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[Heisenberg007]

And we've had people on this very forum try to tell us they don't see a difference between native games and xcloud.

 

[Roman Empire]

I only use streaming as a last resort when I am out on a trip (business or vacation) and resting after a nice meal or before bed. It never feels good to play for more than half an hour, the lag and image quality take the fun out of it tbh

 

[skit_data]

I was personally quite surprised by the IQ when playing Demon's Souls via cloud streaming on PS5. Sure, there is a perceptible input lag but for games that don't depend on very good timing it's fine and definitely not something many people would notice.

 

[scarlet0pimp]

It makes sense the PS version is better as I guess each instance is an actual PS5 streaming the game. The xbox version is running 3 instances of the series s version on each peice if hardware. It's what the series x is 12 tf and the series s is 4 tf so they can run 3 instances of the xcloud on each server. Quite clever thinking on its own but it's not going to hold up in comparisons like these when running visually demanding games

 

[dem]

I've said forever.. Xcloud is fucking terrible.

 

[Hollowpoint5557]

Wouldn't the distance between you and the closest server be the biggest factor in determining your experience?
For me, xcloud runs great and GeForce now was unplayable and it was because of server locations. I haven't tried ps streaming.

 

[DrFigs]

ugh playstation needs to bring those latency numbers down

 

[Crayon]

MS talking a big game with nothing to back it up? How weird.

 

[JimboJones]

I've said forever.. Xcloud is fucking terrible.

I honestly had a better time with Stadia.

 

[Jaybe]

THE POWER OF THE CLOUD(tm)

 

[bender]

Xcloud was handy for saving bandwidth when Game Pass Quests were game specific so that you didn't have to download hundreds of gigs to complete them but the quality was often very poor and the cherry on top was massive queues to use the service. Thankfully they've abandoned those style of quests now.

 

[mckmas8808]

Laughing at people that doesn't see anything bad quality wise with xcloud, shit is all over the screen.

How people can play videogames like this is seriously mindblogging for me, like offensive towards the medium.

And people here on GAF are saying we need to welcome the streaming-only future for video games. UGH!

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

I just want cloud streaming to my Portal before my PS+ Premium stacking expires in 2026.

 

[ReBurn]

What I'm puzzled by is how a Xbox Series X is meant to virtualize multiple Xbox Series S consoles? It doesn't have the CPU or Memory capacity to do that.

Reservation, prioritization and load balancing probably helps. Each Series S game container instance probably doesn't reserve the full amount of CPU and RAM that the Series S console would have installed. If you're playing a smaller game then the hypervisor probably dynamically allocates and deallocates resources to the game container as they're needed. Some games probably just don't use 10 GB RAM. If the games require less RAM and CPU then you could run multiple VM's on top of one Series X. For large AAA games you may reserve a whole server for just that one session.

I wouldn't be surprised if the SX blades have more RAM than the console has, either, just to allow more containers to run.

 

[Darsxx82]

MS's commitment to evolve and improve XCloud had a turning point in the regulatory and judicial process of the ABK acquisition.

The service has been there for 2 years without any progress and is still in BETA status. It's as if the pressure to appear minor in the eyes of the CMA and FTC and the obligation to commit to opening the ABK catalog to all cloud gaming services has made them hit the brakes and draw up a new plan.
There is the promise of bringing the entire catalog to Xcloud and also including PC versions of games, but 2 years have passed and even today it is only still promised but there is no arrival date yet.

Contrary to many here, I do believe that we are going to see important advances in cloud gaming in a few years. Anyone who has played via GForceNow knows this.

In ~10 years the problem will not be the technology (I think that in general they will all launch similar services in quality), it will be more in the attractiveness of the catalog to offer, prices and having the service available in the greatest number of possible platforms (TV, PC, mobile phones, tablets, TV services,.....)

 

[solidus12]

Microsoft always over-promise and under-deliver .

