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michaelmikado

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#1 michaelmikado
Member since 2019 • 406 Posts

Ive already poated this but im in the two sku camp. First the things we know. The next Xbox FAMILY is called scarlett. Xbox also said their next Xbox will share silicon with their Azure servers.

Ive always stated MSs low end (mainline) console will be navi based around 6-8Tflops. With Navis x1.25 ipc boost it will be a decent upgrade. We als head the terms x2 and x4 performance spoken by MS.

Anyway, lowend Lockhart will be lower than PS5, use Navi and GDDR6. High end anaconda will use Vega 64 with HBM2. Both will use Zen 2. Anaconda will out perform ps5 in raw Tflops.

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#2 michaelmikado
Member since 2019 • 406 Posts

I’m about to sign up for this but may get EA access instead for PC. Is that unified with Xbox? Can I use the same sub for both?

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#3 michaelmikado
Member since 2019 • 406 Posts

Huge proponent of the sub services for games. Depending on what happens today with game pass I might get another an Xbox and game pass.

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#4 michaelmikado
Member since 2019 • 406 Posts

The data caps are literally the least of the concerns the service.

That said I wonder how they are going to handle f2p games if they support them at all.

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#5 michaelmikado
Member since 2019 • 406 Posts

@boxrekt:

mbps is the unit of measure.

It literally stands for megabits per second.

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#6 michaelmikado
Member since 2019 • 406 Posts

@xantufrog said:

@michaelmikado: "On a $60 game the royalty would be around $18 which would likely be used to cover the cost of streaming it. The only issue with this approach is that there is little reason to incentive reducing game prices over time because that would also reduce royalties. I expect games to remain full price for longer if not indefinitely in order for the "free" method to remain fiscally viable."

This is a really important point - especially for PC where games tend to have steep and frequent discounts on the digital stores. While everyone seems to be throwing their controller at the screen over internet speeds, this seems like a more real issue.

To the internet speed thing: I think it's almost a non-issue. You can throw stats up about how few people have the right internet speed - but note that most of those people aren't the audience for this product in the first place. The correct stat, which I've never seen anyone post, is what % of *core gamers* has the required speeds. And what % of core gamers is interested in game streaming?

My guess: something like 90% of core gamers in the US who would ever be interested in this product in the first place DO have the requisite internet speed. Does anyone honestly think Google is releasing this without having done any such market research?

Also, sidebar - don't forget Google is selling its own internet service - and that has the requisite speeds and NO data caps. Stadia isn't being sold in a vacuum - it's part of a bigger Google product family

Correct, the inability to discount will be the hardest sale.. All digital distributions models gained widespread success because of the ECONOMIC advantages. Netflix took off, not because people wanted to watch movies from their computers, but because they could watch 100s/1000s of movies and shows from their computers of $8 a month. Steam, didn't take off because it was digital distribution. It took off because you have humble bundles and other deals where people are literally getting huge libraries of games for pennies. Stadia will have to overcome this important hurdle to be truly competitive. However I am interested to see where it goes.

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#7 michaelmikado
Member since 2019 • 406 Posts

@Grey_Eyed_Elf:

And this is a correct assessment. The reason Steam is so popular is because they can offer tons of games at cheap prices. With Stradia the cost of the game is built into the service. I’ve said it before but I doubt their games will drop in price like most consumers expect. Now if it integrated directly with my steam account I might bite. For the price of this service I could rent a shadow or any cloud GPU windows machine and run my existing steam library.

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#8 michaelmikado
Member since 2019 • 406 Posts

@Star67: no your account would just revert to the free tier

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#9 michaelmikado
Member since 2019 • 406 Posts

So it seems the economics of streaming rises again...

First I will preface this with the same thing I've always said. Gaming rigs in the cloud that run 1080P games are going to cost approximately $1.25 per gaming hour no matter who you are. There will be fluctuations of course with 720P streams running around $0.75 per gaming hour and 4K streams running close to $2 per gaming hour. As well as competitor pricing, however the disparity will be measured in pennies, not dollars.

As far as the business model is concerned, it makes sense. First the free method which is relatively straight forward. You can only purchase games through the Stradia store. The typical royalty is 30% for game stores like PSN or Xbox store. On a $60 game the royalty would be around $18 which would likely be used to cover the cost of streaming it. The only issue with this approach is that there is little reason to incentive reducing game prices over time because that would also reduce royalties. I expect games to remain full price for longer if not indefinitely in order for the "free" method to remain fiscally viable.

Next the increased price for 4K access just makes sense based on the cost of server time to run those rigs. On a typical 20 hour a month gaming regiment it would add about $0.50 cost per game hour. Ultimately not a bad setup but I would need to see the "free" games offered in the subscription. If its 1-2 decent quality games per month it may be worth having a go at it. However I do not anticipate triple A titles to be offered "free".

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#10 michaelmikado
Member since 2019 • 406 Posts

@Gatygun said:
@michaelmikado said:

@Gatygun:

This is a nuts hot take, unless PCs switch to AMD in mass the majority of PCs built will be quad core for the next few years so you wouldn’t get much out of an 8 core 16 thread part anyway. Intel isn’t even on 7nm yet to even make mass adoption of octacore feasible for most of the world.

U clearly never experienced a generational shift.

Hmm that’s funny I don’t remember the minimum spec for all games suddenly shooting up to octacore processors with the introduction of XBO and PS4? I wonder why that is....