Microsoft Is Playing Halo 4 On Windows Phones

[Cognimancer]

Microsoft Is Playing Halo 4 On Windows Phones

Microsoft has some kind of streaming service in the works, and reports say the prototype is already providing smooth gameplay on smartphones.

Streaming games is a pretty big deal these days. Between Sony's Gaikai technology and Valve's new SteamOS [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/128065-Valve-Reveals-SteamOS], Microsoft is starting to feel left out - but not for much longer. Microsoft demoed a prototype streaming service at an internal company meeting, which reportedly involved smoothly streaming Halo 4 gameplay to a low-end PC and a Windows Phone. The phone (a Lumia 520) was able to play the game using an Xbox controller adaptor with latency as low as 45ms, so this prototype might be further along than you'd think.

Microsoft officials say that this service is too early in development to discuss, as it doesn't even have a publicly-released name yet. Still, this progress on a cloud gaming service echoes some of the company's earlier statements about using streaming to provide backwards compatibility on the Xbox One. It seems Microsoft isn't sure how exactly it will put this technology to use - streaming from the cloud to devices as small as smartphones has a lot of potential applications for Microsoft's gaming businesses.

The requirement of playing a game on the same machine that's powering the game is starting to look like a thing of the past. Microsoft's goal seems to be low-latency streaming to any Windows device, which could challenge the usefulness of SteamOS if Windows-to-Xbox streaming catches on. It's far too early to say, but the cloud could be getting very crowded soon.

Source: The Verge [http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/26/4774418/microsoft-demonstrates-halo-4-streaming-from-the-cloud-to-windows-and]

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[008Zulu_v1legacy]

How long would a phone's battery last with the wifi radio on and constantly streaming a game like Halo 4? Two hours, maybe? Would be simpler to just play the game on the console, or, make a PC port to take advantage of the higher performance they are capable of.

It's all well and good both Steam and Microsoft making streaming devices, but the battery life of phones and tablets means that serious gamers (CoD, Halo, GTA, etc multiplayers which seem to be the core of Microsoft's latest gaming push) won't adopt it.

 

[Cecilo]

Microsoft - Brings Halo 4 to a phone, refuses to bring it to PC. We supported you through iterations of Windows, helped make you successful, and now you mock us by putting a decent FPS on a phone instead of bringing it to PC. Just amazing.

 

[RicoADF]

The biggest question, what was the phone bill that month? The amount of data needed to stream would use up any phone data cap within hours....

Captcha: let go, indeed these idiots need to give up on streaming and focus on good games.

 

[CpT_x_Killsteal]

Chances are are even if this is half decent, it won't work in 90-95% of Australia because our internet is quite a bit behind. And with Abbot it'll stay that way....

 

[TheIceQueen]

Oh, sure, you'll bring to the phone, but you won't bring it to the PC. Yeah, I love you, too, Microsoft.

 

[9thRequiem]

Microsoft - Brings Halo 4 to a phone, refuses to bring it to PC. We supported you through iterations of Windows, helped make you successful, and now you mock us by putting a decent FPS on a phone instead of bringing it to PC. Just amazing.

Oh, sure, you'll bring to the phone, but you won't bring it to the PC. Yeah, I love you, too, Microsoft.

From the article :

which reportedly involved smoothly streaming Halo 4 gameplay to a low-end PC and a Windows Phone.

By the looks of things, I would guess that this will be available to PCs, Surface-tablets, Windows Phones, and Xbox One.

An interesting idea if it goes anywhere, but as this is still at the "Internal Demo" stage, I'm not going to get excited just yet. There's the real risk that by the time this becomes available, the games they have on there will be outdated.

Although if they have Xbox One games available for streaming, I would be very, very interested; as someone who isn't going to be getting the new generation of consoles, this would be perfect if it could fill the gap in games not available on PC...

 

[TheIceQueen]

Microsoft - Brings Halo 4 to a phone, refuses to bring it to PC. We supported you through iterations of Windows, helped make you successful, and now you mock us by putting a decent FPS on a phone instead of bringing it to PC. Just amazing.

Oh, sure, you'll bring to the phone, but you won't bring it to the PC. Yeah, I love you, too, Microsoft.

From the article :

which reportedly involved smoothly streaming Halo 4 gameplay to a low-end PC and a Windows Phone.

By the looks of things, I would guess that this will be available to PCs, Surface-tablets, Windows Phones, and Xbox One.

An interesting idea if it goes anywhere, but as this is still at the "Internal Demo" stage, I'm not going to get excited just yet. There's the real risk that by the time this becomes available, the games they have on there will be outdated.

Although if they have Xbox One games available for streaming, I would be very, very interested; as someone who isn't going to be getting the new generation of consoles, this would be perfect if it could fill the gap in games not available on PC...

