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Xbox One

Microsoft is reportedly preparing a brace of hardware options for 2022, including a new standalone Xbox console — call information technology Xbox Next, since the company's numbering scheme is tied to phases of the moon, astrological signs, and where LeBron James is playing (as near equally nosotros can tell). But at that place's also talk of a new streaming platform and a few new details on this system have trickled out. Both systems are codenamed Scarlett — the name refers to a family of products — merely we're focused on the streaming system today.

Scarlett will piece of work with something Microsoft is calling the Scarlett Cloud, co-ordinate to Thurrott.com. Cloud gaming demonstrations aren't annihilation new; there was a ton of talk in the run-up to the final generation virtually whether streaming games or physical hardware would win the market place. Microsoft notably bet desperately when they deployed the Xbox I, and it's paid for its hubris this generation with lifetime Xbox OneSEEAMAZON_ET_135 See Amazon ET commerce sales less than one-half of what the PS4SEEAMAZON_ET_135 See Amazon ET commerce has racked up. (That's as best as anyone can figure — Microsoft, keen to avert being painted as a loser quarter afterwards quarter, refuses to disembalm its total number of Xbox One shipments.) Evidently, Microsoft want to attempt again.  Hither's how Thurrot.com describes the new hardware:

Scarlett Cloud every bit one person called it, is the game streaming service that we take all been envisioning ever since Microsoft showed off a demo game streaming at its all-employee meeting dorsum in 2022. But this time, Microsoft has a path to bring information technology to marketplace.

The 2d 'console' that the company is working on is a lower-powered device that is currently planned to ship with the side by side generation device that is designed for game-streaming. But the catch hither is that Microsoft thinks it has figured out how to handle the latency sensitive aspects of gaming.

The cloud console volition have a limited amount of compute locally for specific tasks like controller input, epitome processing, and importantly, collision detection. The downside of this is that it since more hardware is needed locally, it will enhance the toll of the streaming box but it volition still cost significantly less than what we are accustomed to paying for a new-generation console which should help expand the platform's reach.

This just isn't a crazy idea. In fact, it sounds similar a buffed upwards version of what we do already, with client-server synchronization models. Instead of streaming a literal H.265 game stream and playing it back through a video decoder with handheld controller support (which is what you basically need for a streaming solution), Microsoft wants to exercise some processing locally while handing off the rest to the remote servers. It's not even articulate how much GPU horsepower this kind of console would need. "Image processing" could refer to CPU-based post-processing and collision detection and controller support are also obviously handled on the GPU.

Could MS finally use tech information technology claimed would announced in Crackdown three (originally expected in 2022, now set to release in 2022)?

We're not suggesting that the console wouldn't accept a GPU, merely that it might non need all that much hardware in comparing with the "premium" offering. The thought here is that function of the game lawmaking would be running locally and part remotely, with backend servers stitching the two together. Calling this an AI or ML-driven chore may be a stretch — it'due south certainly possible that we'll see brands swoop to rebrand everything with "AI" the aforementioned fashion cloud computing pushed firms to suddenly discover cloud-related necktie-ins they could leverage for brand direction — but it'south also possible that Microsoft has ideas for this process that would qualify it as AI/ML. And all Scarlett games will run on all Scarlett devices. There's no chance of MS fielding a title that only works on the offline version of the console.

At present read: The Best Gratis Xbox One Games