Yesterday, 343 Industries kicked off a series of monthly “Inside Infinite” updates to provide insights on the development on the next Halo game, now expected in Fall 2021 on Xbox consoles and PC. The blog post is a long interview with members of the Sandbox team, which is tasked with creating all the vehicles, equipment, weapons, and objects players will interact with in Halo Infinite.

While the blog post is pretty light on new details overall, the Sandbox team shared some interesting comments about 343 Industries’ in-house Slipspace Engine, which has apparently been rebuilt after the prior version was too focused on optimizing things for last-gen Xbox One consoles. Here’s what Game Foundation Architect Daniele Giannetti said in yesterday’s blog post:

Here’s something that excites me as an engineering architect: For Halo Infinite, we rebuilt the engine multi-threading solution to ensure high execution efficiency across all platforms and PCs, instead of running optimally just on Xbox One. We used this new system to transition the renderer to a massively parallel multi-threaded framework to support the increased cost of all our new rendering features and achieve high graphics efficiency on PC CPUs of various size as well as Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One X/S hardware. In practice, this means that we are doing our very best to make sure Halo Infinite runs optimally on any device you may choose to play on! –

Halo Infinite was officially announced at E3 2018, which was before Microsoft revealed its next-gen Xbox consoles. The first E3 2018 cinematic trailer was made with 343 Industries’ brand new Slipspace engine and looked really impressive at the time. However, the visual downgrades were quite obvious in the first Halo Infinite gameplay demo we saw back in July, which was actually running on a PC. The poor reaction led 343 Industries to delay the game to 2021, and after seeing Cyberpunk 2077’s horrible performance on last gen consoles last month, many Halo fans are still wondering if shipping Halo Infinite on Xbox One is actually a good idea.

According to the Sandbox team, things seem to be doing well within 343 Industries right now. “All of our launch content is in-game and being played daily but it takes a strong effort to get something from 90% to a full 100% ship quality. So, we are pushing hard to squash bugs and tune our toys so they are in a good spot as we get closer and closer to launch (and public flighting before that),” said Quinn DelHoyo, Lead Sandbox Designer at 343 Industries.

We’re really looking forward to getting more details about how Halo Infinite will run across platforms. 343 Industries announced back in July that the game would run in 4K at 60FPS on the Xbox Series X, and that’s pretty much all we’ve heard so far. 343 Industries also announced yesterday that Halo Infinite would allow players to fully rebind and remap their controls regardless of platform, which will be a first for a Halo game.

We hope the team will be back with more exciting information next month. Future “Inside Infinite” updates should be published on Halo Waypoint, the last Thursday of every month going forward, and we definitely recommend Halo fans to take the time to read the first one here.

The new Chromium-based Edge browser is now receiving new features at a much faster pace, with Microsoft opting for a 6-week release cycle. The company has maintained a Microsoft Edge release schedule for the Beta and Stable channels and an Enterprise roadmap for customers for quite some time.

In a new blog post published yesterday, Microsoft has reiterated its ambition to keep enthusiasts and consumers informed about upcoming features. As it turns out, the company has redesigned the “What’s Next” page available on the Edge Insider website, and we now have a more detailed feature roadmap for the browser.

“We have been working on improving the release notes and will continue to investigate changes that we can make to be more immediate and descriptive. For the roadmap, we are happy to announce that in addition to the Enterprise focused roadmap we have revamped the What’s Next page on our insider website,” the company explained.

The updated “What’s Next” section details almost all the new features the company aims to ship in the first half of 2021. “We published the first set of items there before the end of the year and will be updating with each Beta release as they come out,” the Microsoft Edge team said yesterday.

Microsoft believes that this should be a useful resource for people going forward, and it will keep them informed about when the Microsoft Edge team plans to release important updates for the Beta and Stable channels. You can find more details about upcoming features on the Microsoft Edge Insider website.

Back in 2015, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates gave a much talked-about TED talk where he predicted that the world wasn’t ready to handle a worldwide pandemic. Fast forward to 2021, it turns out that Gates pretty much hit the nail on the head as the world is still dealing with a brutal COVID-19 outbreak that has now claimed the lives of over 2 million people.

If this pandemic has led to unprecedented breakthroughs with several vaccines being already available, we’ve also seen an unprecedented amount of conspiracy theories about the origins of the virus, with many of them claiming that the Microsoft co-founder and his allies created this pandemic to make money and take control of people through vaccines.

