with it:

Imagine if the old Ubisoft always-on DRM were an inherent, unremoveable aspect of the game system rather than just something tacked on to a few individual games after the fact, such that Ubisoft couldn't even begrudgingly neuter it in a patch. Well, a streamed game is even worse than that would be.

The game doesn't even run locally. All you get is streaming video/audio and all the lag you'd expect (including controller lag), which is a recipe for disaster in North America. And any interruption in the connection that lasts more than a few tenths of a second is going to be behave like the equivalent of a "freeze" or "hang" that you'd NEVER tolerate in a properly local-hosted game. Not even the most twitchy DRM existing today has that problem.

Some people consider IPS monitors unsuitable for games requiring fast reflexes (i.e. FPSes) due to their double-digit response times. Internet latency is often worse and certainly more unpredictable than LCD monitor response time, and with streamed games it applies to audio and keyboard/controller/etc input too.

Then there are the bandwidth requirements.

Let's say you're lucky enough to have a 30mb/s connection. Why would you want to use it to transfer your game's video instead of, uh, a DVI cable, which is capable of 4 Gb/s? The people who developed DVI apparently understood that that 1920 x 1200 pixels w/ 24 bits/pixels @ 60Hz results in bandwidth well over 3 Gb/s. The people who developed streamed games seem very, very confused (at best).

Those of us who know anything about bandwidth and compression and (especially) latency can see the enormous technical obstacles facing a service like this, and Onlive never did anything to explain how they intended to solve them. Instead, they did everything they could to lock out independent reviewers with NDAs and closed demonstrations. A friend of mine described it as the gaming equivalent of the perpetual motion scam, and IMO that's spot on (except that streamed games would still have the draconian DRM issues even if it worked perfectly).

Streamed games appear designed from the ground up to benefit the game publishers and fuck the customers, exactly what you'd expect from any DRM system.

P.S. Remember when Microsoft intended 24-hour XBox One check-ins, and gamers rejected that? How the fuck are mandatory check ins going to fly when measured in milliseconds?

Re:100% DRM. Always Was.

[blahplusplus]

100% DRM. Always Was.

You're way too late for that, this began with ultima online and everquest. The big corporate project was to get a generation of gamers growing up where not owning videogames was normal. They did this using the "MMO LIE", there was no reason for drm'd PC rpg's with a subscription to be branded mmo's. But companies know the public is not bright. Watch how fast you get downvoted on reddit if you mention mmo's are just game software programs and they were the trial ballon to test how stupid gamers were to pay a subscription for a game you don't own. Most of us nerds who weren't stupid knew MMO's were a scam to get rid of single player rpg's entirely because RPG's are costly and expensive to produce. Most rpg's after internet penetration became deep enough in order to be profitable were drm locked and branded "MMO".

The mmo marketing moniker was the big lie to get into the public mind that "MMO's are different and it's ok for companies to charge us insane monthly fee's for access to an rpg game". As soon as world of warcraft hit you now have millions of kids who accept companies complete control over their software they are buying. That was the big longterm strategy. Since most people are driven by emotion and not rationality. It was easy to trick people into giving up their rights.

The internet undermined the intelligent half of the publics ability to hold these companies accountable. You can't stop companies from making games with drm unless you have physical proximity, before the internet companies couldn't divide the software in two and steal it like Gabe newell of valve did. The whole project from the beginning was that the tech companies like microsoft and the videogame industry have always hated customers controlling and owning their own software.

The internet was the gift from heaven they were waiting for since 90% of the population has no fucking clue how computers work or don't care, PC's are being turned into idiot boxes. The only way we could stop drm was if we had portal technology so we had physical proximity to these businesses. The internet radically changed the relationship between sellers and buyers of software, the buyers of software have no market power.

Pre internet we got the entire program on discs or else companies wouldn't get paid, the internet allows companies take the software hostage on servers half way across the world where the buying world public cannot reach them. Only magic or ideological revolution would restore the balance of power.

The internet undermines market ideology completely - you can't hold a seller accountable when they are 100's of miles away from you.

Re:100% DRM. Always Was.

[Calydor]

I am fascinated by how the entire world apparently has a connection as awesome as yours. Did you stop to consider what happens to anyone NOT on a super-duper fiber connection?

Re:And it shall be called...

[Calydor]

Blue Screen On Demand?

Re:And it shall be called...

[SpinyUK]

BSOD

BSaaS please (Blue Screen as a Service)