Cloud-Powered Gaming
Now, if the Xbox Scarlett rumors are to be believed, Microsoft may already be very much heading down the path of cloud-powered gaming with the next generation Xbox. That said, we feel like we’ve heard all of this before.
Remember back when Crackdown 3 was first announced and Microsoft touted that the game would use “the power of the cloud” for next-level destruction? Well, we’re kinda still waiting to even get our hands on Crackdown 3, and since that 2015 announcement, it’s been reported that the cloud-powered destructive mayhem “was always going to be in the multiplayer,” separate from the traditional campaign.
However, with a clean slate at the start of a new console generation, and good ol’ Phil Spencer at the helm of the Xbox ship, it seems like the perfect point to really dive into this new realm of possibilities in video games. Though Crackdown 3 will surely be a test of how effective this technology is in the hands of consumers, if anyone has the assets, money, and infrastructure to implement it properly and push it to the next level, it’s Microsoft.
But do we really need cloud technology if the Xbox One’s successor is as powerful as we think it probably will be? Honestly, that depends on how much extra punch it can actually provide. We’re yet to have seen tangible examples of how the technology can enhance game performance this generation, let alone with the extra horsepower of the next.
However, Microsoft’s claim back in 2015 of making the Xbox One “13 times more powerful” is certainly lofty. With continued advancements in graphical processing, such as the GTX 2000 series’ Turing architecture, games could reach a whole new level of visual fidelity, physics, number of things going on on-screen at any given time, and plenty more.
Perhaps streaming technology could unlock those doors without having to pack-in hugely expensive GPU’s into the standard console package?