In a recent interview with Reuters, Bill Gates said that he had been appalled by the propagation of these “crazy” and “evil” conspiracy theories, which also accused US immunologist Anthony Fauci of many terrible things. “Nobody would have predicted that I and Dr. Fauci would be so prominent in these really evil theories,” Gates said. “I’m very surprised by that. I hope it goes away.”

‘Do people really believe that stuff?’ — Bill Gates is speaking out about the absurd COVID-19 conspiracy theories that he and Dr. Fauci have faced during the pandemic pic.twitter.com/oWPOgtPD9D

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) January 29, 2021

Through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Microsoft co-founder has so far pledged to contribute at least $1.75 billion to support the various efforts to put an end to the COVID-19 pandemic, including better diagnostics, new treatments, and vaccines. Gates is also supportive of the new Biden administration, praising the fact that the new US president has “appointed smart people, and the fact that Dr. Fauci won’t be suppressed.”

The various conspiracy theories about Bill Gates probably won’t go away anytime soon, and the Microsoft co-founder seems to be still scratching his head about them to this day. “But do people really believe that stuff?,” Gates asked. “We’re really going to have to get educated about this over the next year and understand .. how does it change peoples’ behaviour and how should we have minimized this?”

One of the benefits of being 65 is that I’m eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine. I got my first dose this week, and I feel great. Thank you to all of the scientists, trial participants, regulators, and frontline healthcare workers who got us to this point. pic.twitter.com/67SIfrG1Yd

— Bill Gates (@BillGates) January 22, 2021

Last week, Bill Gates, who is 65 years old, made public the fact that he received his first shot of the COVID-19 vaccine. “I got my first dose this week, and I feel great. Thank you to all of the scientists, trial participants, regulators, and frontline healthcare workers who got us to this point,” the Microsoft co-founder said.

The Medium, the first Xbox Series X|S exclusive game of 2021 has been released yesterday on Microsoft’s next-gen consoles, in addition to Windows PCs. The game is also available on day one on Xbox Game Pass, and it will be followed later this year by other exclusive titles from third-party developers such as Scorn or Warhammer 40K: Darktide.

The Medium is the latest game from Polish developer Bloober Team, who earned praise for its psychological horror games including Layers of Fear and Blair Witch. Even though The Medium isn’t an AAA game, it already has a special place in Xbox history as the first high-profile game from a third-party developer launching exclusively on Microsoft’s next-gen consoles.

Bloober Team actually delayed The Medium’s release date from December 10 to January 28 due to COVID-19, and to prevent the game from being overshadowed by CD Projekt Red’s much-anticipated Cyberpunk 2077. January is indeed a pretty quiet month for new games releases, and The Medium launching on day on Xbox Game Pass for Console and PC should also really help it to get more exposure.

Microsoft released its Xbox Series X|S consoles last fall without a big new exclusive game, and with Halo Infinite having been delayed to Fall 2021, many early adopters are still waiting to be blown away by a game with true next-gen graphics. The Medium isn’t exactly the best-looking game you can play on Xbox Series X|S consoles right now, but according to Bloober Team, it’s doing some unique things that wouldn’t have been possible on the previous console generation.

One of The Medium’s unique features is the dual reality gameplay that let you simultaneously move in the material world and the spirit world at certain points in the game. When that happens, the screen is split either vertically or horizontally to render both worlds at the same time, and that requires additional resources Xbox One consoles are lacking.

“Most other games that support split-screen displays two different instances of the same location. In The Medium, the real and the spirit worlds look completely different and use their own sets of graphical assets, such as models or textures. This is much more demanding in terms of memory, storage, and the rendering cost. Additionally, such effects as motion blur or ambient occlusion need to be calculated and rendered twice. All in all, the game requires a significant amount of VRAM and fast storage, much faster than what was used in the previous generation of hardware,” the Bloober Team explained.

I played The Medium on both the Xbox Series X and the Xbox Series S, and it’s a good looking game overall with the Series X version supporting ray-tracing reflections in select locations. According to Digital Foundry’s technical analysis, the game uses a dynamic resolution on both consoles: The Series X shows variations between 1440p and native 4K, while the Series S can vary between 900p and 1080p. However, the resolution drops significantly during dual-gameplay sequences, with the Series X reaching a minimum of 900p and the Series S sometimes dropping to an even lower 648p.

