Microsoft xCloud in the field: Does Halo 5 really make sense on a phone?

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Microsoft did not hide that it was developing game streaming options. At this year's E3 Xbox conference, players had a first glimpse of how it works. The offer essentially has two components: a streaming service that it is still developing under the code name Project xCloud, and another option launched in open testing in October called Streaming Console.

The latter will turn the players' own Xbox One consoles into servers and pass on their own game library, while xCloud will look more like Google Stadia – a persistent cloud-based service. More details on both versions will be provided in the coming months, but the Xbox has shown how this could work in practice during a behind-the-scenes Xbox Showcase.

The Xbox featured several streaming games, not running on the usual big screens found around the E3, but on an assortment of smartphones, each connected to a conventional Xbox One controller with support. These were all full versions of the Xbox One games, without any modifications to fit the smaller screen size. The Xbox says that the games that run there – Gears of War 4, Resident Evil 7 and Halo 5 – streamed from an Azure data center 400 km away and into a hybrid model in which blade servers imitated an Xbox One console running the recently announced feature.

Playing Gears of War 4 on the editing felt a bit slow, but it could have been more psychosomatic than a fault in the service. The weight of the controller and attached support to support the phone, associated with gears Games that favor awkward characters weighed down by heavy armor may have given the impression that the experience has been slower than it has been.

Resident Evil 7 was finally a bad title to show xCloud off. It does not reflect the game itself, or even the service, but rather the environment. Xbox's showcase took place in a brightly lit auditorium, with zipped lights and lots of background noise making it barely visible the dark, claustrophobic horror game, and its inaudible scary sound design.

Halo 5however, showed the potential of streaming games and the versatility of being able to play on any device capable of displaying the stream. Playing on a section of the single-player campaign, the controls were as responsive as I thought, the characters were evolving with the speed and fluidity I had used to them, and the game still seemed as precise, but much smaller .

Overall, it was a surprisingly smooth experience, with the exception of a few minor artefacts during the "Elevator to Hell" mission to Gears 4, with distant backgrounds that get stuck if you stay still.

A problem common to all three games is that screen text designed to be played on a 55-inch screen is reduced to barely readable pixels on a smartphone. This raises questions about the impact that streaming could have on the gaming industry as a whole, especially if phone streaming takes off.

Games like Halo 5 are designed from top to bottom to be blockbuster experiences. They work best with a massive screen and surround sound, and not with pocket monitors with narrow speakers. On the mechanical side, how could a multiplayer match stand out if it was played on a phone? Latency issues can be conquered, but you would not be aware of the real estate situation offered by a TV screen. Or take Resident Evil 7 – This is a classic horror modern in every way, which has reinvigorated the franchise. Whether from a disc, from a digital download or from a feed, the content itself is indisputable, it's a black delight – what's it? Act of a TV or a big screen monitor. But it's hard to imagine a scenario in which it would be desirable to take a captivating title on a phone.

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It is tempting to think that players would respect the creative intentions of creators and would not even want to play AAA games on their small screen. Yet for many people, their phone is the screen on which they spend the most time. The same arguments have been made for the movie – no one wants to watch a blockbuster on a 5-inch screen! – yet you can download whole movies via Amazon or Netflix on your handheld. If players start spending more time playing major Xbox games on their phones, will developers start designing to allow streaming on phones?

Obviously, not all games are streaming on phones – it can be argued that the phone-based showcase was a bit of a technical flex, allowing Microsoft to show the potential of delivering high-end content to a device who could never make it work natively. Streaming also offers great potential for games that may become too big for other forms of content delivery – this console generation alone, we've seen it Red Dead Redemption 2 The download is about 120 GB. Future titles will only get bigger.

The Microsoft showcase proved that the backbone of streaming was viable, despite minor problems. If it manages to solve the problems before the launch of the console streaming in October, the players will have a solid base on which to experiment, allowing them to access, it seems, so reliable to their games when they are not on their Xbox. With respect to streaming on phones, however, what we have seen so far is a good illustration of why can doing something may not mean you should.

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