It's being reported that Xbox Game Studios has partnered with Finnish developer Mainframe to publish its cloud-native MMO, described as "a vibrant world with new ways to engage and connect with our friends."
Both The Xbox Two and VentureBeat are reporting this information, with the latter suggesting that the game goes by the working title Pax Dei, and could be an important project for "highlighting hurdles with cloud-based development."
Mainframe says its title will "mix the best of AAA, MMO and mobile gaming into a social sandbox, playable on any screen", and VentureBeat has advised that the studio is "exploring potential gameplay mechanics that can only work in a game that exists primarily on a remote server."
A key concept is said to be that the mechanics will scale in terms of how complex they are, with the likes of crafting and resource farming said to be great for when playing on a phone or tablet, while "more complex missions like raids" will be best saved for when you're playing on your console or PC.
Xbox Game Studios is reportedly hoping to use the lessons it learns with this title in order to assist Hideo Kojima’s with his reported new Xbox game, although Microsoft and Kojima have still apparently yet to finalise a deal on that project.
Mainframe hasn't commented on the report so far, but says its debut title will be "the game of a lifetime."
What are your thoughts on this? Let us know down in the comments section below.
[source venturebeat.com]
Comments 7
With flight sim comes to mind. I am curious to see how they could use the cloud with development with other games. My interests is there but we'll have to wait and see.
While I obviously don't want traditional games to be replaced by cloud-based titles, I still think it would be cool to experience games like this in the future. I think the potential is beyond our current understanding, like imagine being able to play in a world that's constantly changing while you're not playing it. That's kinda like how Death Stranding was, i.e. you could be building half-finished roads and the next day you find out that some other people on the server finished the roads for you. The potential is simply limitless and this could pave the way for gaming on a completely different level. I'm definitely going to follow projects like this one with great interest.
I guess you could make a world that's huge and everyone is in one instance, like EVE Online seems to be from the big stories I've read about it (like the thousands of players all battling in one place together).
Can't think really what the objective of the game would be, or whether it'd be PvP, PvE or just a peaceful Animal Crossing type game, but the idea of something like that sounds awesome to me
"mix the best of AAA, MMO and mobile gaming...."
Read mobile gaming. Immediately lost all interest.
@GuyinPA75 Mobile gaming definitely has a stigma around it. I wish it was still called handheld gaming or like on the go gaming.
Cloud Gaming isn't the 'issue' I have with this, its the MMO part for me. Mobile gaming does have a lot of stigma attached, but that doesn't mean that ALL mobile games are the same, short attention span, MTX ridden games with little/no substance or a 'cashgrab'
The problem is that Mobiles in general have not got the specs to run big games to a 'standard' fit for 'crossplay' However, Cloud Gaming allows for those games to run on suitable hardware so you could have 'any' game on a Mobile inc Flight Sim.
To me, this sounds more like a 'built for' Game Pass type game. Built from the ground up to be a 'cloud based' game which could be an advantage. Games not 'built' for the cloud for example may have limitations on the 'size' of the world, how static it is etc because of storage space on discs. The whole world could be built on a server, one that 'updates' every 1/60th of a second as people 'change' the world (cutting down trees, building houses etc).
Because its on a 'server' in the cloud, they are not limited by hardware or distribution. They don't have to think about optimising for this, that and every other hardware spec - they could basically build it to a 'fixed' spec because its running on a 'fixed' spec in the cloud with much better AI, Ray Tracing etc and 'stream that image to ANY display.
You can (or will soon be able to) play Series S/X specific games on an XB1 - games that can't run at that quality and frame rate with that level of hardware - because the game is running on virtual Series consoles in the cloud. You can play some of these on Mobile too - would you be disappointed if Flight Sim, Halo, Forza or Gears also said 'Mobile' gaming because you can play on a Mobile with xCloud?
I do get it, I doubt I'd be interested in a game built with Mobile phone specs as a baseline but that's different to a game built for Cloud gaming from the ground up that thanks to great improvements with streaming, can be released/played on mobile hardware too.
I wish the cloud was used for complete destruction in mp for Halo. It would be insane to blow a wall to escape being chased by 2 opponents or blow a crater in the ground to stumble enemies.
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