The game targets 30FPS on both consoles, and there’s no 60FPS Performance mode even on the Series X. Since The Medium is mostly a contemplative experience with close to none action sequences, I think it’s acceptable to trade smoother frame rates for a more detailed world. So far, I didn’t encounter any noticeable frame rate drops on both the Series X and the Series S, even during the more demanding dual reality gameplay sequences.

If The Medium is a third-person game, be aware that the game doesn’t use an “over-the-shoulder” camera. Instead, the game uses a dynamic camera that will follow you throughout the environment, and this can be quite disorienting at times. For me, this was an instant throwback to the old-school Resident Evil games and their even more obnoxious fixed camera angles, though The Medium didn’t inherit from these games’ tank controls.

Bloober Team’s game stars Marianne, a Medium who has the ability to see the world from two perspectives. The game doesn’t give you much about Marianne’s background, and it starts with its lead protagonist getting ready to go to a funeral home to say a last goodbye to her father. That’s when you’ll first experience The Medium’s dual-reality gameplay, with Marianne being able to speaker to her father in the alternate world before sending his spirit away.

After this short prologue, Marianne will get a phone call from a mysterious man named Thomas, who gets Marianne’s attention by mentioning details about her recurring nightmares. The man will ask Marianne to meet him in Niwa, a derelict vacation resort where Thomas is apparently being threatened by a mysterious force.

The Medium seems to be a very linear game overall, though you’ll often need to use Marianne’s “Insight” power to reveal clues like footsteps on the ground, or echoes from the past. Some objects in the game have auras, and Marianne can sense their stories by touching them. When arriving in Niwa, Marianne describes the soviet-looking complex as a landfill of memories, with strong energy all around.

You’ll encounter some of the game’s puzzles during the dual-reality gameplay sequences, and when you’ll exist in these two realities, you’ll be affected by both them: This means that when a door is locked in the real world, you won’t be able to go through that passage in the astral world even though this door is absent in this alternate reality. Solving the game’s puzzles will often require you to do some things in the astral world that will have consequences in the real world.

I didn’t go far enough to see if the game has a lot of these puzzles, but The Medium becomes really interesting once you reach the Niwa complex, a mysterious place that is also the subject of urban legend, the “Niwa massacre.” The Medium can feel like a walking simulator at times, especially if you try to find all items that still have traces of the people who were there, but the Niwa hotel instantly looks like a fascinating world to explore.

You probably shouldn’t expect big jumpscares or exciting action sequences, The Medium is a slow-paced game and that’s actually fine. The gameplay feels somewhat dated at times, with a camera that can get frustrating in closed spaces, but I’m still excited to spend more time in the game over the weekend.

The Medium is probably not going to be a system seller for Microsoft’s next-gen Xbox consoles, and I actually wouldn’t be surprised if the game eventually makes its way to the PlayStation 5, which reportedly has a bigger install base. It should still be good filler content for Xbox Game Pass, and you should definitely check it out if you’re looking for a new next-gen to play on your Xbox Series X or Series S console.

Download
QR-Code

The Medium

Developer:
Bloober Team S.A.

Price:
$49.99

Microsoft Teams may have become one of the most popular collaboration tools in just a couple of years, there’s still some room for improvement for the desktop app for Windows and Mac, which is built on the Electron platform. Since launch, Microsoft Teams users have been complaining about high memory usage on the desktop, especially when multiple apps in Teams are running simultaneously.

Fortunately, Microsoft is aware of these performance issues and the company is working to optimize the resource usage of Teams on the desktop. The company has confirmed on the Teams UserVoice forum that it’s actively investigating these performance issues, and substantial improvements are coming for Windows and Mac users.

“Improving performance across the board remains a topmost priority for us. We acknowledge there is more work to do,” a member of the Microsoft Teams engineering team wrote earlier this week. There’s no ETA available as to when these improvements will eventually go live, but the team will keep listening to user feedback to investigate performance problems in Teams.

Microsoft Teams also works well on the web, though some video conferencing features such as the new 2×2 gallery view were available first in the desktop app. Many users also prefer to have a native app that can operate in its own window, use native OS notifications and be pinned to the taskbar, and Microsoft Teams on the desktop will also soon allow users to add personal Microsoft accounts and switch between work accounts as well.

