Phil Spencer: Amazon and Google are our main competition going forward.

[hanselthecaretaker]

Well, to this [https://www.polygon.com/2020/2/5/21124148/phil-spencer-microsoft-xbox-xcloud-amazon-google-competition] I say...good luck?

Stadia is underwhelming at best, [https://www.metacritic.com/feature/google-stadia-cloud-gaming-service-review] and just trying to stream HD quality movies smoothly over Amazon Prime on a 75Mb connection still proves to be a crapshoot.

It?s no secret there are various hurdles not just technically but ethically when it comes to cloud gaming, and Microsoft has already lost to Amazon and Google on other fronts. Maybe they?ll have a leg up here, but it remains to be seen.

It?s tough to say how this will affect the gaming industry in the upcoming generation, but from the sounds of it it will be anything but ordinary.

 

[meiam]

Honestly I think this isn't aimed at gamer and more at shareholder. I read the economist and they had an article on the week the stadia came out that made it sound like some sort of unstoppable behemoth that was going to completely change the landscape, while at the same time pretty much every video game specialized site/blog/commentator was just pointing at the stadia and laughing.

In the general public mind streaming is the new thing that's going to take everything by storm. They're all scared to miss the next netflix and they think that of course the next big thing is going to be the last big things, that's how innovation work, right?

 

[sXeth]

Stadia has been a resounding wet thud. I don't even think Amazon has a gaming thing or any announced plans to do so? Apple Arcade didn't even get mentioned but also isn't exactly lighting the world on fire. Having been thrown a few "PLz use this so it seems like something people care about", Playstation Now free trials succesively, its also generally a mess technically.


However many billions of dollars Microsoft puts into building their cloud gaming, even if its technically exceptional. They're building a mansion on top of the sinkhole of internet infrastructure in 90% of the world.

 

[Satinavian]

They don't seem to care that much about cloud gaming and more about advertising their cloud anyway.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Isn't Phil Spencer that guy no-one listens to anymore cause he's an out of touch idiot who ruins any product he's put in charge of due to his terrible PR and understanding of the appropriate markets?

 

[Yoshi178]

Honestly I think this isn't aimed at gamer and more at shareholder.

fuck shareholders.

they change their minds faster than lighting and shares are always shooting up and down in value

 

[Yoshi178]

Isn't Phil Spencer that guy no-one listens to anymore cause he's an out of touch idiot who ruins any product he's put in charge of due to his terrible PR and understanding of the appropriate markets?

No Phil Spencer is the guy who cleaned up Don Mattricks mess.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Isn't Phil Spencer that guy no-one listens to anymore cause he's an out of touch idiot who ruins any product he's put in charge of due to his terrible PR and understanding of the appropriate markets?

No Phil Spencer is the guy who cleaned up Don Mattricks mess.

Oh wait, hang on, I was thinking of the guy in charge of stadia now. A brain mistake, sorry, probably due to that guy working on Xbox at some point and only paying half attention to these people's names.

 

[Catfood220]

Translation: "We can no longer compete with the big boys, Sony and Nintendo. We are setting our sights lower"

 

[BrawlMan]

Translation: "We can no longer compete with the big boys, Sony and Nintendo. We are setting our sights lower"

That's about the sum of it. Phil Spencer, you're a decent guy, but you're selling us nothing but shit right now. honestly, I see no other reason to get the next Xbox other than backwards compatibility. PS5 for me.

 

[CritialGaming]

I didn't know that you could have a competition if you don't enter the race.

Just because you make a game's console doesn't mean you are in the console race. Look at Nintendo, they made a system that is running on a completely different track and it's working extremely well for them.

Meanwhile Microsoft is stalled at the starting line after 8 years. How they could even consider google and amazon competition is confusing. Stadia sucks, and Amazon doesn't make games last I checked and even if they are talking about platform it doesn't make sense.

 

[FakeSympathy]

If he is sying this for the investors, maybe it's a way of reassuring them that xbox one x will blow the "competitions" out of water, thus being a worthy investment?

If he is saying this for the gamers/consumers, he could be saying "Yeah at least we'll have better games and services than stadia"

 

[CaitSeith]

Oh... so the industry is going to try to force cloud gaming into our throats now? At its very best (with a very low chance of happening), it will end up as the mobile market and become a successful gaming industry, running as a parallel mess without replacing the current one.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Isn't Phil Spencer that guy no-one listens to anymore cause he's an out of touch idiot who ruins any product he's put in charge of due to his terrible PR and understanding of the appropriate markets?

No Phil Spencer is the guy who cleaned up Don Mattricks mess.

Oh wait, hang on, I was thinking of the guy in charge of stadia now. A brain mistake, sorry, probably due to that guy working on Xbox at some point and only paying half attention to these people's names.

It?s a different Phil [https://www.polygon.com/platform/amp/2019/3/20/18274811/google-stadia-interview-phil-harrison-gdc-2019]. Used to be head of Sony?s entertainment division up to the early PS3 days and then went to Microsoft after that.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Anyways, it sounds like all the cloud gaming hopefuls could take a few notes from Nvidia [https://www.pcgamer.com/geforce-now-is-the-cloud-gaming-service-stadia-should-be/] of all places, surprisingly.

 

[bluegate]

Anyways, it sounds like all the cloud gaming hopefuls could take a few notes from NVidia [https://www.pcgamer.com/geforce-now-is-the-cloud-gaming-service-stadia-should-be/] of all places, surprisingly.

Someone mind clearing up what NVidia's particular flavor of streaming is?

Does your own computer stream the games to other devices in your home, or does NVidia's server farm stream the games to any device in your home over the internet?

 

[stroopwafel]

It's probably looking at the future, similarly as digital distribution when physical sales were still huge. No doubt google and amazon have the most powerful cloud services which is the future of gaming. With 5G games will just be streamed instead of downloaded and it will most likely be from google or amazon cloud servers. This dominant market position is the competitive edge these companies have over both ms and sony. MS in particular has always been more hardware focused given their lack of exclusive software, so it makes sense they see google and amazon as their biggest competitors. With the popularity of gamepass ms probably also see a subscription based service as their future earning model which again would probably also be more lucrative run from a cloud server in a 5G network.

I'm kinda 'meh' on the whole streaming future tbh as gaming will probably become subscription based(something both ms and sony already try to push) but this will provide little incentive to provide high quality content. Just look at all the garbage on netflix for example. It all depends how popular the gaming equivalent will become. If really popular it will make digital sales redundant and game developers will become more content providers for monthly subscriptions. It will probably have more in common with the mobile market than current AAA titles.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

Actually I'd expect Microsoft to have a much better shot than Google. Microsoft already has a system in place to transition to some kind of streaming service and much more experience with video games than Google. Something that I've thought of many times lately is Microsoft working with Nintendo to make them much better online capabilities.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Does your own computer stream the games to other devices in your home, or does NVidia's server farm stream the games to any device in your home over the internet?

It's the latter.

 

[stroopwafel]

Actually I'd expect Microsoft to have a much better shot than Google. Microsoft already has a system in place to transition to some kind of streaming service and much more experience with video games than Google. Something that I've thought of many times lately is Microsoft working with Nintendo to make them much better online capabilities.

MS and nintendo exist in completely different markets I think. MS is also completely dependent on 3rd party support, so whatever advantage they have over Google is quickly lost once this company is really going to flex it's muscle. Google is probably just testing the waters with stadia and waiting for 5G to be widely implemented before fully committing to it.

It will probably take some years but once it really takes off things will change fast. Just look at how quicky digital sales replaced physical once internet speeds increased.