Why wouldn't the handheld be both, switch style? When you dock the handheld to charge, it basically becomes a keystone but not just for only cloud streaming but for local Xbox streaming. I was hoping that Keystone would allow having remote streaming access to the main series X/S anywhere in the home similar to what PS Portal does but better. Beats having multiple series consoles in different parts of the home and allow for multiple xboxes in different form factors working together.
@@riopato2009 The price namely. Microsoft was aiming for $99 to target roku TV, Firestick, etc buyers. Keep in mind that as popular as the Nintendo Switch is its still in the niche gaming market (the last figure i saw it hasn't broken the 155m sales of the PS2 yet). The handheld can and should take advantage of both native and cloud gaming, but an apple tv is just fundamentally different than a Nintendo switch. Even in design. It doesn't seem like a big deal to us gamers, but people who just want to stream don't really want all the bells and whistles of a handheld. Like just compare a nintendo switch + dock to just an apple TV or roku. The latter is significantly smaller.
Market is almost always leaning on the side of convenience so this would've sold okay, not great but likely okay. Handheld is making a comeback but not making a crazy jump with the prices most are priced at. It might've even sold decently for those that already have a console but wanted to be able to play in more TV's in their household
The whole point of cloud is you don't need to buy physical hardware to have running at home. You pay for a subscription and use your Internet to stream the content to whatever device you're using. I think Microsoft cancelled this Xbox in favour of the handheld.
New Samsung tv's have the Xbox app built in and all you need to do is pair a controller to your tv. This will probably appear on most tv's at some point so no need for a streaming box.
Sarah Bond said during FTC testimony that streaming wasn't that successful, so that showed at the time that Project Keystone wasn't going to come to market.
Devs said the series s was stupid and would hold back games they released it anyway. Experts said gamepass was dumb idea and would destroy game sales and Xbox. They did it anyway. Never underestimate the stupidity of Xbox and its leadership. 😂
if it also did remote play with my console I'd be interested. not so much for streaming only. if the streaming library was 1:1 with my library then it would be more of a consideration
back when I had my xbox one the only way I could play starfield was to stream over xcloud and at it's height of popularity it was taking 15 minutes from selecting it to the start screen to start the game... so it is much better to be able to download the game.
I feel like you just hit the nail on the head though. Having the hardware to natively play games comes at a cost. Both in form factor and price. The pitch of streaming is convenience and ease of access. I think a having a cloud only box priced at only $99 when cloud gaming has become consistently good enough will be great as another option for people who aren't looking to buy the hardware to natively download and play games.
Same as my friend who has Xbox one. He ended up playing starfield on his iPad Pro through game pass. He was 30 hrs in so I don’t know if he will ever buy a series X
Brad, excellent content as always. I'm a long term Xbox gamer or the single player variety and own a series X. Cloud gaming has never appealed to me and I think it won't succeed as many gamer around the world don't have the internet speeds they have in California and Seattle. This is not only distant markets but large areas of US, Europe and the UK Paul
With TVs becoming more and more powerful and a new controller on the way for next gen; a controller that has streaming design elements built into it, ie. direct connect to internet like Stadia, I can only assume this device would make little sense, especially if it came in well over $100. What is more important for MS is making sure their App is available to get on every platform (Windows, MacOS, Android, iOS, etc..) and make more partnerships that have it available pre-installed with deals for TV owners. And maybe start pushing the products with something called advertising (something they do poorly right now)
Keystone was not canceled, they pushed it back due to pricing, although scrutiny by the FTC and EU over cloud gaming may have also played a part in downplaying the device. Cloud is clearly where xbox is looking to expand the ecosystem. Keystone and handhelds can coexist in the ecosystem, especially if a handheld is going to cost 300 or more.
It's a cute device, but that's not a reason to buy a pure streaming device. Microsoft's own cloud streaming lags behind some market competitors and for a device like this, which is a hard sell if you can connect a controller via bluetooth to a TV that has the Xbox app, they would need to have a better and more consistent experience.
The added latency, network stability and bitrate needed to make a game look good and run well was a lot of requirements to get even a mediocre experience, at the end of the day. Streaming in gaming seems like a niche, nice to have in a pinch feature, or added ability try a game before downloading like you mentioned. Not many if anyone wants it to be the core way they experience their games. A handheld, if done right, would be a great alternative way for people to access and play their games, where streaming is not. I think MS was hedging their bets way too much on expanding the gaming audience through streaming, when the experience was subpar.
