GRcade

Wrapping up, we are left with the sense that Microsoft's pitch for the future of gaming, based on its hardware design at least, is very close to Sony's: the best that AMD can offer, paired with extremely fast storage which opens up a wealth of opportunity in using the surrounding architecture in groundbreaking ways.

The firm is also strongly advocating its back-compat credentials with support for all Xbox console generations - a promise we know it can deliver based on its impeccable track record. 120Hz support? Variable refresh? It's good to see these namechecked, but 8K? Well there's no reason why the reconstruction techniques of today can't scale up to higher resolutions tomorrow - but in truth, in the age of temporal super-sampling and other 'smart upscaling' technologies, I'm not sure that higher pixel counts are 100 per cent synonymous with a guarantee of better image quality any more.

Put simply, there's a better use for GPU power - especially if onboard solid-state storage can genuinely provide a vast pool of 'virtual memory' capable of delivering more detail, bigger, more contiguous worlds and more immersion. And with both Sony and Microsoft making the same bet on SSDs, it seems that this is almost certainly the way forward in delivering a next generation gaming experience.

twitter.com/tomwarren/status/1171549489703862277

Also on the subject of hardware, Penty said he is "definitely super excited" about the forthcoming release of Microsoft's next-generation console, Project Scarlett, in Holiday 2020. "We don’t have anything to announce right now in terms of Gears with the new hardware--but I’m definitely super excited about what the new hardware could do. Having dedicated raytracing hardware is huge," he said.

Peter Crisp wrote:I know I'll be getting any next gen with a disc drive simply because I use Boomerang

more heat than light wrote:

Peter Crisp wrote:I know I'll be getting any next gen with a disc drive simply because I use Boomerang

Wouldn't Game Pass do the same job?

Going from carbon neutral operations to carbon neutral products: Microsoft’s business operations have operated carbon neutral since 2012. Today we are beginning the journey of extending that to our products and devices with a pilot to make 825,000 Xbox consoles carbon neutral. These are the first gaming consoles to be carbon neutral. While just a pilot, we’re already looking at what we can do to further reduce and neutralize carbon across devices in the future.

Playing for the Planet Alliance includes Creative Mobile, E-Line Media, Google Stadia, Green Man Gaming, iDreamSky, Internet of Elephants, Microsoft, Niantic Inc, Pixelberry, Reliance Games, Rovio, Space Ape, Sports Interactive, Supercell, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Strange Loop, Sybo, Twitch, Ubisoft, WildWorks and will be supported by Playmob.

Photek wrote:I'm not sure Microsoft having Oil companies as customers of their IT and Azure services constitutes as doing one thing saying another but fairy nuff.