Gamepass definitely needs a cheap "streaming only" tier for that thing to work. I ain't paying ultimate tier to only get the streaming experience. It COULD work as a really cheap, low barrier entry drug for people lacking hardware
The average Joe buying a firestick to check out gamepass is not going to pay for ultimate. A cheap 10 a month for cloud would better for those customers
If the quality is there then the price is not an issue, with GeforceNow it literally save me money gaming on it during the summer due to lower electricity bill from not having to turn AC on as often.
@@pronstorestiffi _The concept of a_ DF Direct episode in the here and now is pretty bespoke. I'll be curious to see how the rest of the episode unfolds...
Xbox is not trying to convert console players to streaming, they are trying to get NEW players that don't want the box or can't afford it, hence the "you don't need an xbox to…" phrase.
That is a notable idea Xbox seems to often bring up. The concept of expanding the AAA gaming market beyond the current console/PC market. The best way to do this is seemingly cloud stuff.
@@ContrastCopy RT not having enough hardware support to run it isn't the same thing as data caps, people not having wcces to high speed internet and living in apartment complexs with a lot of wifi causing interference.
@@ContrastCopy but technology is already there with GeForce Now and has been for a couple of years, Microsoft should've put more effort into streaming tech. The idea is good but Xbox implementation isn't.
Excellent point. I think that is the crux of gamepass, no matter what you want, so much is bundled together that you are ultimately paying for sh.t you don't want.
It’s a difficult thing. 1) Running cloud servers is higher cost than having consumers run their own hardware, even though the hardware is subsidized $100-200. What would the price of a cloud only option needs to be? Would it be lower enough to matter? 2) If you sell a cloud only option, is there a path to those consumers transitioning to console? I’m not sure what the answers to these questions are.
It’s a difficult thing. 1) Running cloud servers is higher cost than having consumers run their own hardware, even though the hardware is subsidized $100-200. What would the price of a cloud only option needs to be? Would it be lower enough to matter? 2) If you sell a cloud only option, is there a path to those consumers transitioning to console? I’m not sure what the answers to these questions are.
Thanks for making Mondays more bearable! I'm able to work through most of what I get assigned to me on Monday making the rest of week more manageable.😀
With the Black Myth WuKong shots, is it possible the stuff you're noticing is caustics caught looking odd in a static screenshot that in game would be in motion and make more sense? Effects like that especially can, without context, be hard to interpret.
I would love for Kid Icarus to return. I absolutely adored Uprising on the 3DS, it's one of my favorite games. I hope we at least get a remaster of that game, but a sequel would be awesome too ❤❤❤
I still have a few games on the Windows Xbox app that I can neither complete install, nor uninstall, and just pop up everytime as failing "install" everytime I open the app.
They should straight up refactor or reboot their Microsoft Store and UWP system as most under it do have problems with their dependencies for different systems. When you have to use an offici Microsoft command line executable to make the xbox app work then clearly they have a major problem. That is near or straight up eartly Linux 2000s of complexity@@FrawgfithAmblose
I know this is totally a „it works on my machine“ comment, but what is your setup? I haven’t had any technical issues with the Xbox app for years. I think the app is only ok in terms of just experience, but I don’t have any of the technical issues that others seem to have, and I use it a lot. Ryzen 5700x, Radeon 6600, 32 GB DDR4 RAM, 2TB NVME m2, b550m motherboard. I’m on Windows 11.
I don't think it can ever be under $350. I also don't think it needs to be. People are happily paying $600+ for handhelds. I think the console could aim for the same price point.
@@mechanicalmonk2020 All things tech rely on chip manufacturing in Taiwan and right now the future is totally uncertain. I’d assume that Valve understands that and is waiting till the dust settles. The importance of understanding this is huge. Shits gonna get crazy brother.