I'd disagree. I've played at least 3/4 games of varying quality from start to finish with little latency, quality drops, and zero input lag etc. etc. I get not everyone's experience will be the same but for those who can, it's a great experience. Wait times, lack of keyboard/mouse support and being able to play games you own are the two biggest downsides for me.
It's good they decided to cancel this. "Streaming Dongles" like the Chromecast or Fire Stick aren't really selling as high as they used to due to all TV's now are Smart TV's. It would've been a "too late" device had they brought it to the market
I kind of disagree because there isn't quite a Smart TV equivalent for gaming. Such a device could be useful, but I think it would be too niche and wouldn't find a mass market. It's just not how most people want to play games imo.
I agree that it was good to cancel this. However, streaming units (Roku) have increased their sales every year since inception, including this year. I'm sure some TVs are eating at that market, but a lot of people still prefer the external devices.
Not really. A lot of people still don't have smart TVs at all and cloud gaming streaming on smart TVs is nearly non-existent. The product would have been great targeting people who wanted to get into cloud gaming and especially those without a smart TV at all (they could have literally made it like an Apple TV). Microsoft is also desperate for a product to make their movies & tv digital storefront worth it for casuals. Even if all this product did was generate hype for cloud gaming, that'd still push TV manufactures to support native apps for it and while they'd lower sales of the streaming only box that'd increase awareness for xcloud overall. Take the steam deck for example. Sales for that are dismissal in reality, but the buzz around them has led to increase chatter about PC gaming and the proof of concept has led other gaming manufactures to do mor to make PC gaming hardware accessible and even call out the importance of the software (UI & UX) also being accessible. All of this is really promising for the growth of PC gaming, where Steam just so happens to be the dominant storefront.
@@SteMcGovern Who are most people though? Most gamers are on mobile. Console and PC gaming themselves are niche and have yet to break into the zeitgeist. Like no console has surpassed 200m in sales (actually none have surpassed the PS2 at 155m in sales) to put things into perspective. And monthly active users are significantly less than that. The attempt here would have been to reach out to the "most people" who don't own any console or gaming PC setup and get them playing console games. Hard to say if that would have worked, but personally I think it would have at least been a meaningful step if they kept the price down around $99, marketed it properly, and kept the overall experience good. Probably wouldn't have seen an immediate significant shift, but its the type of move Microsoft needs to start with if they want to eventually reach the billions of gamers not on console. That and they REALLY need to figure out how to pull in mobile.
The Keystone was very likely an ARM based device. It wouldn't need any local 3D hardware as all of that happens on the host in a streaming service. Windows for ARM has been around for a ery long time, without counting the ARM version of WinCE offered to device makers in the 90s. With the very minimal needs of what this was intended to offer, hitting that $100 price point was not the big challenge. The big hurdle was finding confidence that there was a market for tens of millions of these devices. At the same time, standalone streaming devices market has shrunk considerably as even the cheapest TVs have smart features built in. (Best Buy recently had a 40" 4K TV with Amazon Firestick built in for $100 in a deal of the day promotion.) If GamePass streaming is going to be a big business, I suspect the internal assessment at Microsoft is that it has to happen as a smartTV feature or not at all.
I still prefer a console. All though I would like to have a handheld, unfortunately I won't be able to play the majority of my purchased games. Since I have them on Disc.
I REALLY wish they would have done something like this. IF it were a low power low cost device i would have one on every tv I owned, IF it could run apps like netflix and jellyfin, etc. Using cloud for xbox games on top of all that would be a bonus. I really wish they made a competitor to the roku/firetv/chromecast crowd.. I still hope they will intrude into that market with something like this, and it would be awesome for their mobile games, should be able to run those easily.
Looks like a reimagined PlayStation but be sweet if it was a modern version of xbox360 for backward compatibility gaming along with the lack luster cloud streaming then again sure it would also play all Xbox mobile offerings as well like candy crush, call of dooty mobile etc etc
One reason Xbox may be focusing on handheld is because gaming demographics are changing. Gen Z, and Gen Alpha game on mobile devices almost exclusively compared to previous generations. Phones, tablets, Switch, etc. Most are young and play F2P games like Fortnite, Roblox, etc. They also don't need ultra realistic graphics because they don't have the disposable income to afford the more bespoke experiences consoles and PCs provide. They're also not as brand loyal as previous generations, either. So, Xbox may be trying to get them when they're young with a handheld, and hopefully keep them in the Xbox ecosystem as they get older and want more expensive experiences.
