Xbox Cloud Streaming - How Good Is It?

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First time trying to create a new topic so have probably do have probably not done a great job!

Just wanted to give my Initail impressions of Xbox Cloud Game Streaming and maybe get other poeples thoughts if they have tried it.

I have tested Xbox game streaming through Windows 10. The computer used was a low spec Dell Optiplex connected through WiFi. My internet speed is not very fast, Google speed test gives a download of 58.3 Mbps and an upload of 18.4 Mbps. My very brief initial thoughts are below -

Game 1 - Octopath Traveller Time to load to game splash screen - 32 seconds. This was the best experience of the 3 games I have tested thus far. The response time was more than good enough to traverse and the turn-based battles lent themselves to this perfectly.

Game 2 - Doom Eternal Time to load to splash screen - 26 seconds. I chose this game due to the very quick movement and reflexes required to play. In this instance, on my setup, the lag was very noticeable and had a detrimental impact of the enjoyability of the game.

Game 3 - New Super Lucky’s Tale Time to load to splash screen - 23 seconds. This was better than I expected tbh. Although you could feel the lag slightly, in this instance, I was able to successfully traverse and attack enemies regardless.

Overall view. This was a better experience than I expected. The computer used was low spec and my internet speed is pretty poor. The games did not seem very high Res (Octopath was the sharpest). Not sure if the stream reduces res on low speed connections or maybe it is just down to the server blades being One S consoles and so they natively render at lower res.

I would not choose this as primary way to play, but as a supplement, I can definitely see myself using this (especially once I start commuting again). I also am aware that I am likely not the target audience for this. In a house with good internet and Gamepass streaming on a TV or iPad for a casual gamer would be pretty good in my opinion.

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Currently xCloud is using old Xbox One S blades for their streaming. That is why game loading is still on the slow side.

They are testing out the new Xbox Series X blades but that is only available to Microsoft Employees at this time.

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Its certainly got better, however i played halo 5 on it a while ago and it did have more latency then 60fps shooters on stadia, but they have improved that and im sure bluetooth ads some latency.

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For me it’s insanely good on wifi to the point where I’m hard pressed to find a difference in input from local.

On 4g it’s pretty crappy. Pretty inconsistent specially delay wise, and imo the variation makes it impossible to adjust, even more so when moving.

For games where you need to be accurate it still isn’t good enough, but for all other games it’s playable.

At least when i used it when there was the testing in mexico, it was ok. Games like minecraft dungeons worked great but with games like halo mcc and gears 5 there was lag. That said the last time I used it i was able to play gears 5 hivebusters and it worked fine, the only thing I can say it’s that, I didn’t liked the touch controllers of gears 5,it really felt weird. For context i have 100 mbps

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For me it’s ok but kinda laggy. Maybe it’s my country but i have good internet so I’m not sure what’s the issue.

Agree, for shooters is not quite good enough yet but the way I can see myself using whilst commuting for example would be grinding levels on an RPG or even playing through something akin to Octopath.

Yeh I tried the touch controls for Hivebusters and it felt weird. That being said, having as an option is a good thing.

It’s Def suited to single player games that don’t rely on quick aiming and reflexes at the moment.

My daughter tried Viva Pinata and it was a great experience.

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What I like about the whole Cloud Streaming initiative from MS (and their general business philosophy in regards to Xbox and gaming) is that they are not waiting for the tech and market to be completely perfect before implementing something (cloud for tech, Gamepass for market as examples).

By doing this, they are almost forcing the paradigm shift (for better or worse is to be seen but I for one think it’s great). Pushing Cloud gaming now will drive the tech behind it and once the tech and peoples connections are widely good enough to support, the infrastructure will already be in place to utilise it as opposed to them playing catch up.

Same with Gamepass (wrong thread I know). Some are still on the fence in regards to a gaming sub service but I believe it is the future of gaming. MS are pushing it now and are pretty much driving the concept. Again, as hearts and minds are converted to the idea, MS will have already been ready with a mature infrastructure.

It’s going to be an interesting few years I think.

For some reason, Mass Effect Andromeda’s works amazingly well on PC cloud streaming for me. It was exactly as good as playing on the console. Unebleiveable stability. I was every impressed by it.

Gears 5 had more lag but was fine and Dragon Quest 11 was unplayable. Yakuza 4 worked very well.

All on PC cloud.

Played about an hour of Rain on Your Parade through Edge on my Surface and had a good time. I’ve found, as others, that for things that require precise inputs, I don’t tend to like using streaming as much, but for other things it’s good.

he actual playing a game is fine, the loading and waiting about is not. Think I’ll hang fire until the Series X blades are in before playing more regularly.

Now Microsoft employees have access to next-gen cloud, which brings improved load times and performance and some titles are enhanced even further. No details on what that entails.

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