@@mechanicalmonk2020not that many people are buying these at 500 - 750 compared to the broad market. Modern consoles have proven a medium pc can be made for 450 at cost but it's the at cost but that you need big sales to absorb. That said a valve based console with stream integration..id buy it for console a price
That's a very good point , hopefully they do a separate video of it running and show the fire stick running with the ethernet adapter and the latency with that
I think paid games are often way better than f2p games in my own experience. I've played a variety of high quality games on gamepass that aren't even made by microsoft.
I’ll need the authorities in the UK to finish laying down high speed internet before I can even contemplate streaming lol. Don’t have fibre at all in my area yet
@@kevikiruUs living in poorer countries ironically have better internet because our infrastructure was set up when better options were available (fibre), whereas the richer countries don't get the upgrade since they had already set it up with slow broadband cables and there's not enough push to replace it.
@@leonro That is very true. The same with mobile. We went from no landline in homes to affordable mobile pay as you go call & internet and mobile banking faster than most developed countries
why do people keep presuming streaming is aimed at the core gaming market? it's tiny, this is aimed squarely where the real money is. the billions of casuals who won't care that it's an inferior experience to local hardware. Serious, why is this so hard to understand?
AFAIK Nvidia's Displaced Micro Mesh is supported on all hardware as its cross vendor, they say that its "accelerated" on Ada Lovelace but don't get into specifics on ho its accelerated. DMM has been added to Simplygon which is an asset optimization suite provided by Microsoft.
Hard disagree as to the contention that most gamers are moving to gaming just on phones or PCs. Yes, phones cater to the most casual gamers, but PCs only cater to the most technically savvy gamers. There's a large middle ground of gamers that like the convenience that consoles provide. Evidence? The success of the Switch, PS4, and PS5. Just cause MS can't get their shit together in the console market, doesn't mean there is no such market. Also, another hard disagree that PC gamers are all more savvy and smarter with their money than console gamers. Evidence? People who have Steam libraries filled top to bottom with games they bought but have never played. PC gamers and Console gamers are both stupid when it comes to their money; just stupid in different ways.
I had it with the Xbox App on PC when I pressed the cancel button on a gigantic game update download and instead of stopping the download it turns out that means UNINSTALL THE WHOLE PROGRAM to Microsoft...
53:26 - I wonder if an original Xbox with upgraded CPU could even out the choppy performance in KotOR 1&2, or if it's GPU bottlenecks. I remember having single digit framerates in some busier areas (especially the last section of the first game on the 'Star Forge').
I remember when MS promised they wouldn't raise prices on GamePass. I unsubbed after Starfield came out because I realized there hadn't been a game in over a year that I enjoyed on the service. Still isn't one. It's a scam, IMO. Just a bunch of subpar games for a never-ending fee with the ultimate goal of destroying what little ownership we have of our games. Just like how uber destroyed the taxi industry. You come in cheap, destroy competition, then raise prices. Always the same plan. F Microsoft. wukong looks amazing
I think gamepass is great for indie games. I played so many games that I would have otherwise never tried. Such as the Ori games, outer wilds, superliminal and some others.
Alex is the worst hes the one who tried to pretend halo infinite only looked bad as it was In shadow when the trailer had sections in full blown lit situations He's happy to shill for Microsoft if he can think of a way to do it
Microsoft seem lost with Xbox right now, they don’t seem clear about what their competitive advantages are (I guess they consider Azure and cloud to be their advantage?) and what they want Xbox the brand to be. It seems like they are just an also ran vs Sony right now with regard to ‘gaming’.
It feels like gaming is in a transition point and Xbox is trying to be the first to figure out where the industry is going. Even PlayStation seems to be acknowledging their limits in growth so it doesn’t really make sense to copy what they’re doing. That said Xbox is doing a shit job with finding their competitive advantage
@@Gvines723 Yes, agreed, console growth has stopped and PC will have a limit too I suspect. Can’t keep developing $200m games if there’s only 30m Xbox Series consoles to sell to.