Handheld. But the windows version it will be running must be a scaled down version that uses way much less system resources. If the device runs standard windows 11 then they have failed.
I am so glad that this never launched. It is the year 2024 and i still can't even play Halo CE online without lag. We as a society have not arrived at an infrastructure that can support remote streaming. Streaming experience is always always bad.
I really wanna see cloud gaming take off. I generally don't play Indie games but started playing Cocoon and a few other games via Cloud on my phone with the Razer Kishi before bed. Really enjoying it and cloud gaming works REALLY well
It seems like the problem was the increasing price of tech components. I don't see this succeeding unless it started at $99 (as planned) and went up to $149 max for like 4k streaming or more storage. Really unfortunate how much that has impacted pricing overall this generation. I really hope they don't abandon the SKU personally. Once cloud gaming comes out of beta and there's a stand alone subscription if not store it could be amazing. Even more so if they treat it more like an Apple TV where its easy to access all Microsoft purchased movies & tv, streaming services, and possibly even natively play some weaker games. This could actually be one of the missing links Microsoft needs if it wants to deliver its software to consumers. The Xbox One's entertainment pitch wasn't a bad one, but it was executed really poorly. If that turns into Xbox creating a Apple TV/Roku style, sized, and priced Box for non-gamers then that'd actually be great. I wanted the Series S to be this but if next gen's lineup were a Series X style high end console, native handheld, and XCloud focused streaming box, I could get behind that. It'd possibly do a better job of appealing to new customers while keeping long time fans happy, and there wouldn't be controversy of Microsoft insisting EVERY game on the Series X successor runs on either their handheld or streaming box (I mean that really shouldn't be a clause).
Imagine it was Chromium based & likely added to "cost factor". They've got Samsung and putting it on more Smart TV's. It appears bigger, beefier than a Firestick bordering on SeriesS size. As for cloud they've always locked to the console in terms of server deployment so are they on the cusp of something new? They spent Pandemic upgrading from OneX to SeriesX performance. Why keep pushing bandwidth on gear that will have to be swapped out?
1TB isn't enough so I use cloud gaming to play a game without downloading without deleting games to make space to save space and to just right into a game
Based. Cloud gaming needs to be canceled completely, no one wants it and the ppl have spoken. We don't wanna rely on yet another subscription service over some server somewhere. I want my games on my hard drive in my room
Maybe it was already too many people using the service and putting something like this in the market would need an infrastructure upgrade too large to deal with at the moment. Every time i try to stream a game I have to deal with a waiting queue...
So you base your life on taking rumors as fact and if they don't come true its Microsoft's fault? MS never ever promised this device. How can you lose faith on MS something they never revealed coming?
What would you prefer - keystone or a handheld?
Why wouldn't the handheld be both, switch style? When you dock the handheld to charge, it basically becomes a keystone but not just for only cloud streaming but for local Xbox streaming. I was hoping that Keystone would allow having remote streaming access to the main series X/S anywhere in the home similar to what PS Portal does but better. Beats having multiple series consoles in different parts of the home and allow for multiple xboxes in different form factors working together.
both ideally
@@riopato2009 The price namely. Microsoft was aiming for $99 to target roku TV, Firestick, etc buyers. Keep in mind that as popular as the Nintendo Switch is its still in the niche gaming market (the last figure i saw it hasn't broken the 155m sales of the PS2 yet). The handheld can and should take advantage of both native and cloud gaming, but an apple tv is just fundamentally different than a Nintendo switch. Even in design. It doesn't seem like a big deal to us gamers, but people who just want to stream don't really want all the bells and whistles of a handheld. Like just compare a nintendo switch + dock to just an apple TV or roku. The latter is significantly smaller.
Neither
Handheld with dedicated hardware.
I can’t imagine that this would have sold well out there given that the direction is in the handheld market.
Market is almost always leaning on the side of convenience so this would've sold okay, not great but likely okay. Handheld is making a comeback but not making a crazy jump with the prices most are priced at.
