Take time to be popular, be the word. Microsoft is just coming off of its X018 event, with Phil Spencer, the company’s top gaming man standing in the spotlight amidst an array of announcements.
From the Azure powered gaming of Crackdown 3 to Project xCloud, a new take on game streaming.
Following the festivities of the event, the gaming chief at Redmond took time to talk with the local press about his vision and what he sees as the future of gaming at Microsoft. More importantly, how he feels game streaming is going to affect the landscape henceforth.
Let’s just say that Spencer is taking a modest approach to xCloud, and is not touting it as a game changing technology that will find home in every house.
At least, not early on.
Yes, Microsoft has decades of experience with networking and gaming technologies. And yes, the global footprint of Azure will mean that its games and services will offer the best experience with the lowest latency to users.
However, he is quick to foretell that streaming platforms simply will not able to compete with having a dedicated PC or console at the moment. And probably will not be for a few years at least.
For him, mass market adoption for game streaming services is still a while away, even as competitors like NVIDIA, Sony and Google have already unveiled their available products and working prototypes.
For gamers, Spencer says, it is about giving them the choice.
Players will see benefit from the cloud, but replacing dedicated hardware with streaming is not something that is on the immediate horizon.
Even as investments and focus continues to increase.