I’ve subbed to game pass ultimate for over 3 years now and I’ve never streamed a game. I always download. Although come September I’ll be cancelling my subscription due to the cost of getting COD (a game series I couldn’t care less about) on gamepass - closing Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks and the price increase. It’s no longer worth it for me to be letting the subscription constantly roll over month after month without any thought. I’ll be an on and off again subscriber in future.
For The First Descendant on PC perhaps you can check the amount of System Event Log Kernel Errors while playing it. Does it have to do with the anti cheat software?
30:48 - Alex, as a primary PC user, you know that PC gaming is primarily digital now so I'm not sure what your point of ownership vs "renting" the software is. Even with "ownership" of PC and console digital games, as we all know, you don't actually own digital games, only a limited license to play on a particular service so long as that service allows you to - PSN, Microsoft, Steam, Epic, Origin, EA, etc.
Well there is GOG where you do keep the games with their installers as executables. And if you are going to say "But hard drives will die eventually" well everything even disk will die eventually, which is why Backups exist to remedy it.
I think the main difference on the PC is that there are multiple options in how we can get our games, they can also be backed up. On consoles, if the store front goes down, you're pretty much screwed and will have lost access to all your digital bought games. The risk is a lot higher on consoles and probably why there is so much more resistance to digital gaming on consoles compared to PC gaming.
As some who used OnLive back in the day, I am still waiting for streaming to get to the point of being near indiscernible from local playback. It has been a long, long journey!
I loved OnLive! All I had was a laptop with integrated graphics and mediocre WiFi for the time, and it was the only way I was able to play real games at the time. I got so mad at Sony for acquiring it and making it worse lol
@@speedracer2please Pretty much the same situation I was in when I used it! I wanted to play Just Cause 2, but my laptop only had Intel HD Graphics 2000, so I discovered OnLive and played it through there!
No one is going to use that xbox firestick feature. They have to have a controller too. That's about 60.00. Who is the market? People who understand what this feature is and how to use it would buy a series s. The people they are trying to capture need a person in their house to explain it to them. It's a bad buisness model.
@@mattmaas5790 if you have the controller- you probably have the console. If you have to buy one- you can find a series s w controller for well under 200.00.
Disagree- lots of things will change and ai will speed up all changes. Computers themselves will be ai Terminals, and games will be generated by the ai in real time, from supercomputers in data centers.
You don't need to buy used months later to spend less on console. You can buy on stores that offer the best prices and then even sell it if you want. You can buy physical games with friends and share it and also you can share your account with a friend to share buy digital games. There are so many ways to spend less on console.
Game Pass is still the definitive way for most players to play CoD on PC and Xbox. Why? Because if you've played CoD, you know how the cycle goes, you play it for a month or two and then you are done. Even on the Day One Tier, that's still cheaper than the full game. That said, I prefer supporting devs fully, not with subscriptions since the true benefit of Game Pass for devs in the smaller dev teams/indie games, but I'd say...those selections on Game Pass are generally pretty bad and I wouldn't want to support them either way, gotta let my wallet do the talking, whether it is a big studio or an indie one.
"You don't need an Xbox" is the best first party console hardware marketing since the Wii U days where it'd show a family switching off from the Wii U on the TV to watch sports, leaving the poor lonely guy to play on his controller screen. Maybe the new Xbox ad might be even better, "you don't need our product" is like one step up from "everything else on TV is more interesting than our product", although Microsoft ALSO tried that one on the early Xbox One days. Just amazing props to everyone involved.
I think people are reading too much into this or they don't understand it and in some cases it gets used in console wars. To me this is no different than Nvidia advertising GeForce Now, where the whole point is you don't need their GPU's to game on PC. It's just offering an additional option to those who'd find it appealing. One is not a replacing another.