It might've even sold decently for those that already have a console but wanted to be able to play in more TV's in their household
The whole point of cloud is you don't need to buy physical hardware to have running at home. You pay for a subscription and use your Internet to stream the content to whatever device you're using. I think Microsoft cancelled this Xbox in favour of the handheld.
That isn't 'the whole point'. It's one selling point. If you didn't want to buy a console or play on your tiny phone it would have been fine.
W.e you're using for internet would be considered "necessary physical hardware "😂
It would be good for upscalling. Also it can go with you and have access to xcloud while traveling.
I don't mind they didn't bring this out, hopefully we get a handheld in the next two years, it's cool tho.
New Samsung tv's have the Xbox app built in and all you need to do is pair a controller to your tv. This will probably appear on most tv's at some point so no need for a streaming box.
Sarah Bond said during FTC testimony that streaming wasn't that successful, so that showed at the time that Project Keystone wasn't going to come to market.
Devs said the series s was stupid and would hold back games they released it anyway. Experts said gamepass was dumb idea and would destroy game sales and Xbox. They did it anyway. Never underestimate the stupidity of Xbox and its leadership. 😂
if it also did remote play with my console I'd be interested. not so much for streaming only. if the streaming library was 1:1 with my library then it would be more of a consideration
back when I had my xbox one the only way I could play starfield was to stream over xcloud and at it's height of popularity it was taking 15 minutes from selecting it to the start screen to start the game... so it is much better to be able to download the game.
I feel like you just hit the nail on the head though. Having the hardware to natively play games comes at a cost. Both in form factor and price. The pitch of streaming is convenience and ease of access. I think a having a cloud only box priced at only $99 when cloud gaming has become consistently good enough will be great as another option for people who aren't looking to buy the hardware to natively download and play games.
PS Streaming works amazing.
@@east00PS streaming was compared to Xbox streaming recently on Digital foundry, the PS streaming Lost due to a much higher latency(lag).
Same as my friend who has Xbox one. He ended up playing starfield on his iPad Pro through game pass. He was 30 hrs in so I don’t know if he will ever buy a series X
Brad, excellent content as always. I'm a long term Xbox gamer or the single player variety and own a series X. Cloud gaming has never appealed to me and I think it won't succeed as many gamer around the world don't have the internet speeds they have in California and Seattle. This is not only distant markets but large areas of US, Europe and the UK
Paul
With TVs becoming more and more powerful and a new controller on the way for next gen; a controller that has streaming design elements built into it, ie. direct connect to internet like Stadia, I can only assume this device would make little sense, especially if it came in well over $100. What is more important for MS is making sure their App is available to get on every platform (Windows, MacOS, Android, iOS, etc..) and make more partnerships that have it available pre-installed with deals for TV owners. And maybe start pushing the products with something called advertising (something they do poorly right now)
Keystone was not canceled, they pushed it back due to pricing, although scrutiny by the FTC and EU over cloud gaming may have also played a part in downplaying the device. Cloud is clearly where xbox is looking to expand the ecosystem. Keystone and handhelds can coexist in the ecosystem, especially if a handheld is going to cost 300 or more.
I'm still miffed that my Series X died after 18 months.. nicely out of warranty, of course.
You need a new video as they just announced Fire Stick TV support today.
It's a cute device, but that's not a reason to buy a pure streaming device. Microsoft's own cloud streaming lags behind some market competitors and for a device like this, which is a hard sell if you can connect a controller via bluetooth to a TV that has the Xbox app, they would need to have a better and more consistent experience.
The added latency, network stability and bitrate needed to make a game look good and run well was a lot of requirements to get even a mediocre experience, at the end of the day.
Streaming in gaming seems like a niche, nice to have in a pinch feature, or added ability try a game before downloading like you mentioned. Not many if anyone wants it to be the core way they experience their games.
A handheld, if done right, would be a great alternative way for people to access and play their games, where streaming is not.
I think MS was hedging their bets way too much on expanding the gaming audience through streaming, when the experience was subpar.
I'd disagree.
I've played at least 3/4 games of varying quality from start to finish with little latency, quality drops, and zero input lag etc. etc.
I get not everyone's experience will be the same but for those who can, it's a great experience.