 

[DavidGzz]

Xcloud sucking cock. GE Force Now is awesome. They should compare that to these, bet the latency is much better.

 

[mckmas8808]

It makes sense the PS version is better as I guess each instance is an actual PS5 streaming the game. The xbox version is running 3 instances of the series s version on each peice if hardware. It's what the series x is 12 tf and the series s is 4 tf so they can run 3 instances of the xcloud on each server. Quite clever thinking on its own but it's not going to hold up in comparisons like these when running visually demanding games

Yeah it's like MS took their normal Azure approach to Xcloud, instead of realizing that gaming would be different.

I just want cloud streaming to my Portal before my PS+ Premium stacking expires in 2026.

Me too bro! I swear I'll still buy a PS5 Pro Sony. Just give me cloud streaming for my Portal in 2025.

MS's commitment to evolve and improve XCloud had a turning point in the regulatory and judicial process of the ABK acquisition.

The service has been there for 2 years without any progress and is still in BETA status. It's as if the pressure to appear minor in the eyes of the CMA and FTC and the obligation to commit to opening the ABK catalog to all cloud gaming services has made them hit the brakes and draw up a new plan.
There is the promise of bringing the entire catalog to Xcloud and also including PC versions of games, but 2 years have passed and even today it is only still promised but there is no arrival date yet.

Contrary to many here, I do believe that we are going to see important advances in cloud gaming in a few years. Anyone who has played via GForceNow knows this.

In ~10 years the problem will not be the technology (I think that in general they will all launch similar services in quality), it will be more in the attractiveness of the catalog to offer, prices and having the service available in the greatest number of possible platforms (TV, PC, mobile phones, tablets, TV services,.....)

The bolded is okay, as long as we in 10 years can still buy and play our games locally too.

 

[BigLee74]

Cloud gaming is a very very very poor substitute for locally installed games.

Every single time I try it there is awful image breakup, compression artifacts galore, and horrendous input lag. FTTP by the way, with a 1gb connection.

It’s only use is to quickly get weekly reward points in games I don’t want to download and install.

 

[ReBurn]

MS's commitment to evolve and improve XCloud had a turning point in the regulatory and judicial process of the ABK acquisition.

The service has been there for 2 years without any progress and is still in BETA status. It's as if the pressure to appear minor in the eyes of the CMA and FTC and the obligation to commit to opening the ABK catalog to all cloud gaming services has made them hit the brakes and draw up a new plan.
There is the promise of bringing the entire catalog to Xcloud and also including PC versions of games, but 2 years have passed and even today it is only still promised but there is no arrival date yet.

Contrary to many here, I do believe that we are going to see important advances in cloud gaming in a few years. Anyone who has played via GForceNow knows this.

In ~10 years the problem will not be the technology (I think that in general they will all launch similar services in quality), it will be more in the attractiveness of the catalog to offer, prices and having the service available in the greatest number of possible platforms (TV, PC, mobile phones, tablets, TV services,.....)

I think cloud gaming will benefit from general improvements in the technology it runs on as much as it benefits from improvements in the technology itself. As more fiber rolls out, as wireless networking performance improves, as cpu and memory bandwidth
and performance improves, cloud gaming will benefit. I'm sure that direct technology improvements like better compression algorithms to reduce latency and improve the quality of image streams will happen as well.

I think you're right that in the end content will be the differentiator. We'll reach a point where the rails it runs on will be virtually equal in terms of capability regardless of who provides the service. With where we are right now it doesn't matter whether PlayStation does it better than Xbox because hardly anyone wants to use either. If there were actual demand I think we would see more investment sooner but right now trying to award gold ribbons is pointless.

 

[MasterCornholio]

Gaikai?

 

[Pedro Motta]

Every screen is an Xbox, with shit image quality, low framerate and input lag.

 

[DJ12]

When are xbox fans going to realise Microsoft don't give a shit about them.

At least they tried to make a good console, this is just a disgrace getting beat by Sony in 'the cloud' with all their infrastructure.

