Featured Image Credit: Microsoft
Topics: Xbox, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, Microsoft
You can be sure that, one way or another, gamers will discover details about new hardware; just like they have with this Xbox console leak.
Do any of you remember Xbox Keystone?
It has been a while since that name was mentioned. In 2022, development was paused due to Keystone being too expensive, and there it’s remained, frozen in time.
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But we can’t leave anything buried, not truly.
Redditors have shared the recently leaked patent of what would have been Xbox’s new console, allowing us a proper glimpse at what we lost.
If you’re not well versed in what Keystone does, or rather did, it was designed to allow you to stream games rather than install them, thus providing a more accessible route into console gaming.
Affordability would be the downfall of this compact machine, though.
The patent gives us a chance to see what our future could have looked like, and, honestly, it’s nothing impressive. This small square looks much like any other streaming hardware you see.
Yet, something about it has us wistful.
Fondly dubbed “Stovebox” on Reddit, gamers have debated the pros and cons of cloud gaming in the wake of this newly unearthed patent.
User SmarmySmurf said, “Honestly, if it just did Xcloud at that price it would have failed.” They continued, “Xcloud is not ready for primetime even now, forget then. Keeping Xcloud in beta and ‘free’ is the right move for the foreseeable future.”
This line of reasoning was seconded by another saying, “It'll never be [ready], cloud gaming is pie in the sky and will be forever, latency is not acceptable even at gigabit+ connections.”
Not everyone agrees, but it’s fair to say that Microsoft’s toe dip into cloud gaming leaves much to be desired.
Still, we kind of wish we’d seen Keystone in action, or at least seen it on the shelves ready to find a home.