Xbox-spil på Smart TV uden en konsol? "Jeg tror, at du vil se det indenfor de næste 12 måneder", siger Xbox-chefen Phil Spencer i et interview med The Verge.
Xbox app til Smart TV
Microsoft har startet udrulning af 'xCloud' teknologi til spil-streaming som del af spiltjenesten Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. En slags 'Netflix for spil', hvor spillet streames over internettet til diverse enheder, uden behov for en konsol.
Hvis planerne holder, så lander en Xbox app med spil-streaming på Smart TV indenfor de næste 12 måneder. Det siger Phil Spencer, chef for Xbox, i et interview med The Verge.
The Verge: What’s stopping you from saying, okay, Xbox is an app, it has minimum hardware specs, and we’re just going to run it on a smart TV?
- "I think you’re going to see that in the next 12 months. I don’t think anything is going to stop us from doing that. I thought what you said about the TV was spot on. What we used to call a TV was a CRT that’s just throwing an image on the back of a piece of glass that I’m looking at. Now, as you said, a TV is really more of a game console stuffed behind a screen that has an app platform and a Bluetooth stack and a streaming capability. Is it really a TV anymore or is it just the form and function of the devices that we used to have around our TV, consolidated into the one big screen that I’m looking at?," siger Phil Spencer, Head of Xbox.
Han tror imidlertid ikke, at spil-streaming vil overtage på den korte bane. "I don’t think these will be the last big pieces of hardware that we ship", tilføjer han med reference til Xbox-konsoller.
Streaming-stick, mediebokse
Hvad med streamingbokse som Apple TV og Nvidia Shield, der allerede understøtter Xbox controllere? Sidstnævnte kører Android TV, ligesom TV fra Sony, Philips og TCL. Apple TV har derimod vist sig mere vanskelig at få adgang til for Microsoft, vurderet ud fra Apple og Microsofts kommentarer i offentligheden.
I oktober 2020 antydede selvsamme Phil Spencer, at en Xbox streaming-stick, der kan tilsluttes TV-skærme via HDMI, kunne være en mulighed. Det skete i et interview med Stratechery.
Potentielt kan interessekonflikter blive en hæmsko. Vil Sony – PlayStation-selskabet – åbne for en Xbox app på sine Android TV? Vil Google, med det faktum in mente, at Stadia stadig ikke er lanceret på Android TV? Og som Xbox-chefen påpeger, så har Apple en konkurrerende tjeneste i form af Apple Arcade.
- "I can understand their perspective from their position. I don’t say I agree with it, but they have a competitive product in Apple Arcade that is competitive with Xbox Game Pass. I’m sure they like having Apple Arcade as the only game content subscription on their phone," siger Spencer.
Det fulde interview kan læses på The Verge.