@@TerraWare The difference is NVIDIA is still investing heavily into their own GPUs. MSFT doesn’t appear to be doing the same for its consoles, and it feels like they’re actively tossing the console aside and just don’t care.
the console market hasn't grown in 15 years. game sales are down 20% on console compared to 10 years ago while subscriptions are up 30% and microtransactions are up 160%. It's not rocket science. The console market has been dying for a long time. Except for nintendo but they aren't even close to the big players in income.
Tried pc game pass but to often ran into install issues games not starting or just buggy. I’ll stick with steam. It makes no sense when micro is a software company 🤦. Way to many steam sales and discounts to pay for a sub on gamepass. Nothing sucks more than activating a code an not knowing when a game you want to play will even be accessible
RTX3080-> RTX4070... What pisses me off the most here, isn't JUST that there's over a 2x increase which obvioulsy means FRAME GENERATION but that... the frame gen is obviously coming from a 2x increase of about 34FPS (*huh?) which is too low as you get a lot of added and temporal artifacts. Besides, they are sort of shooting themselves in the foot. Sure, buy the RTX40 series but if you start lowering the bar to 30FPS before frame gen and pushing upscaling more then people may care less about buying a HIGH END graphics card. *How did I get 34FPS? You just take HALF the roughly 68FPS shown for the RTX4070. There's a cost to frame gen, so the RTX4070 without FG might get, say, 40FPS. But the actual TRUE frames it can now handle is lower as there's a processing cost. So just take HALF of what the end result is. Generally speaking you should be starting Frame Gen at a much higher FPS. I'm honestly not sure how much the added lag affects a game that I'd assume has critical timing. Probably not idea.
Exactly. They are forcing everyone onto the 4000 series. My 40 teraflop 3090 ti should be able to handle that lol. Aside from the water, it looks last gen.
PC game pass has always had way less games than on Xbox. I have a Series S still because of this, and modern game devs still can't figure out crossplay.
Great Direct guys.. Looking forward to your analysis of Black Myth Wukong. Btw Rich, the topic around 53:30 min, I just noticed there's no link to that Xbox modder's channel in the "video description below". 🤭
DF talk about glass half empty. I guess you decided a while back your stance on Xbox since the whole starfield review copy snub. .. You lack any vision or fail to realize any of the potential positives. Gamepass is still a tremendous value with a$3 monthly increase. Have you not been paying attention to the world economy and inflation? It's unfortunately a requirement for the service survival and it's a damn good one. Now let's talk about cloud gaming.... This isn't about getting rid of the consoles. They need that for their core gamer. It's the larger audience that don't have an Xbox or can't afford one. Do you know how much an Xbox or PlayStation console costs in South America? Most can't come close to affording it. What about when you travel? Can't take your console with you. Jump on the cloud and play away! It's a brilliant move and it will get better over time. As for gamepass and PC experience. I use it everyday. Maybe good it a try. Your experience from 2 years ago may not be the same experience you have today. I use it everyday without issue with out crashing and download games just fine. Thank you Oliver for being the only one looking at any of the positives here! And well done Microsoft for bringing us more games more content and services and in more ways! The next decade in gaming is looking bright!
> Gamepass is still a tremendous value with a$3 monthly increase. So just ignoring the price increase plus removal of benefits from certain tiers? Which ties into the argument that the system was never sustainable and actually hurt MS in the long run. > been paying attention to the world economy and inflation? If only there was a second hand market allowing you to buy used consoles cheaper then new. And used physical games for a fraction of the price MS is charging in their digital store. If only MS wasn't pushing towards an all digital future far faster then any other console maker. > Do you know how much an Xbox or PlayStation console costs in South America? Most can't come close to affording it. So what makes you think they will have access to high speed internet, and other assorted tech needed to stream games online? > Jump on the cloud and play away! I've never met a hotel wifi that could effectively run netflix let alone stream a game.
