So with that in mind, was the initial pitch in 2013 a desperate gambit from Microsoft to challenge PS4's specs advantage? Or, like the Crackdown 3 2015 demo, was turning highly promising tech demos into fully realised games more challenging than originally thought? Looking back at the messaging of the time, it's difficult to avoid a sense of hyperbole in the pitch, and whether it's down to latency issues, varying levels of user bandwidth, or the sheer logistics of coping with a vast userbase, cloud gaming as Microsoft defined it back in 2013 failed to happen.
You can't keep a good idea down, however, and perhaps Microsoft's mammoth Azure datacentre infrastructure will deliver new opportunities for gaming - just not in the way it was previously marketed. With Project xCloud, Microsoft is aiming to revolutionise how games are accessed as opposed to enhancing the content within them. The idea is to remove console - or even TV - ownership as a barrier for entry to the Xbox ecosystem, with the system library available through a range of devices including smartphones and tablets. We're one or two key technological innovations away from a 'gameplay over IP' system that truly delivers, but Microsoft is aware of the challenges and we're looking forward to seeing what solutions the Xbox engineers come up with.