Do you prefer using the Microsoft Teams via the desktop app or the web app on your PC? Let us know in the comments if you’ve also encountered performance issues when using the desktop app.

The Medium, the much-anticipated psychological horror game from developer Bloober Team is now available on Xbox Series X|S consoles, PC, and Xbox Game Pass. This is the first Xbox Series X|S exclusive game of 2021, and it’s quite a looker on the Series X which has ray-tracing effects the Series S version of the game currently lacks.

The game was initially expected to be released last month on December 10 alongside Cyberpunk 2077, but the Polish developer delayed it to January 28 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and to avoid a situation where The Medium would be overshadowed by CD Projekt Red’s much-hyped game. We all know what happened ultimately with Cyberpunk 2077, which still sold very well despite the bad buzz, but Bloober Team probably made the right call by delaying The Medium to late January.

The Medium is a third-person game where you play Marianne, a medium who’s able to see an alternate reality called the spirit realm. This dual-reality gameplay is one of the reasons why The Medium is a next-gen only game, as the aging Xbox One hardware probably isn’t powerful enough for this unique gameplay that plays out across two worlds displayed at the same time.

Bloober Team previously earned praise for its previous horror games including Layers of Fear and Blair Witch, but The Medium received pretty mixed reviews so far, with several testers pointing out the convoluted story and some pretty dated gameplay mechanics. We’ll go hands-on with the game later today, so stay tuned to OnMSFT for our first impressions coming tomorrow.

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The Medium

Developer:
Bloober Team S.A.

Price:
Free

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Xbox Game Pass Ultimate

Developer:
Microsoft Corporation

Price:
$1.00

This week, Microsoft and PlayFab are celebrating their third year together. In the years since the January 2018 partnership began, the community has grown to include not only developers but big-name studios and engineers, too. James Gwertzman, General Manager for Gaming Cloud (Azure, PlayFab, GitHub, etc) at Microsoft looked into the three-year partnership in a new blog post.

Editor’s note: Be sure to tune in to the OnPodcast this Sunday, as we’ll be sitting down with James for a one on one interview!

For those unfamiliar, Azure PlayFab lets developers and game designers Build and operate live games with a single platform. PlayFab gives access to game services, data analytics, and LiveOps tools to launch faster, extend a game’s lifecycle, and reduce costs. It also supports LiveOps services and multiplayer environments across platforms, including Xbox, PlayStation, Stadia, PC, and mobile. Games like Minecraft, as well as Roblox and Spongebob: Krusty Cook-Off are using Azure PlayFab.

According to Gwertzman, since PlayFab joined Microsoft, the number of individual titles using Azure PlayFab has skyrocketed by almost 9 times. Active users playing games that leverage Azure PlayFab services have grown by almost 9 times as well, and PlayFab’s scalable services supported more than 129,000 requests per second (RPS) in December 2020.

As an example, in Minecraft, Azure PlayFab is used to bolster its in-game marketplace and scale its evolving customer experiences. And, in Roblox, Azure PlayFab is used to deliver analytics as a service to top developers on the Roblox platform. In addition, Doom Eternal, Rainbow Six Siege, Sea of Thieves, Dirt 5, and No Man’s Sky all rely on Azure PlayFab for their global reach.

With all this popularity in mind, PlayFab is announcing the launch of the PlayFab Anniversary Awards, too. The awards will honor the amazing indie studios. You can check out the Azure PlayFab website here for more.

In addition, PlayFab is announcing that starting on January 29, they’ll make available their Party plugin for Unity for developers creating games for Nintendo Switch, Sony PlayStation 4 and 5, Android, and iOS. That is also in addition to the Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows PC platforms which are already supported. “This means developers can seamlessly and effortlessly integrate Party with their Unity title across platforms, attracting and connecting more players and driving more engagement with their games,” said James Gwertzman.

Sea of Thieves has just received a new patch to kick off the launch of the game’s first season, and the new bits are also introducing a new 120FPS Performance mode on Xbox Series X consoles. Until now, the pirate game ran in a comfortable 4K at 60FPS on the Series X, and opting for the 120 FPS Performance will reduce the resolution to 1080p, just like on the Xbox Series S.

“Some TVs do not support 120Hz and HDR simultaneously, so HDR may need to be disabled from the Console Settings,” the developer noted in the release notes. If the Xbox Series S is also capable of running games at 120 FPS, the cheaper console is currently limited to running the pirate game at 1080p/60FPS, which remains good enough for most gamers.