Wait times, lack of keyboard/mouse support and being able to play games you own are the two biggest downsides for me.
It's good they decided to cancel this. "Streaming Dongles" like the Chromecast or Fire Stick aren't really selling as high as they used to due to all TV's now are Smart TV's. It would've been a "too late" device had they brought it to the market
I kind of disagree because there isn't quite a Smart TV equivalent for gaming. Such a device could be useful, but I think it would be too niche and wouldn't find a mass market. It's just not how most people want to play games imo.
I agree that it was good to cancel this. However, streaming units (Roku) have increased their sales every year since inception, including this year. I'm sure some TVs are eating at that market, but a lot of people still prefer the external devices.
@@phbranding8530Has Roku increased its unit sales or has the "streaming unit" market increased in size? 2 very different things.
Not really. A lot of people still don't have smart TVs at all and cloud gaming streaming on smart TVs is nearly non-existent. The product would have been great targeting people who wanted to get into cloud gaming and especially those without a smart TV at all (they could have literally made it like an Apple TV). Microsoft is also desperate for a product to make their movies & tv digital storefront worth it for casuals. Even if all this product did was generate hype for cloud gaming, that'd still push TV manufactures to support native apps for it and while they'd lower sales of the streaming only box that'd increase awareness for xcloud overall. Take the steam deck for example. Sales for that are dismissal in reality, but the buzz around them has led to increase chatter about PC gaming and the proof of concept has led other gaming manufactures to do mor to make PC gaming hardware accessible and even call out the importance of the software (UI & UX) also being accessible. All of this is really promising for the growth of PC gaming, where Steam just so happens to be the dominant storefront.
@@SteMcGovern Who are most people though? Most gamers are on mobile. Console and PC gaming themselves are niche and have yet to break into the zeitgeist. Like no console has surpassed 200m in sales (actually none have surpassed the PS2 at 155m in sales) to put things into perspective. And monthly active users are significantly less than that. The attempt here would have been to reach out to the "most people" who don't own any console or gaming PC setup and get them playing console games. Hard to say if that would have worked, but personally I think it would have at least been a meaningful step if they kept the price down around $99, marketed it properly, and kept the overall experience good. Probably wouldn't have seen an immediate significant shift, but its the type of move Microsoft needs to start with if they want to eventually reach the billions of gamers not on console. That and they REALLY need to figure out how to pull in mobile.
The Keystone was very likely an ARM based device. It wouldn't need any local 3D hardware as all of that happens on the host in a streaming service. Windows for ARM has been around for a ery long time, without counting the ARM version of WinCE offered to device makers in the 90s. With the very minimal needs of what this was intended to offer, hitting that $100 price point was not the big challenge. The big hurdle was finding confidence that there was a market for tens of millions of these devices. At the same time, standalone streaming devices market has shrunk considerably as even the cheapest TVs have smart features built in. (Best Buy recently had a 40" 4K TV with Amazon Firestick built in for $100 in a deal of the day promotion.) If GamePass streaming is going to be a big business, I suspect the internal assessment at Microsoft is that it has to happen as a smartTV feature or not at all.
The Samsung thing is still going. I think they even dropped a trailer for it (and Luna on Samsung)
In SGF
Edit : Samsung TVs*
I would have been interest in keystone for only one reason, Microsoft Films & TV not being stuck only on the Console.
MS Films & TV is part of movies anywhere so you can watch any of your MS purchases anywhere
@@xmusic2049 That is US only. So this does nothing for me.
@@xmusic2049 Movies anywhere is US only. That does me no good.
I still prefer a console. All though I would like to have a handheld, unfortunately I won't be able to play the majority of my purchased games. Since I have them on Disc.
I REALLY wish they would have done something like this. IF it were a low power low cost device i would have one on every tv I owned, IF it could run apps like netflix and jellyfin, etc. Using cloud for xbox games on top of all that would be a bonus. I really wish they made a competitor to the roku/firetv/chromecast crowd.. I still hope they will intrude into that market with something like this, and it would be awesome for their mobile games, should be able to run those easily.