@@gothpunkboy89HS internet is readily available in South America. The issue with consoles is related to taxes and duties. It's literally double or triple the price of the equivalent in the US. Gamepass like any streaming service will need to change and adapt to the market no different than Amazon/Netflix has otherwise it won't exist. Not to mention the cost of adding the Activision line up, it's great value propositioning in my opinion, and as far as game ownership goes, I agree it's great to own the games but the disks however the pros outweigh the cons and the PC market already knows this. A disk is also just collecting dust once your console goes offline which owning the disk or not won't help you when the servers shut down on your favorite game from 6 years ago because reality check, most have an online requirement nowadays.
News 2 about Gamepass price increase, I'm pretty sure on console you get Xbox live gold or whatever it's called now aswell? Whereas PC you obviously don't pay to play online so that's the price difference?
That may be part of it. But I think it's mostly just that console users are locked into that ecosystem, so they can get away with charging more. Same reason why there have been some games that launch at 70 or 60 bucks on console, but are 10 dollars cheaper on PC at 60 or 50 dollars, respectively. The only reason for that is that you can get away with it when people are locked to that one console and store. I'd assume it's mostly the same reason for subscription prices. Of course, consoles are sold at a loss, but they make up for it and a lot more with this kinda stuff. PC users would be turned away by such prices since they have more options. So they have to keep it cheaper to get some engagement.
@@sawdust8691most pc users don't really want to use anything other than steam, so they have to make gamepass really appealing for people to be willing to switch to the Microsoft store.
1:26:07 wait... they do alright don't they? I just looked at the far cry 3 three way and that has 200,000 views now, overtime surely, that's not bad? they are some of my favourite videos from you guys, they are like a casual blend of a few different aspects of digital foundry in one video (df direct, comparisons, retro, tech discussion etc)
That's why I asked, they do typically do the "three way" comparison videos like the far cry one you mentioned, as well as Battlefield 3, however the Quake RTX video they make features them actually playing the campaign via co-op, and then finishing it off with a death match, so I'm surprised they haven't done the same for Quake 2 RTX
@@ItsWezOosh Yeah, I would like to see more of that. Obviously, the issue for them is any production friction getting in the way of other projects. Like, they did that Quake RTX at Christmas, right? As they suggested, just make the edit bare-bones, and try to get one out semi-regularly. oosh!
If the Xbox Series S isn’t potato enough for you, there’s fire stick streaming! 🤣 But I digress: $79 *sounds* appealing until you realize you also have to maintain a Game Pass Ultimate subscription every month (at $20/mo) to play a limited number of games available on the service (only the ones that support streaming) and the performance of them will be somewhere between bad and abysmal. I don’t care how catchy their marketing phrase is, this isn’t going to grow their brand with this level of performance and cost.
1:22:25 Wifi works fine on the OLED when installing the OEM driver. There are guides online on how to find it. The audio jack also works with the driver in the APU driver package. The only thing that still doesn't work is bluetooth and the built in speakers. Bluetooth USB adapters also work fine though.
I stopped Game Pass app streaming and went with console streaming instead. Two reasons, quick resume allows me to get back in the game waay faster since I don't have to wait for my save data to sync from the cloud and it allows me to play my library of games instead of just Game Pass only games
Typical Rich at 22:00 : "Xbox One X wasn't a sales succes but it continually sent the message that the best place to play these multiplatform games was on Xbox and I think that's a really powerful message that you shouldn't let go off". Rich in many, many recent DF Direct Weeklies: What's the point of the rumored PS5 Pro? Who needs it? Why is coming to the market? Is anyone excited?
xCloud performance is not solely dependent on WiFi speeds; it also heavily relies on the client's device capabilities. Contrary to popular belief, cloud gaming is not just streaming a video like RU-vid or Netflix. It requires robust h264 decoding performance. Testing on various devices using Edge, Kiwi, and Safari browsers showed that PCs and Macs (both AMD and Intel) had the best decode times (1-4ms), followed by iPhones and Samsung Galaxy devices with Exynos chips (4ms). Android phones with Snapdragon and MediaTek chips had slower times (26-30ms), with the worst performance observed on Android TV (112ms). xCloud performance and quality could be enhanced if Xbox will increase the bitrate limit and adding support for h265
Used to have that issue every once in awhile with installing and playing games with the Gamepass app. Might have been a hardware networking issue in that it got fixed when moving to AM5 on a fresh system
FSR sucks. There, I said it. I never turn it on on my Steam Deck and I would never buy an AMD GPU until they can match DLSS. I simply can't stand the flickering and shimmering. The days of aliased edges should be over in 2024 and AMD has to get a grip on that.