If you have a TV or gaming monitor with a 120Hz refresh rate, playing games at 120 FPS can really make a difference, and it’s nice to see Sea of Thieves add this option on the Xbox Series X. Since the release of Microsoft’s Xbox Series X|S consoles in November, we’ve been seeing more and more cross-gen games add support for 120FPS, though this option is sometimes limited to the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5. Borderlands 3, Destiny 2, and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War are three other big games with a 120 FPS mode on the Series X that’s currently absent on the Series S.

In addition to this new Performance mode, this new patch introduces another permanent Voyage type, new time-limited in-game events, more cosmetics to unlock, and some gameplay improvements for the PvP Arena mode. Developer Rare announced back in December that the popular pirate game would transition to a new seasonal model, similar to what other live service games such as Fortnite have been doing in recent years.

Sea of Thieves Season One has begun!

???? New Seasonal progression system
???? 100 levels of Renown and rewards, free for all
???? Pirate Legend-exclusive unlocks
⚓ New Merchant Alliance Voyage type
???? Plunder Pass
☠ And more!

Learn all about this new era: https://t.co/cJ87QxSILF pic.twitter.com/dZTdtavmHJ

— Sea of Thieves (@SeaOfThieves) January 28, 2021

Sea of Thieves remains one of the most successful first-party games Microsoft released in recent years, and developer Rare explained that each new Season will last approximately three months and bring new gameplay features, rewards and Live events. The Plunder pass, an optional premium element will add even more rewards for the most dedicated pirates.

These days, there’s no shortage of cloud game streaming platforms. It’s often more convenient and less expensive to stream games over the internet for a fixed monthly price than it is to buy a dedicated gaming PC or a gaming console. Call it the new era of the “Netflix for gaming” if you may.

Over the years, we’ve seen Microsoft enter this emerging market with Xbox Cloud Gaming (code named Project xCloud,) Google with Stadia, Nvidia with GeForce Now, and Sony with PlayStation Now. But don’t forget Amazon.

Recently, the online retail giant started testing its own cloud gaming service, known as Luna. The service is still in beta, though, and only select users were invited to check it out. I happen to be one of the bunch of people who were selected, and after trying both Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud gaming as well as Google Stadia, I wondered, does Amazon does the game streaming best?

The requirements and the price

To begin, I’ll look at some of the obvious things for those that are curious: the streaming requirements and the price. According to Amazon, to use Luna, it’s suggested that you have an internet connection with a speed of at least 10 Mbps for 1080p video quality.

It’s suggested to use a wireless router with both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, though 5 GHz is best. This isn’t too surprising, as other game streaming services have the same requirements. I surpass both these, with my Verizon Fios connection that offers speeds of up to 100 Mbps.

Now, for the pricing. Currently, Luna is in a beta phase, so the pricing can be subject to change. However, there are two ways or “channels” that you can go. You can choose Luna+, which is from Amazon for $6.00 a month, or you can add the optional Ubisoft+ plan for $15 a month, which gives you access to hit-titles like Assassins Creed or Watch Dogs. Ubisoft+ is completely optional, though, and you can add it later if you want. With both together, you’ll be paying about $21 a month for Luna, but you can choose Luna+ only if you want for the cheaper route of $6 a month.

You can see some of the differences in pricing and what the two plans offer in the graphic above. With Luna+ games, you can stream in 2 devices at a time, however, with Ubisoft+ you’re limited to just 1 device at a time. Both ways to play also have a 1080p resolution at the time, as 4K is still coming soon.

Luna+ has access to a great library of games. You can check the full list here. There’s a total of 76 games, ranging from hit titles like Grid, Control, as well as Metro Exodus. That’s also including the ones from Ubisoft+, too. Titles in Luna are always changing though, just like any other streaming service. I’ll have a more in-depth look at that later when I compare it to Xbox Game Pass.

The apps and the availability

The biggest value with Amazon’s Luna is the availability across different platforms. You can download it as an app on Windows 10, MacOS, FireTV, and select Android phones. On iOS devices, meanwhile, you can play via the web in Safari, and create a shortcut to make a Luna “app” on your home screen. You even can access Luna on any PC you own via the web, as long as you use Chrome (Edge isn’t currently supported).

