Xbox Cloud Gaming: Meta Quest Gimmick or Vital Feature?

Xbox Cloud Gaming has finally come to Meta Quest. But is 2D Game Pass gaming in VR a gimmick or a vital feature?

[Einhander1972]

It's funny that people talk about latency on the PlayStation Portal even though that uses your home network and provides a stable latency of single digit frames yet those same people would try to convince you that an unstable latency across that internet that could be double or triple or more digit frames with packet loss and retransmits is suitable for a VR headset.

[gold_drake]

yeh its quite odd.

[mandf]

Double edged hypocrisy. Pick what ever helps you justify an inferior product

[Vits]

Alright, let's break it down in simpler terms. The Portal is all about home streaming – if it messes that up, it's basically an overpriced doorstop. On the flip side, the Meta Quest is a VR headset, and the extra Cloud stuff is being shrugged off as more of a nice-to-have than a must-have, as per the article. So, in summary, it all boils down to the actual range of features of each device, which sets the expectations for their users. If you sell something that can literally only be used for a single thing you better make sure that it does that single thing to perfection and it also doesn't help that a lot of folks parroted the idea that the Portal would be completely usable outside of the home on public Wi-Fi or even by using a smartphone to route the connection - To be fair, I don't recall Sony themselves saying that, but even here in N4G we can find people parroting that.

[Einhander1972]

Some of what you say i would agree with. but I was just talking about the latency issue.

I am more or less talking about issues adjacent to this actual article. Like sites that gushed over streaming on xcloud but then basically told people that Portal was a bad experience because of latency. Which happened quite a bit.

And to be fair if you can get a good enough connection to use xcloud on your phone you can use the Portal via that hotspot just the same.

[Vits]

@Einhander1972

It again boils down to expectations. Are we expecting Game Pass Cloud to be flawless? Not really—it's part of a much bigger subscription package and is presented as such. On the flip side, the Portal has a singular job, and at a minimum cost of $200, perfection is definitely on the table. If Sony had marketed it as a "Pro controller" with additional local game streaming capabilities or positioned it as an Android tablet that doubles as a home streaming device, the expectations and scrutiny would undoubtedly be different.

[Einhander1972]

Get those goal posts right outa here...

So you're saying that the justification for a obvious double standard on latency is acceptable due to PlayStation marketing the device as a "Remote Player" instead of a "Pro Controller".

Wow... just wow...

[marioJP87]

I only play Gears Tactics because it doesn’t need that instant response time.
Cloud gaming will always have some sort of latency to it. Never good for fast paced games. Espeeeeeeecially shooters.