You mention flickering and shimmer -- FSR1 (as seen on the Steam deck) requires an already anti-aliased input to function well (in terms of dealing with those artifacts I mean). There are hard limits on what something like a single frame spatial scaler can achieve, but the "Quality" variant of FSR1 is more or less the finest single frame spatial upscaler I've encountered. AMD CAS (paired with it typically) is also a very fine modern post process sharpen solution. But yes, there are big limits on what can be done with something like FSR1. Anything better requires engine level integration however so you could not have it in a boiler plate control panel in the way that Steam Deck has FSR1. DLSS requires motion vectors and pulls data from prior frames for its reconstruction and thus requires that the developers put it into the game. FSR 2 (latest version) is a lot better than FSR1 albeit with lower quality than DLSS. That said, the fact that it can run on basically any GPU is huge for gamers with older hardware or none Nvidia proprietary tech. But FSR 2 like DLSS requires engine level integration, access to motion vectors, etc. Basically I think you're underselling FSR 1 in the sense that it's purpose is really the ease of integration and the flexibility it has to be used "with anything and on anything". It's in the same vein as how SMAA or CMAA2 have hard limits in the anti-aliasing quality they can achieve because they just run off of the current frame (whereas modern temporal AA pulls data from prior frames too, uses motion vectors, requires engine level integration, that kind of thing). The beauty of SMAA, CMAA2, FSR1, AMD CAS, etc is that they are very very good algorithms assuming the game in question does not have access to the "harder to integrate" newer stuff like DLSS. These techniques can be injected via something like reshade (or the steam deck boilerplate menu) into basically anything at all. You just can't do that with DLSS. If you think FSR 1 is terrible, I urge you to spend an afternoon upscaling with traditional scalers like Bilinear or Bicubic or Lanczos (which has worse ringing and handles edges worse than FSR 1 does) and I think you may appreciate FSR 1 more after.
as someone who goes to great lengths to minimize input latency while gaming, i'm absolutely dreading the inevitable shift towards streaming. it will never - NEVER - have good input latency (like sub 20ms.) at that point, i'm out for good.
2007: "OMG, Netflix are going to start streaming content over the internet? Good luck with that! Nobody is going to dump their DVD or BluRay Player in favour of a streaming service where you don't even get to own the movie you're watching!" 2024: "OMG, Sony and Microsoft are preparing to move over to cloud streaming and cease console production? Good luck with that! Game streaming will never become the norm!" 🤔
It's a shame Namco (Bandai), spent development time porting Ace Combat 7 to the Switch, when they could have ported it to the PSVR 2, and made it so much improved, including having the entire game playable from the HMD.
I think they just means along with all the other ways to play Microsoft games and not necessarily replacing the console. Who really knows except Microsoft on what they want Xbox to be 10 or 30 years from now. What Game Pass will be like 10 or 20 years from now.
I really can’t see the angle where giving more options is in any way bad. Someone would have to go and change a setting, notice its bad, then forget how to do what they just did. Even children wouldn’t make that mistake.
If MS move to streaming only, they basically are saying to places like Australia that it's a low priority market. Universally, our internet just isn't good enough for it consistently. That's why PS Now or Stadia never launched here.
Dear DF team. Why are some 60fps 3rd person experiences smoother than others? Was quite pleased to discover how well Ghost of Tsushima runs at 60fps. This being the case, after trying to get it to run at 120 fps (4k) ,( unsuccessfully) since most 3rd person games at 60 fps ( to me at least) feels like wading through a pool of graphical sludge.