That said, one of the things that impressed me the most with Luna is the way it looks and feels on an iPhone. Though it’s being accessed via Safari, Luna behaves the same way it would as if were a dedicated app. There’s no lag, no refreshes, and no problems with games loading as I thought there would be with what comes with gaming from a webpage. This is especially true with the use of the Amazon Luna controller, which I’ll get into next.

The controller and the experience

Like Google has done with Stadia, Amazon sells an optional $50 controller for Luna that you can purchase if you’ve been selected for the beta. You can use any controller you want, though, and you’re not limited to just Amazon’s. Xbox One controllers, PlayStation 4 controllers, and even standard keyboard and mouse input are supported in Amazon Luna.

But there’s a special sauce here. According to Amazon, the Luna controller is able to use a “Cloud Direct Technology” that connects the controller directly to Amazon’s game servers when playing on Luna. The connection to the controller happens by pairing it via WiFi (or even a hotspot if you have one,) and it can reduce latency by 17 to 30 milliseconds, versus using a local Bluetooth Controller. This also allows you to pick up games and start playing across different devices like iPhone and PC without having to constantly re-pair the controller. Of course, it does also connect with Bluetooth, too, sans the Cloud Direct stuff, allowing you to play on a 5G or 4G connection on mobile.

The controller looks and feels like a Nintendo Switch Pro Controller or the Xbox One Controller. It has a USB-C port for wired connections (if you want the best lag-free experience) as well as a headphone jack on the bottom for gaming with headphones. Note that there’s a purple accent on the controller’s analog stick, and a purple LED in the home button, which I think is a nice nod to Twitch.

Anyway, in terms of streaming quality and experience, I was quite impressed. Despite my router being upstairs in my room, and me sitting in my living room on my sofa, I was able to stay connected and play Amazon Luna without any lag. I played several different games on Luna — Grid, Control, AO Tennis 2, and Sonic Mania Plus. All of these games played without any latency and loaded within five seconds of me opening the title from the launch screen.

I was especially pleased with the way Grid played with the Luna Controller, especially since racing games require precision control. Any delay in controller input can be disastrous on the race track. I didn’t notice any perceivable lag when making turns on the analog stick using the Luna Controller.

However, when switching to my Xbox One controller, or switching Luna Controller over to Bluetooth mode, there was just a tiny delay, resulting in one race where I miscalculated a turn and wrecked. You can’t really blame Amazon here, though. When using a standard Bluetooth connection, the device Luna is running on needs to do the computing, and send your Bluetooth signal and controller input directly over the internet, to the server. The Luna controller cuts that out by sending your inputs directly over the internet.

I also ended up playing Watch Dogs Legion via Ubisoft+ to see how Luna can handle a more demanding title. Visually, the graphics stayed sharp and smooth, without dropping out or becoming blurry. I didn’t see any input lag when playing on my iPhone, but when I switched over to my Surface, there was a tiny bit of lag, especially when driving a car around London. Generally speaking, though, Luna is very responsive and quite impressive.

Interestingly enough, Amazon has also found a way to include Twitch streams into Luna, too. When you go to play a game, you’ll see streams of people playing the same title, though from other platforms like Xbox, and not directly from Luna. It is important to note there is currently no way to stream your own game on Luna to Twitch, in the same way you could stream your game on Google Stadia to YouTube.

A final note for this section comes in terms of the games on Luna. Games seen on Luna+ aren’t ones you can physically buy to own. They’re in the catalog for free as long as Amazon keeps them there. That differs from Stadia Pro, where you can purchase some games to own them, in addition to playing them with Google Stadia Pro for $10 a month.

Luna vs Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming

With the premise of Luna explained, it’s time for the inevitable comparison with Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming. On this front, Luna really destroys Xbox Cloud Gaming when it comes to latency, loading times, platforms, and a lot more. Let’s dive deeper, shall we?

The first thing to discuss here is the loading times and latency. As Microsoft is streaming games to Xbox Cloud Gaming users with Xbox One S units plugged into server blades, there’s a lot of long wait and loading times to deal with. This is never a problem with Luna, where the games are stored on PCs connected to Amazon’s servers. Luna games load in an instant, even intense and graphically demanding titles like Control.

Xbox Cloud Gaming only works with an Xbox Controller in most games. It also doesn’t support touch or keyboard and mouse as Luna games do. Only 22 games support touch as of this writing, which is quite a shame, as a majority of Luna games already sport support for it.

