What does Microsoft's cloud-powered future mean for physical media?

[Yungstar 2006]

Microsoft has made it very clear: it sees the future of Xbox not with discs sold in shops over the counter by a sales assistant but with what it calls "connected entertainment services" powered by the cloud.

Yesterday, during a media briefing that saw the announcement of a new developer, Lift London, and a new boss of Lionhead, former Rare chief Scott Henson, Phil Harrison, former high-ranking Sony PlayStation executive and now Microsoft's Xbox boss in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, explained how Xbox will evolve over the years to come.
"As we look to the future of our industry, increasingly the games, the IPs and the content, are going to sit on the cloud, powered by Xbox but accessible through a variety of devices. Rather than our games being device-centric, they will become cloud-centric. This is a general trend you will see more of as we go forward.
"Our games, yes, they will have the best GPU, CPU, immersive experience on Xbox 360, but they will also show up on Windows Phone, on Surface, on Windows 8 and on other compatible devices through SmartGlass."
This vision, Harrison said, influenced his decision to join Microsoft.
"The key thread that runs through our future is the shift from packaged products to connected entertainment services," Harrison continued. "That is the thread you will see us develop over the coming years. It's not a change we're going to make immediately. We will continue to support retail products with our key releases for sure.
"But everything we do will have increasingly deep social and additional features that are reliant on the network, that are unlocked by the network and enhanced by the network through Xbox Live and beyond. That's the key strategic shift we're making with our business, moving from being a maker of packaged products to being an operator of connected services.

what-does-microsofts-cloud-powered-future-mean-for-physical-media

[radgamer420]

Cloud only means no buy for me.

[LfCpS3]

As long as they don't abuse the price/price is PROPERLY ( something SONY fails at), allow all games to have a demo and also NO DRM/ make games playable offline if needed I personally would be fine.

Also, the harddrives better be cheap or stick to the ones already available, none of that own brand crap they overprice by 100%.

Sadly I think they will abuse it.

[claud3]

not for me, i hate the cloud and i will pass on this

I will bypass MS for the next Xbox if this is the way it goes

[radgamer420]

As long as they don't abuse the price/price is PROPERLY ( something SONY fails at), allow all games to have a demo and also NO DRM/ make games playable offline if needed I personally would be fine. Also, the harddrives better be cheap or stick to the ones already available, none of that own brand crap they overprice by 100%. Sadly I think they will abuse it.

Yeah if the games are playable offline then ok. But if Sony offers physical games and MS doesn't then I would most likely go PS4 only and skip Xbox.

[MonkeyClaw]

I keep forgetting that Phil Harrison joined Microsoft! Still seems weird seeing him on the other side of the fence!

[Soldier 95B]

Cloud gaming? Day one bitches! THERE.

[DarkVincent07]

Cloud only means no buy for me.

Me too


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[Cybertox]

not for me, i hate the cloud and i will pass on this

I will bypass MS for the next Xbox if this is the way it goes

I dont think its worth bypassing only because of the stream.

[claud3]

what happens when it goes tits up and what are you left with, is no actual disc to play games... So if it goes down and so does sales of the next xbox

[Cybertox]

what happens when it goes tits up and what are you left with, is no actual disc to play games... So if it goes down and so does sales of the next xbox

Well, we survived the PSN blackout for 2 weeks and some hours of maintenance wont be too bad for us :P

[radgamer420]

Well, we survived the PSN blackout for 2 weeks and some hours of maintenance wont be too bad for us :P

But with the PSN blackout you could still play SP games. But if everything depends on the cloud streaming your games then you cant play anything.

[Cybertox]

But with the PSN blackout you could still play SP games. But if everything depends on the cloud streaming your games then you cant play anything.

Thats true. But many online features were absent and we could deal with that. Not being able to play single player offline is indeed disturbing, i can agree.

[maltrophstitan]

"Either learn to surf new and powerful waves of change—or get crushed trying to stop them." - Juan Enriquez

people will say it's not for them or they wont buy into this idea but in reality this is the future of gaming, you've seen it with every other media (news, magazines, books, music, movies, tv, ect) gaming is not an exception to the rule. You'll see the digital only option grow more and more and people will accept it because it's easier and more convenient.