 

[damidu]

"power of the cloud" in beta since xbone

 

[Schmick]

When you look at these results you got to wonder how the fuck does nVidia do it with GeForce Now. GFN is fantastic.

 

[StereoVsn]

i just watched. Daaamn


how the fuck sony destroys triple trillion dollar company, unbeatable infrastructure with data centers on the moon MS?.

The level of incompetence displayed by this company never ceases to amaze me

I think they are streaming XSS image basically which they run 4 of her each XSX physical hardware node. Hence the Image Quality issues.

 

[RespawnX]

Obviously no comparison is necessary. Microsoft has optimized its services to make money. 1/4 to 1/8 of the bit rate speaks volumes. It should be clear to everyone that an emulated XSS has a lower image quality than an emulated PS5. There is also a very simple reason for this: most people are likely to stream on mobile devices and you can't tell the difference on a 6-8 inch screen. I've given up on both, even 20 miles away from one of the world biggest internet nodes, PlayStation streaming is a latency catastrophe. Xcloud gives me eye cancer.

When you look at these results you got to wonder how the fuck does nVidia do it with GeForce Now. GFN is fantastic.

The term may be overused, but AI-supported rendering. I would bet that Nvidia relies on an optimized AV1 codec with some sort of Tensor magic that delivers great results in moving images with good bandwidth and the capacities are probably better optimized.

 

[Gojiira]

Worth pointing out PS5 streaming is 4k too so thats another advantage there even if input lag is slightly higher

 

[chilichote]

I've only tried streaming via Amazon Luna once and it works pretty well in most cases, both in terms of image quality and lag. But that's purely subjective, I have no way of testing it.

In any case, I think the visible difference between Sony and Microsoft is immense! Whether the lag makes a real difference for the average player... I don't know as I haven't tested it, although I think the less lag the better.

 

[Gaelyon]

Xbox fan on this forum have been adamant this was the future and MS had the head start. How can you play that blurry mess? We're Miles away from this being main stream.

The Morales of these stories is we're Miles away.

 

[Astray]

Please tell me that Digital Foundry isn't entirely reliant on "console wars"

You can even tell that they did the "RX6700 vs PS5" video to test the grounds in case they don't have 2 home consoles to fan the flames with.

 

[FoxMcChief]

From my personal experience, I couldn’t tell a difference in gameplay, but visually the PS5 remote play has better IQ. I think it displays at a higher resolution too.

 

[diffusionx]

I feel like XCloud is tuned for mobile, where IQ is not as noticeable, whereas Sony is targeting people to run these games on TV.

There's no perfect solution.

 

[FoxMcChief]

I feel like XCloud is tuned for mobile, where IQ is not as noticeable, whereas Sony is targeting people to run these games on TV.

There's no perfect solution.

Both play perfectly on my phone.

 

[keefged4]

The only decent time I've ever had streaming was with Moonlight/Sunshine. Everything else pales in comparison and is a pretty awful way to play games full stop. Moonlight is primarily used to stream movies/tv shows to the main TV with the wife, but I'd never actually use it to play games. PS Now streaming was the worst out of every option when I last tried it, horrendous image quality and horrendous lag, xcloud was a bawhair better, but again nothing approaching usable in any fashion. I don't understand why there's such a push for it.

 

[phant0m]

Laughing at people that doesn't see anything bad quality wise with xcloud, shit is all over the screen.

How people can play videogames like this is seriously mindblogging for me, like offensive towards the medium.

GeForce Now and Stadia are the only options I’ve found playable, and one of them is gone.

Cloud gaming is a very very very poor substitute for locally installed games.

Every single time I try it there is awful image breakup, compression artifacts galore, and horrendous input lag. FTTP by the way, with a 1gb connection.

It’s only use is to quickly get weekly reward points in games I don’t want to download and install.