What makes that worse, though, is that Xbox Cloud Gaming also only works with an Xbox controller, which isn’t as easy to pick up and pair between different devices as the Luna controller is. We’re still waiting for the promised update which makes it possible to pair the Xbox One Series X controller with multiple devices.

Then, there are the platforms. For some odd reason, Microsoft hasn’t yet launched Xbox Cloud Gaming on Windows PCs or the web. Despite having over 1 billion Windows 10 devices in the wild, Xbox Cloud Gaming is exclusive to Android for now. It’s rumored that Microsoft is working on a web version of it, but we have yet to see it in reality. Anyway, Luna destroys Microsoft in this part, as it’s available on all the major platforms, and any computer via the web with Chrome (though only select Android phones for now.)

Finally, we’ll talk about the price and gaming aspects. There’s no doubt that Game Pass is successful for Microsoft right now. It has over 18 million subscribers, but Xbox Cloud Gaming is only included with the premium-tier Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for the price of $15 a month. However, it also lets you play online, with friends, which Amazon Luna currently lacks.

That price is a bit more expensive than Luna’s base $5 plan, but it includes access to a lot more games, too. You get Halo, Forza, Minecraft, and Gears of War and a lot of titles usually reserved for Xbox consoles.

Including the Ubisoft+ subscription ($26 total) for access to hit-titles like Watch Dogs, Luna is more expensive than Game Pass for sure, but it’s also available on more platforms. But, at the same time, Game Streaming lets you access your Xbox remotely and play any Xbox game, anywhere.

Still. after using Luna, I think if Microsoft wants Cloud Streaming to be more successful, it needs to bring it to more platforms, and consider including it with the base Game Pass tier as well ( $10 a month.)

Luna vs Google Stadia

Finally, I want to touch on Google Stadia, too. While Xbox Cloud Gaming is only on Android for now, and Luna on all platforms so is Google Stadia. To me, Stadia is just like Amazon Luna, or vice versa. It again defeats Microsoft’s Cloud Streaming in a couple of ways.

I’ll start first with the server blades. Like Luna, Stadia games are also stored on PCs. However, Luna games are Windows PCs, whereas Stadia Games are Linux, meaning it’s a bit harder for developers to port their games over. Still, it means quicker loading times over Xbox Cloud Gaming.

Stadia also has multiplayer aspects and the social aspect of being able to play games with friends or stream on YouTube which Luna lacks.

To compare Luna and Stadia, I played Watch Dogs Legion on Ubisoft+. The difference was almost impossible for me to distinguish in both cases. It felt like I was playing the game natively on my phone. Google and Amazon really are working their server magic here.

Finally, Stadia also has the upper hand over both Luna and Game Streaming, as supports 4K HDR gaming though supported displays with a Pro subscription. Amazon says this is coming soon to Luna, but for now, 1080p is the maximum.

Stadia Pro also has an attractive price of $10 per month. That’s cheaper than Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for Game Streaming but more expensive than Luna. Moreover, you only get a couple of free Stadia games every month, similar to Xbox Live Gold and PlayStation Plus.

Lessons for Microsoft to learn

I began this piece by mentioning that playing games via the cloud is less expensive than owning a console. This is something Microsoft could learn from. It also is something that Google already gets as Stadia offers users the chance to buy a game, and then stream it on any device they own. Amazon, is also on the way there, too, with access to Ubisoft+ on Luna, letting you play Ubisoft games on any device you own or have Luna on.

So, if Microsoft wants Xbox Cloud Gaming to be more successful, then they could do the same, and some more. First off, Microsoft needs to replace Xbox One S consoles with the new, faster, Series X consoles in the server blades, so Xbox Cloud Gaming can be more responsive. This is already in the works, but another change comes to what Google has done with Stadia. The core price of Xbox Cloud Streaming could be dropped, too (or even eliminated), and gamers should have the chance to buy any Xbox title and stream them to their phones (and tablets, and Windows.) Rumor has it that this is being considered, too.

It is true that you can already stream your entire Xbox console over the internet with Remote Play but there could be brighter days ahead. Being able to buy an Xbox Game, play it on the console or the cloud without the need for a console would be great, as it brings Xbox to more places. There’s already “Xbox Play Anywhere” for playing Xbox games you own on PC, but Microsoft has a lot of work to do on both the cloud streaming technology, as well as the way it markets Xbox Cloud Gaming to users.