[BoyBettaKnow]

Accepting Digital is one thing - i've embraced my digital collection of games (all 194 of them) but accepting Streaming is a whole nothing situation. I said it in another thread and i'll say it here. Fuck the use of the cloud for anything other than saving games and syncing profiles.

I'll be damned if i ever have to pay a service to stream games to me. The second that happens, gaming takes a back seat to the other of my hobbies.

[maltrophstitan]

Accepting Digital is one thing - i've embraced my digital collection of games (all 194 of them) but accepting Streaming is a whole nothing situation. I said it in another thread and i'll say it here. Fuck the use of the cloud for anything other than saving games and syncing profiles.

I'll be damned if i ever have to pay a service to stream games to me. The second that happens, gaming takes a back seat to the other of my hobbies.

what if your steaming from your console or your tablet or your phone to your console or your tablet or your phone?
It wont necessarily be from a MS server to your console it could just as well be from any device you have to any other device you want to play it on.
Where will cellular speeds be in 5 years? what about 10 years? It could very well be a none issue with speeds over a GB down, and drops and outages being very rare
10 years ago I don't think many people expected to be streaming 1080p HD content through their gaming consoles or even their phones for that matter.
imagine saying to yourself when GTA came out that you could play it on a mini 5" hd screen anywhere you wanted, at the time most people couldn't even think of the possibility of that.



I would have flipped out if you showed me that video when the ps2 came out

[Ghost-Rhayne]

The key thread that runs through our future is the shift from packaged products to connected entertainment services," Harrison continued. "That is the thread you will see us develop over the coming years. It's not a change we're going to make immediately. We will continue to support retail products with our key releases for sure. "But everything we do will have increasingly deep social and additional features that are reliant on the network,

Retail for the major releases, everything else streamed? All the extras reliant on the network...I don't like the sound of that. I don't intend to get a W8 phone or a surface so this next gen proposition isn't sounding particularly appealing to me personally.

[shingi70]

It really won't effect the retail presence. If anything the fact that Microsoft has the least retail presence than the other two first parties but is looking to have a bigger digital output this season says a lot.

Lift London is an incubation studio similar too Santa Monica whereas alongside their own games they assist indies as well. Their first game with Dlala Studios will probably be a tablet game. The studio its self is focusing on the tablet space, though they haven't ruled out working in the console space.

As well as developing its own games, Lift London will also serve as an incubator for indies. Shoreditch-based Dlala has already been brought in-house, given office space and support, and others will follow – providing Lift has the space, anyway. It shares a premises with Soho Productions, the company behind Kinect-powered two-way TV and Xbox Live entertainment apps, whose studio head Brian Stone was also introduced.

2) Harrison even says that while Lift London will be doing smaller non retail games there will still be the big blockbuster and mid tier retail games coming out as well.

The traditional game release model, which has a massive upfront design, development and marketing cost and a relatively short, 16-week window after the game comes out for returns, is changing,” Schuneman said. “Of course we’re still going to see the blockbuster games, the Halos, the CODs – they’re not going to disappear any time soon – but for the larger networked majority of gamers we plan to use a much more nimble, streamlined development cycle.

He even gives a bit of an example of where all of their European studios fit into the grand scheme of things.

With Lift London added to its ranks, Harrison’s Microsoft Studios line-up appears to have all bases covered. Lift on tablets; Soho on Xbox Live; Press Play on mobile; Rare on family friendly games like the seven-million-selling Kinect Sports series; and Lionhead focusing on story-driven games for a traditional audience. Both Rare and Lionhead are under new management, too. Scott Henson, head of Rare for over two years, is now running Lionhead, replacing co-founder Mark Webley who is moving on. Rare’s new studio head, Craig Duncan, has actually been in post for nine months already. The newest recruit is Roger Walkden, formerly of Activision and Electronic Arts, who joined Microsoft Studios as chief of staff at the beginning of this week.

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