Looks like a reimagined PlayStation but be sweet if it was a modern version of xbox360 for backward compatibility gaming along with the lack luster cloud streaming then again sure it would also play all Xbox mobile offerings as well like candy crush, call of dooty mobile etc etc
One reason Xbox may be focusing on handheld is because gaming demographics are changing. Gen Z, and Gen Alpha game on mobile devices almost exclusively compared to previous generations. Phones, tablets, Switch, etc. Most are young and play F2P games like Fortnite, Roblox, etc. They also don't need ultra realistic graphics because they don't have the disposable income to afford the more bespoke experiences consoles and PCs provide. They're also not as brand loyal as previous generations, either. So, Xbox may be trying to get them when they're young with a handheld, and hopefully keep them in the Xbox ecosystem as they get older and want more expensive experiences.
It ran windows for Arm, and used an embedded edge browser for cloud streaming.
Handheld. But the windows version it will be running must be a scaled down version that uses way much less system resources. If the device runs standard windows 11 then they have failed.
I am so glad that this never launched. It is the year 2024 and i still can't even play Halo CE online without lag. We as a society have not arrived at an infrastructure that can support remote streaming. Streaming experience is always always bad.
I really wanna see cloud gaming take off. I generally don't play Indie games but started playing Cocoon and a few other games via Cloud on my phone with the Razer Kishi before bed. Really enjoying it and cloud gaming works REALLY well
It seems like the problem was the increasing price of tech components. I don't see this succeeding unless it started at $99 (as planned) and went up to $149 max for like 4k streaming or more storage. Really unfortunate how much that has impacted pricing overall this generation. I really hope they don't abandon the SKU personally. Once cloud gaming comes out of beta and there's a stand alone subscription if not store it could be amazing. Even more so if they treat it more like an Apple TV where its easy to access all Microsoft purchased movies & tv, streaming services, and possibly even natively play some weaker games. This could actually be one of the missing links Microsoft needs if it wants to deliver its software to consumers.
The Xbox One's entertainment pitch wasn't a bad one, but it was executed really poorly. If that turns into Xbox creating a Apple TV/Roku style, sized, and priced Box for non-gamers then that'd actually be great. I wanted the Series S to be this but if next gen's lineup were a Series X style high end console, native handheld, and XCloud focused streaming box, I could get behind that. It'd possibly do a better job of appealing to new customers while keeping long time fans happy, and there wouldn't be controversy of Microsoft insisting EVERY game on the Series X successor runs on either their handheld or streaming box (I mean that really shouldn't be a clause).
The only problem with the box is that they could do the things they needed with just an app and have that app available on every device.
I will Brad. I promise.
Imagine it was Chromium based & likely added to "cost factor". They've got Samsung and putting it on more Smart TV's. It appears bigger, beefier than a Firestick bordering on SeriesS size.
As for cloud they've always locked to the console in terms of server deployment so are they on the cusp of something new? They spent Pandemic upgrading from OneX to SeriesX performance. Why keep pushing bandwidth on gear that will have to be swapped out?
Weird time for Xbox!
1TB isn't enough so I use cloud gaming to play a game without downloading without deleting games to make space to save space and to just right into a game
Based. Cloud gaming needs to be canceled completely, no one wants it and the ppl have spoken. We don't wanna rely on yet another subscription service over some server somewhere. I want my games on my hard drive in my room
Maybe it was already too many people using the service and putting something like this in the market would need an infrastructure upgrade too large to deal with at the moment. Every time i try to stream a game I have to deal with a waiting queue...
That's because they took out some of the server blades for game streaming.
Hand held is better, but not an streaming device, an full one
It doesn't look like a Xbox at all, but it looks like a mini version of it
They could done a deal with Domino’s Pizza
Be a great skin for the box
Would have been a major flop.
That model looks like a Ps1 console
My new name for a Xbox console is called ATM.
I promise I wouldn’t say, I told ya it was real. I promise.
The S is the same thing.
Well that says it all. Cloud console cancelled. Xbox is dead. Maybe even the whole gaming industry.
It's just an Xbox series s cut in half that's all it is
No it looks like a PlayStation to me
THANK GOD!!!!! SERIES X ALL THE WAY
No BS
Lol, I love my Series x, I would never buy this
Another flop smh
I hate to say this going back I'm not trusting Xbox maybe they lost that chance I'm not a hater I hate to get my hopes up on that one
So you base your life on taking rumors as fact and if they don't come true its Microsoft's fault? MS never ever promised this device. How can you lose faith on MS something they never revealed coming?