That’s a good point, now that we’re seeing specs coming out I imagine price has to be the next big reveal. They usually like to do stuff like that at E3 don’t they?
E3 is the biggest consumer-oriented event of the year. And it’s positioned in June, which is sorta ideal to begin the marketing build-up to release.
So … yes?
When do we expect the cloud ownership issues to have a meaningful effect on which console to purchase though.
What has been stated about Sony not having a cloud infrastructure presence makes a lot of sense to me, but will it pragmatically matter in the question of which console to purchase this time around for those of us who only buy one?
At first? Likely not.
However, Brad Sams revealed an interesting tidbit in his video today about this news, which is that the multiple game suspend/resume feature is something they are looking to integrate with xCloud - meaning, you could be playing an Xbox game on your tablet via xCloud, come home, and immediately pick up where you left off on the console, and vice versa.
If they can get a feature like that working, I could see cloud becoming a fairly big-ish deal pretty fast. Simultaneously, you get people comfortable with the idea of console games not on a console, and who knows what we could be looking at in a few years.
I will say that I think Microsoft are going about the cloud stuff correctly - not shoving it right out there whole hog, as though the market is ready to dive in on streaming en masse in 2020. They have a strategy to get players to integrate it into their gaming routine over time, that I think is the right way to go. They aren’t talking about it as though our console-free future is already here.
My guess is RDNA2/5800XT/5900XT will be announced in May, then Nvidia’s Ampere RTX3080 at Computex in June, then big reveals of the PS4 and XbX at E3 a week later in June.
Cloud ownership will have very little to no impact on which console you buy. It isn’t for people spending hundreds of dollars on a console. Once game streaming is mainstream console exclusives won’t mean much. If you want to play Halo 6, you buy it and stream it. Then when The Last of Us 4 drops, you buy that and stream it too.
Sony isn’t going to E3 so it won’t be anything shown by them there. Both will do some sort of stand alone even to show of each system this spring.
They can’t use “spare capacity” that effectively when both solutions rely on dedicated console-based hardware. And the agreement as described was a two way street. MS was getting value in terms of Sony expertise in imaging, etc, so I wouldn’t immediately assume they are getting priced out of the market.
But I will say this, I think “infrastructure advantage” for cloud gaming is vastly overstated. You don’t need to have very low latency across all of Africa to have a viable gaming service.
Heh, we’re assuming there’s even going to be an E3 at this point
They’re talking about collaborating on hardware and virtualization infrastructure, I betcha all the hardware will be usable by both platforms.
If not at E3, then at a separate event yes.
Seriously. E3 was already on shaky legs before the corona virus outbreak.
If it’s still a major problem in 4 months, we’ll have much more present concerns than whether sony or MS takes this cycle.
The Digital Foundry take:
I see a lot of commentary like this, but the only time I’m playing a game on my tablet is when I don’t have internet access. Or too bad WiFi to stream a game at the very least.
The promise of streaming is you can play your AAA games on your lunch break at work or in your hotel room while traveling.
Yeah, but hotel wifi is shit. In most cases it can barely load a website.
Seems like something you should bet a billions dollar industry on, amirite?!
Yes, I think it will completely consume mainstream gaming and most people won’t be buying dedicated gaming consoles in 10 years.
Most people don’t buy a dedicated console now. The hidden premise behind the push for cloud gaming is that there is a huge untapped market of people who want to play console style games but who would never pay for a console. I think this assumption is highly suspect.
I don’t think that’s true either. There is no huge untapped group of people. What does exist is people playing Madden and fortnite who would rather not pay for a console. That’s why the phone version of fortnite is doing so well.