Cloud gaming will become the trend of future game development. What is the experience of Microsoft's xCloud?

If we talk about the most popular gaming concept in recent years, cloud gaming is definitely the one most often mentioned by players. With the continuous increase in smartphone users, more and more manufacturers have joined the ranks of cloud gaming, including Microsoft, Sony, Nvidia, Google, Tencent, NetEase and other manufacturers have launched their own cloud gaming products, which seems to indicate that cloud gaming will become one of the trends in the future development of games.

Yesterday morning, Microsoft officially announced that its cloud gaming service xCloud is now available to Apple and PC users. From now on, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members in 22 countries and regions around the world will be able to play hundreds of games in the Xbox Game Pass service through iPhone, iPad, Mac and PC, which is good news for mobile phone, tablet and low-end computer users.

Of course, the controversy surrounding cloud gaming services is inseparable from its own defects. According to Microsoft, they have made significant improvements to the overall experience of cloud gaming, hoping to achieve the lowest input delay and the highest quality experience across a large number of cloud devices. So does cloud gaming really have a chance to become a form of entertainment accepted by the public this time? Let's experience it.

How to play xCloud?

Prior to this, due to Apple's App Store policy, cloud gaming services such as Google's Stadia, Microsoft's xCloud, Nvidia's GeForce Now, and Sony's PS Now were basically not available on iOS. To this day, affected by Apple's App Store policy, the iOS version of the XGP app still cannot start cloud gaming like Android. Because of this, how to play the xCloud service has become the first reaction of many gamers after hearing the news.

In the end, Microsoft took a different approach. Since there is no way to put cloud gaming apps on the shelves, it is better to abandon cloud gaming apps directly. Now, iOS devices can access the xCloud web version service through the Safari browser, and can choose to operate it with touch or controller. PC users can use Edge or Chrome browsers to play the web version of the service, which supports the use of controllers.

However, even if the xCloud service can be started normally, there are still three points that players need to pay attention to if they want to play the game smoothly. First, although there are about 50 games on the iOS version that support touch operation, most games still do not support touch operation. In other words, whether you are an iOS user or a PC user, if you want to achieve the full xCloud experience, you must bring your own game controller.

Secondly, xCloud is a cloud gaming service for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members, so you need to be a member to experience it. Currently, the XGP service is on sale, and you can get a three-month membership for just $1/HKD10, which is a great opportunity to experience rental gaming services.

Finally, according to Microsoft's official introduction, xCloud services are now available in 22 countries and regions around the world, but for various reasons, the service scope does not currently include China. In other words, you need to switch to the US region to experience the xCloud service. Once the game library page is loaded, you can still stream normally even if you switch back to the domestic network, which is quite conscientious.

What is the xCloud experience like?

Before we begin, we still need to introduce the network environment and test equipment as usual. Our company uses 500MB telecom broadband, and the main router is TP-LINK 2600M 5G tri-band wireless enterprise router. The overall network speed is quite good. The device involved in this test is GPD WIN 2, a Windows mini handheld with an integrated graphics card. It has low performance and is an ideal audience for xCloud services.

Open the Edge browser, type in the Xbox Cloud Gaming official website, log in to your Microsoft account, and a huge game library will instantly appear in front of the player. When the xCloud service was first tested, Microsoft only provided four games for user experience: Gears of War 5, Halo 5, Sea of ​​Thieves, and Killer Instinct. The poor game library was obviously not attractive enough for users.

Now, Microsoft is clearly aware of this problem. According to Xiaolei's statistics, Microsoft has expanded the xCloud content library to 267 games, including not only the XGP PC game lineup, but also the old Xbox and Xbox 360 game lineups, which were previously unavailable on PC. Despite the lack of EA game lineup, we can still say that the current xCloud game library is basically comparable to the XGP game library.

In terms of games, Xiao Lei chose the recently launched "Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance" to experience. First of all, we can feel the loading speed of xCloud games. Basically, it can be loaded and enter the game interface within 15 seconds. The game interface of "Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance" is exactly the same as the original game, but there is no picture option in the game settings, after all, it is a console version of the game.

Entering the game, we can intuitively feel the disadvantage of cloud gaming in terms of picture quality. Due to the limitation of network latency, most xCloud games currently have no picture quality options. Only some games upgraded to Xbox Series X hardware can support 1080P/60 frames, and the game "Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance" we are running only has a picture effect of 720P-900P/30 frames.

If you stand still and only look at the game screen, there is basically no lag when the characters move and the flags flutter in the background. As long as the player moves, there is still a certain sense of lag in the operation, and there will be screen tearing when moving the perspective. Although it is difficult to perform a decent combo under the operation delay, there is no problem with the smoothness of the game itself, and it is indeed playable.

Then, Xiao Lei changed the mobile phone's 5G network hotspot and used "Pro Evolution Soccer 2021" for testing. After the network speed was improved, the game's operation delay did improve, and players could at least play a decent offensive match on the training ground. However, the image quality of the xCloud version of this game is so degraded that the players and the ground are basically blurred, which is hard to satisfy.

Finally, like all other existing cloud gaming services, xCloud itself has very high requirements for network speed. Although Xiaolei's test environment is ideal enough, as long as there is network fluctuation, the game quality will be blurred and stuck. For ordinary users, how to meet the network requirements of cloud gaming is indeed a big problem.

Summarize

After experiencing it, Xiao Lei feels that the current xCloud service still has too high demands on players, but the gaming experience it can provide to players is too little. This service cannot actually meet the gaming needs of "old consoles" and "low-spec computers" as Microsoft claims.

For low-end computers, the gaming experience brought by using the xCloud service may not even be as smooth and clear as running games with the integrated graphics card. Even on GPD WIN 2, the effect of running Pro Evolution Soccer may be much better than the xCloud service. For older consoles, the Xbox One itself can run all the game content in the xCloud game library. Even without parameter settings such as ray tracing/120 frames, the local game experience is still much better than cloud gaming.

Of course, xCloud is not without merit. Whether at home or abroad, there are always very few users who are willing to spend money to buy equipment to play games, but there are many users holding Android/Apple smart devices. What cloud games need to do is to allow people to play 3A top masterpieces with a 2,000 yuan mobile phone. This will not only help the popularization of 3A games, but also promote the further development of the game market.

In addition, the click-and-play nature of xCloud also saves ordinary players a lot of trial and error time. The biggest feature of Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is the diverse, large, and mixed rental game library. In the past, players needed to download and experience the game before they knew whether it suited their taste. Now, you only need to start the xCloud experience, confirm that the game suits your taste, and then download it. This is indeed a lot more convenient.

As the saying goes, the beginning is always the hardest. Personally, I think Microsoft's xCloud model should be the cloud gaming model that is closest to success in the industry.

First, compared to cloud gaming platforms like Google Stadia, which require players to pay monthly fees and purchase game content, Microsoft xCloud itself is a benefit provided to XGPU members, and has huge advantages in terms of price and game library. Secondly, Google Stadia, a pure cloud gaming platform, has too few users interested, while XGPU is basically a must-have membership service for every Xbox player, and it almost crushes its competitors in terms of the number of users.

However, even Microsoft has not performed very well in terms of "network latency", the most critical issue for cloud gaming services. At present, even if the user's home network speed is sufficient, occasional network fluctuations will cause continuous screen freezes and low bitrate images, seriously affecting the cloud gaming experience. Only when 5G networks are popular enough, there may be a chance to solve this problem.

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