Alderon Games, an Australian-based developer behind the dinosaur-themed multiplayer survival game Path of Titans, announced "we are swapping all our servers to AMD" because "Intel is selling defective" CPUs - specifically 13th and 14th Gen models.
1:49:21 I think a big reason for lack for FSR upscaler iteration is because they diverted all resources to Frame Gen while the others were still improving the upscaling part.
Why do we have Game Mode on TV's today? I understand that TV's in the past were limited in what they could deliver, but I would have thought that Game Mode would have been figured out by now and eliminated. Just make a display with Game Mode in mind. If TV manufacturers can not figure it out, for whatever reason, then why have we not seen a dedicated Game Mode button on our remotes? Many displays automatically detect a signal depending on the hardware, and turns on Game Mode, but the these streaming FireTV's do not have that ability. Having to scroll through TV settings to turn Game Mode On or Off is an absolute pain in the butt, and would like to know what in the heck is going on. I find it kinda ridiculous. Is it a marketing thing? I'd love to see Digital Foundry cover this Game Mode technology, and if Game Mode is here to stay 20+ years from now.
Controversial view but I’m not a fan of to many graphics options or any at all in console games. I play on console partly cos I don’t want all the fuss of pc graphics settings. I personally value plug and play and I feel this gen with its push for options mostly results in confusion and mostly unsatisfactory results. Give me ONE good mode that the game was built from the ground up for OR the insomniac route of multiple good modes not this no man’s land of below par modes
I don’t think the cost of the Xbox console was restricting their market. And if they’re aiming for kids then why wouldn’t parents prefer a switch they can play anywhere and without internet? MS literally thought “let’s take out hundreds of millions of dollars spent on brand recognition and use it to copy Stadia”
Why would any PC user in their right mind spend 144 bucks a year on a Microsoft Subscription model (with a broken store, bad experience, terrible apps...) to play a limited game offer, when this same user can spend half that amount in Steam Sales and enjoy games they'll own forever, combined with a terrific experience, fast download, seamless auto-patching, Linux compatibility, VR, Free games, a community, BPM...and more?
Can’t speak for the user experience on pc, but to me the appeal of gamepass isn’t a $144 year subscription, but a single $12 subscription payment to play the new game they’ve released if that makes sense. Once the month or two is up and you’ve played what you want just cancel the subscription
I've been subbed to GP for many years on PC and buy games on Steam too but for me I dont need to own every game I play and if I wanted to own a game I play I could easily buy it in the future. I find myself not ever playing through more than once for the the overhelming majority of titles I own. There's never been a need since there's always new stuff to play with the exception of a few games like a GTA, RDR2 or CBP2077 etc. It's 10 bucks a month. That's the price of a McDonalds meal. Well worth it to me.
@15:20 I'm struggling to comprehend why any third party company would design, manufacture and sell an Xbox machine. What's in it for them? Not only did Valve prove that this wasn't possible with the Steam machines but Microsoft's market is too small to support multiple vendors (so no competition) and those vendors will require a profit to operate, meaning that the Xbox will be more expensive than the competing Nintendo and Sony solutions. Just look at the cost of the SSD upgrade for the Xbox consoles and imagine that for the console hardware itself. Microsoft will have to subsidise the manufacturers, at which point, the added cost of outsourcing overcomes the cost to have just made it in house themselves. It's nonsense!
Frame-Gen more then one option why not, for user they understand it. Why does Digital Foundery think the console players are stupid to use framegen options? Why should it be reserved for PC only?
I agree with Rich there is no big upside for Valve to do another Steam desktop. I much sooner would expect them to come up with some sort of docking station with dedicated GPU for a 2nd gen SteamDeck. Just like people are speculating the Index succesor; Deckard will integrate with Steamdeck (v2?) In some way. Offering up something inbetween the mobile chipset standalone vr of quest and the PCVR. It would could be enough to offer up an untethered HL:A experience at high enough res and framerate, without any compression or latency. Add in a docking station that just pushes resolution? Maybe from 720 tp 1440 or something? At comparable performance. It would be quite the ecosystem and it might end up relatively affordable.
