WOW, I actually came to say this exact same thing almost word for word. Glad people are finally understanding the history of game streaming and realizing that Sony isn't "just" starting this process. They have almost a decade and a half of game streaming via the internet experience.

Since that's covered, I just want to add some fun facts in. AWS which is PSNow's largest hosting environment, starting rolling out v340s paired with 32 core eypc servers around the time PSNow drastically reduced various platform clients. I believe this is due to Sony offloading auxiliary functions such party chat and friends function to the client machines which the Vita or a Bravia TV isn't to have the processing power to adequately support. The latest server offering is here:

https://community.amd.com/community/radeon-pro-graphics/blog/2018/11/13/amd-server-cpus-gpus-the-ultimate-virtualization-solution

At VMworld 2018 in Las Vegas in the AMD booth, we demonstrated how A + A makes an astounding duet. For the first time, we showed a technology demonstration of a virtualized environment driven by an HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen10 from AMD’s Santa Clara, CA datacenter. Inside, the server we have two 32 core, 64 thread Epyc CPUs and a recently announced dual GPU solution based on the “Vega” architecture¹, the Radeon Pro V340. The result, an awesome system for virtualized workloads. And a GPU that delivers 33% greater user density than our competition³.

Also, in the booth was our A + A gorilla. It’s a dual Epyc server with 4 Radeon Pro V340s. 8 GPUs (2 per card), each with 56 compute units thumping graphics and supported by 2 Epyc 32 core CPUs.

The reason this is significant is that theoretically just one of these servers could support either 16 PS4s or 16 PS3s in emulation. Further, and this is the most interesting part.

If the PS5 is 16GB vRAM + more for the OS and 10Tflops (I'm estimated 10.2), then this perfectly splits evenly to allow 8 PS5 sessions per server. Basically what I am saying is that it is very possible we could see PS5 PSNow games at launch or even in beta via PSNow while also having a singular Server solution to stream PS1-PS5 games. The hardware actually exists to do it now and I doubt it's a coincidence that this thing launched late last year. As it's specifically designed for high load and multi-client game emulation.

Look at this beast.

This also has the added benefit of running multiple configurations. Example a single server to run 2 theoretical PS5 sessions, 4 PS4 Sessions, 4 PS3 Sessions, and dozens if not hundreds of PS2 and PS1 sessions all concurrently on a single server. Using a model like this it would be much more feasible for Sony to make this cost effective to run.

MS has only briefly talked about it's "splices" or slices however this has some VERYhard implications for both Developers and their games. The "splicing" technology refers to having segments of the game processed locally. Which can take several forms, but the most common is that it would download the initial game engine (which can be several gigs by itself) and rough wireframe with hitboxes and physics is rendered locally (which can also be processor intensive). The problem with that is that it requires the client to have the processing power to actually run the game engine and physics meaning either your ENTIRE GAME ACROSS ALL SYSTEMS is downgraded to run on the lowest common denominator or you do what Google and PSNow are doing anyway and render the entire game remotely. There is no way to get around the technical mechanics of modern games unless you want a game with crappy play mechanics but "looks next-gen". And that's why we have to read past the marketing speak everytime Microsoft starts talking to us like we are idiots. It's feeling like kinect, always online, power of the cloud all over again. They assume their audience doesn't have a fundamental understanding of how computers or networks work and talk about things that aren't realistic because they don't realize that anyone with two brain cells to rub together knows you can't run high level PC/Console physics locally on the free Cricket android phone you get for signing up...

This doesn't even take into account the added development and cost complexity of attempting to split your game out like that and then determine which devices which splices are able to run on. But ignoring all of that, the burden of proof remains on Microsoft who have yet to give a hands on to the general public. I'm certainly open to seeing a better way to do game streaming and if Microsoft is claiming their way is "better" just like they did with Kinect and "Power of the Cloud" then they need to prove it to everyone and not just have On-stage announcements. Google had their streaming service out in the wild. Sony technically has been letting gamers stream games over the internet for 13 years now. They had PS3 to PSP remote play over the internet back in 2016. I'm not asking for MS to do a fancy presentation, I'm asking them to put up their solution if they claim they have the best solution.

The fact is, they've shown us nothing but the above play video. But they had a fancy presentation.... while their competitors put controllers in gamers hands.

@Steppy_76:

What’s the assumption? How is xCloud doing anything more complicated than a thin client????? Who’s the one assuming xCloud is more “complicated” than a thin client??

As it stands now MS is doing the exact thing Sony did 5 years ago in 2014 by putting blade servers made of its last gen devices up basically rdp into them.

MS is only claiming public betas in 2019, not launch. It could be 2020 by the time the service launches and based on their own strategy of putting XB1 servers in the cloud it would be eerily similarly to what Sony did with PSNow at launch, again 5 years ago.

I don't think anyone is assuming what the service will be like short of whatever it is right now, it doesn't seem that MS is confident enough to beta it like Sony did at CES in 2014 or Google did when it released Google Stream Beta's into the wild. Remember Sony Announced and gave live hands on demos of their service at the same event in 2014. Google announced theirs in October 2018 and also released the live beta's that same month.

Just for context, Microsoft announced their service in the beginning of October 2018 along with Google... The public at large has yet to get their hands on the product and this is the best we've seen from MS in terms of anything "functional".

@Nonstop-Madness: @lundy86_4:

Pretty much, right now Google is leading with public trials already done out in the wild. I was part of part of Project Stream and it works well. I’m looking forward to the three way race because I think it will make all offerings better.

Right now I’m sticking with PSNow as I think I already see what Sony is aiming for based on the past 5 years of using PSnow but I’m firming in camp Google as their nearest competitor. GDC may tell us just how close they are as they already have a placeholder for something that doesn’t go live until GDC.

@i_p_daily:

Its more likely that most gamespot users are not in those regions so it wouldn't apply to them.

As for the service I use it daily in conjunction with iOS remote play.

@kadin_kai:

There is an app but they need one for forums

@ellos: @sakaixx:

Nah if you look at 1:27 you see a hard brake where the car drifts and even gives off smoke as you see the speedometer decrease drastically. Yet you can clearly see from both angles her fingers aren’t touching the brake and from the front angle they aren’t even near them. She’s not playing.

@BigBadBully:

I kinda explained before why that kinda of AI movement prediction isn’t really feasible as it would require essentially two copies of the game running. The copy you are seeing and then the copy you are sending input commands to, the game would have to run “ahead” of your input and already be sending a visual frame of what it anticipating you would do, it would then need to correct if it guessed wrong which would also be another level of confusing even if we ignored the technical barriers of running two copies of the same game simultaneously.

No guys, remember Microsoft is the obvious untouchable market leader in game streaming with an instant Azure network infrastructure. They are the obvious pros with a clear edge in this market. Why would they need to fake having a streaming game service? /s