A few months ago, we heard rumors about a device from Microsoft called the Keystone. Reports have claimed that with this gadget, you can play your favorite games by simply connecting it to your TV. In this way, the need for the console itself has been eliminated, replacing it with something like the Chromecastcontroller and an Xbox Game Pass subscription.
Today, Microsoft decided to tell the truth about the existence of this Keystone device. In fact, it was Phil Spencer himself who spoke during the Tech Live conference in Wall Street Magazine what are your expectations for the gadget and when can we see it officially.
“Keystone is the code name for something we developed internally, which is… a streaming console,” says Phil Spencer in the presentation. It also confirms that this device “inexpensive, you plug it into your TV and you can stream Xbox games“.
Microsoft continues to explore development of Keystone, its Xbox streaming console
While everything sounds pretty good so far, it looks like there was a problem during the development of Keystone. In the same interview Spencer mentions that last spring they decided to wind down development.. So they started working on an Xbox app designed for Samsung TVs, leaving aside the development of a dedicated device.
We put an app on a Samsung TV that lets you play Xbox games and I still have the prototype; It’s on the shelf behind my computer.
Phil Spencer
Now all we know is that the company does not plan to release the device too soon. In fact, according to Phil Spencer, the possible production of this gadget is quite likely, although the head of Xbox believes that “it will take years”.
For this reason, it is unlikely that we will see a device of this style in the coming months. Until now, Microsoft has focused on bringing its video games and ecosystem to as many devices as possible.. So he launched services like Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Cloud Gaming with which you can play a wide variety of games and on almost any device you can imagine.
Why was the development of this device suspended?
Phil Spencer did not comment on the reasons for this decision. Thus, we can only speculate based on the clues we’ve been able to get.
One of the most promising theories has to do with the size of the device. Judging by the images on Spencer’s shelves, the Keystone turned out to be a smaller gadget than the Xbox Series S. However, it was still significantly larger than others like the Chromecast or Amazon Fire Stick TV..
A) Yes, maybe the company is looking into redesigning it. Of course, this is not a fact, and there could be some other reason behind the decision of the residents of Redmond.
at the moment, Microsoft is very focused on bringing Xbox Cloud Gaming to a wider range of TVs.. While the company has already launched an app for Samsung-branded TVs, they can only deliver a maximum of 60 frames per second at 1080p resolution. Other services of this style, such as NVIDIA’s GeForce Now, allow resolutions up to 1440p at 120fps.
Source: Hiper Textual