@@walter_the_wobot2349 I would be CPU bottlenecked for sure. But perhaps with some GPU grunt and some tricks like upscaling and frame gen a docking station with dedicated GPU could take games to a place where it feels close enough to a PS5 like 4k/60. Which is of coarse also hardly ever native 4k. I think price is key here, it 3 cost half or less the price of a console and it shouldnt be mandatory for Steam Deck (v2) buyers. I think it could make sense to people who buy are handheld first and foremost, but wanna get the most out of it. I think the Steam platform is highly competitive in terms of price and content and with the right hardware solution I can see it take up a space in the living room larger than Xbox is currently doing. But I dunno, Im spitballing, love to hear why none of this will ever happen...
I have to agree, just have a Steam Deck 2 but with official dedicated gpu support with a dock, that would offer most of the performance advantages of a dgpu and honestly, it's the best of both worlds, portable gaming on the go but with weaker hardware, and much more performance once docked on the big screen. Looking at what some of the rivals are doing with dgpu support, it's offering pretty much higher end PC gaming, so a dock could work for a Steam Deck 2, but it would be better if it's official support that's plug and play, I think that's far better than having a Steam Machine. Also, I'm not sure how it works with dgpu support on these portable devices, but wouldn't having a dgpu on a dock, free up the APU to focus on cpu performance? Also, because the dgpu has it's own memory, wouldn't it also mean there is more system memory to play with? Being that, the memory isn't being shared out between cpu and gpu, if so, this is a far better way of doing it then a Steam Machine, as I can imagine a lot of people that buy a Steam Deck would also be willing to buy a dgpu for it, and in most cases, that could do away with needing a gaming PC, especially if it's a good dock that allows you to connect many things to it.
@@paul1979uk2000 I like a lot of the points you make, it sounds potentially even sweeter than my own fantasy :D. I think the dock with Steam Deck 2 and the DGPU should also feature wired and/or wireless connection to the Valve Deckard to offer up a taste of higher end PC VR. You would end up with a killer handheld, a console that could be ps5 level, perhaps more and a standalone VR experience miles ahead of Quest 3 in terms of fidelity and a PCVR like experience on par or beyond PS VR 2. All with convenience of using one future proof storefront with great 'backwards compatibility'. If Valve starts throwing in some HL:A level exclusives... phew!
@@paul1979uk2000 Your take is even more positive than mine, but you make it sound quite feasible, I think it's also about price. Personally if I could dock the Steamdeck 2 and get quality at the level of PS5 for an affordable price that would be a sell for me. But an option with a pricier option with a beefier GPU, more competitive with a dedicated game PC, would also be an attractive option. I'm also interested what Steam Deck 2 and a dock with DGPU could mean for VR. There are rumors the next Valve HMD might use the Steam Deck 2 for a more performant/powerful stand alone experience than the Meta Quests. Having the SD2 docked could add a more PCVR like possibility, even tho I'm not sure the processor in the Steam Deck could ever churn out high enough framerates for high end VR.
Guys, game streaming is not about you :-) I was once a hardcore gamer but now I don't have the time. For what a (worse) GPU costs, GeForce Now is much better *and* cheaper. You don't even need to buy the rest of the PC. If I wanted equivalent hardware, it would cost me many years of subscription. I have tried WiFi streaming vs local play (for what my GPU still handles) and it is nearly indistinguishable to my critical eye. Plus, it is completely silent and doesn't hit the power bill! If GFNow did support some games I really want to play, I wouldnt even think of buying something with a dedicated GPU. Or a PC at all. For people that play F2P, they probably don't need anything more. Unfortunately, xCloud is a mess. So... That needs to change.