Try GFN Ultimate. CP2077 max’d out on it looks better than the game running on my PS5. Feels better too (compared to PS5 in RT mode)

 

[Porticus]

Let's remind ourselves what has been said about Microsoft by someone who died sadly too young.



Every Microsoft product follow exactly this mantra, third rate product as he says.

 

[Portugeezer]

When they said every screen is an Xbox... it appears they meant an Xbox Series S!

Terrible quality and performance from Xcloud, I never expected that from MS for cloud stuff.

 

[CrustyBritches]

What I'm puzzled by is how a Xbox Series X is meant to virtualize multiple Xbox Series S consoles? It doesn't have the CPU or Memory capacity to do that.

I watched the live reveal of the upgraded Series X server hardware on a Xbox web show and I’m positive it’s 4x Xbox One instances it can spool up.

 

[Zathalus]

I watched the live reveal of the upgraded Series X server hardware on a Xbox web show and I’m positive it’s 4x Xbox One instances it can spool up.

Yeah, that is what I thought. Not multiple Xbox Series S.

 

[MaulerX]

XCloud is available literally on any device that has a web browser. Also has better latency.

Playstation’s game streaming is available no where but your Playstation 5.

These things alone renders this comparison useless. If I can't access the streaming service outside of my house on my phone then what gives?

 

[rodrigolfp]

When you look at these results you got to wonder how the fuck does nVidia do it with GeForce Now. GFN is fantastic.

Using PCs instead of consoles.

 

[Heisenberg007]

Let's remind ourselves what has been said about Microsoft by someone who died sadly too young.



Every Microsoft product follow exactly this mantra, third rate product as he says.

Unfortunately, this is so true.

Despite their unfathomable wealth, Microsoft has never made a product that I liked. There was/is ALWAYS a better alternative on the market.

• Windows phones? Android.
• Xbox? PlayStation.
• Windows? OSX.
• Surface? Macbooks.
• Teams? Zoom.
• Office? Google Suite (though Excel is more powerful)
• One Drive? Google Drive
• xCloud? PS Plus Streaming
• Mixer? Twitch.

We can go on and on.

 

[Kdad]

Laughing at people that doesn't see anything bad quality wise with xcloud, shit is all over the screen.

How people can play videogames like this is seriously mindblogging for me, like offensive towards the medium.

Dont blind shame me.

 

[Roxkis_ii]

Man, streaming games is one thing I hope doesn't take off or become a final solution.

I don't want to have worry about factors outside of my home affecting my gaming experience.

 

[Kdad]

A wise man said don't shit where you eat or something like that.

I play PlayStation
I live off of Microsoft

 

[Zathalus]

Unfortunately, this is so true.

Despite their unfathomable wealth, Microsoft has never made a product that I liked. There was/is ALWAYS a better alternative on the market.

• Windows phones? Android.
• Xbox? PlayStation.
• Windows? OSX.
• Surface? Macbooks.
• Teams? Zoom.
• Office? Google Suite (though Excel is more powerful)
• One Drive? Google Drive
• xCloud? PS Plus Streaming
• Mixer? Twitch.

We can go on and on.

They are better at products aimed at corporations vs the offerings for the consumer. Azure, Visual Studio, Office, Windows Server (plus Server related products such as Exchange, SQL, AD, etc...) are all really good. Even LinkedIn is a fantastic professional social platform. Luckily those all make them an insane amount of money.

Microsoft is just not really a corporation that clicks with consumers that well. Maybe the AI focus can do something about it, but probably not.

 

[SmokedMeat]

From my experience Amazon’s Luna trounces Xbox Cloud.

I’d be curious to see a comparison.

 

[j0hnnix]

this is bs, if i take off my glasses and walk back 200ft they look the same.

Spoiler

im blind as fuck

 

[MarkMe2525]

That's disappointing if the move was only to increase capacity and not quality.

Yeah, fundamentaly different approaches. MS targeted xcloud for mobile use, even more so in the beginning, while Sony built their solution for the big screen from the start. This can be seen in the solutions they built their services on.