I read the article and what I took from it was cloud streaming nonsense that I don't want. Oh, sure, it can be streamed onto a low-end PC, but I don't want to take part in the cloud or streaming.

 

[Deshin]

How in the frozen wastes of Niflheim are you supposed to play an fps on a phone? Are phone controls even remotely suitable for the task? Heck wont touchscreen controls ruin the ability to see properly what's on screen? I can't imagine most will be lugging around control adapters or stuff like that. >.>

Microsoft - Brings Halo 4 to a phone, refuses to bring it to PC. We supported you through iterations of Windows, helped make you successful, and now you mock us by putting a decent FPS on a phone instead of bringing it to PC. Just amazing.

Oh, sure, you'll bring to the phone, but you won't bring it to the PC. Yeah, I love you, too, Microsoft.

Come on guys, it's right there in the actual post:

Microsoft demoed a prototype streaming service at an internal company meeting, which reportedly involved smoothly streaming Halo 4 gameplay to a low-end PC and a Windows Phone. The phone (a Lumia 520) was able to play the game using an Xbox controller adaptor with latency as low as 45ms, so this prototype might be further along than you'd think.

It's just streaming graphical output and control input over network, which is what SteamOS also wants to do. Honestly this is a good step, I'm a huge fan of more network integrated devices in a user's home and the more companies that go into this the better the technology will become for everyone when it becomes a staple of a home network.

 

[TheIceQueen]

How in the frozen wastes of Niflheim are you supposed to play an fps on a phone? Are phone controls even remotely suitable for the task? Heck wont touchscreen controls ruin the ability to see properly what's on screen? I can't imagine most will be lugging around control adapters or stuff like that. >.>

Microsoft - Brings Halo 4 to a phone, refuses to bring it to PC. We supported you through iterations of Windows, helped make you successful, and now you mock us by putting a decent FPS on a phone instead of bringing it to PC. Just amazing.

Oh, sure, you'll bring to the phone, but you won't bring it to the PC. Yeah, I love you, too, Microsoft.

Come on guys, it's right there in the actual post:

Microsoft demoed a prototype streaming service at an internal company meeting, which reportedly involved smoothly streaming Halo 4 gameplay to a low-end PC and a Windows Phone. The phone (a Lumia 520) was able to play the game using an Xbox controller adaptor with latency as low as 45ms, so this prototype might be further along than you'd think.

It's just streaming graphical output and control input over network, which is what SteamOS also wants to do. Honestly this is a good step, I'm a huge fan of more network integrated devices in a user's home and the more companies that go into this the better the technology will become for everyone when it becomes a staple of a home network.

I literally just answered that very same thing a post before you. I don't care about streaming. I don't care about the cloud. I don't care about SteamOS either. I live in a rural area, so my internet gets taxed enough as it is.

Edit: Would you prefer me to say 'Oh, sure, you'll stream it to us, but you won't actually give it to us? It's pretty much the same thing as what I originally said, given this is Microsoft and they're well-known for treating PC gamers like yesterday's news.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

I think you folks missed the point. It was a tech demo, not a "We're bringing Halo 4 to phones" demo. Meaning they have the tech and can stream games to mobile devices AND (if you read the fucking article) low-end PC's with minimal latency. Future of gaming? Maybe not, but it may be a relief for people who can't afford a high-end PC and still want to play games. Of course, reading comprehension is tossed out the window because its an article about Microsoft...

 

[TiberiusEsuriens]

How long would a phone's battery last with the wifi radio on and constantly streaming a game like Halo 4? Two hours, maybe? Would be simpler to just play the game on the console, or, make a PC port to take advantage of the higher performance they are capable of.

It's all well and good both Steam and Microsoft making streaming devices, but the battery life of phones and tablets means that serious gamers (CoD, Halo, GTA, etc multiplayers which seem to be the core of Microsoft's latest gaming push) won't adopt it.

Yeah, I have a Lumia 822 and when playing full 3D games the battery life is <= 2 hours. compound that with a battery that is notorius for losing charge 6 months in and it will be a neat albeit useless service. Even when charging the 3D rendering tech drains it faster than it can replenish.

Since it says they've developed an adapter for Xbox controllers on phone/tablet I see this potentially finally giving the surface the gaming boost it always wanted... now just if they fixed the ability to install games on those. Streaming is becoming a big deal, but not for the young audience. It's currently more for the family man/woman who has to share screen time with hubby and kids.

Either way I consider this a good thing, if not for anything else than competition. It means a bigger push to actually make something worthwhile at cheaper prices.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

Microsoft news about Halo 4?.

Microsoft mentioned in the article, hate ensues, Halo 4 not on PC since it's an exclusive, more hate ensues.

never change PC only people, never change.