MICROSOFT

Xbox family streaming game console fate, according to Phil Spencer

Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft Gaming's gaming division, spoke about the difficult fate of the Xbox family's streaming game console. While he previously reported on Xbox Keystone development and even showed a prototype of the device, during a recent talk at the Tech Live conference it was clear that it would be a long time before the console went on sale.

According to Spencer, the codename Keystone was given to a project that was developed in the bowels of the company - a budget streaming console that doesn't provide local gameplay, plugs into a TV, and is designed to stream games to the Xbox. In late spring, the company focused on cooperation with Samsung - the South Korean manufacturer's TVs have an Xbox game streaming service, and Spencer even has a console prototype on the shelf.

While Microsoft initially revealed plans to launch a streaming console last year, Spencer himself said one is likely to come, but that "it will take years". It remains to be seen why the company refused to quickly implement the idea. Some do not exclude that this is due to the size of the future console. If the Keystone looks more like a smaller version of the Xbox Series S, other similar TV boxes like the Google Chromecast are slightly larger than USB flash drives plugged into the HDMI ports. Many expected the company's device to have the same dimensions.

Plus, Microsoft still needs to work on the Xbox Cloud Gaming cloud gaming service before it's fully TV-ready. While the company has managed to run the Xbox TV app on Samsung TVs, only games up to 1080p at 60 FPS are supported. In comparison, competing services like NVIDIA GeForce Now have resolutions up to 4K.

Spencer also confirmed that any future streaming devices will be tied to an Xbox Game Pass subscription. According to the head of the games division, the corresponding service is profitable, so it awaits further development. Furthermore, he said that console and game prices are expected to increase in the near future, likely right after the fall/winter holiday season.

mundophone