Xbox One to have unlimited cloud storage


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Microsoft's gaming console, the Xbox One, has now had yet another new feature revealed: unlimited cloud storage.

It's no secret that Microsoft has one of the most powerful cloud services with Azure, SkyDrive and other products and services, and the cloud is being used extensively with the Xbox One to power some of the computing and rendering processes, but that's not all. Another lesser-known use of the cloud for the device is that it can be utilized as an extension of the hard drive, storing and retrieving game data.

While this feature is not an entirely new one as it existed previously on the Xbox 360 with the caveat that it could only store game data and achievements due to being limited to 512 MB of storage, it does come with some drastic changes on the One. A few of them include the storage limit being upped to infinity, and the file types being stored becoming more diversified. The release by Microsoft reads as follows; 

 

Xbox Live offers Xbox One unlimited storage space in the cloud for all Xbox Live members to store numerous types of Xbox Live content, including your profile, games, Achievements and entertainment. This content is stored and saved in the cloud so you can automatically access it anywhere, anytime, no matter where you are

 

Previous generation Xbox users had to subscribe to an Xbox Live Gold account to be able to make use of this feature, Microsoft has now stated that this service will now be available for all users whether Gold or Silver.

Along with the hint that some of the family sharing features might return as well as opening up the store to indie developers, the Xbox One may launch as a viable product and indeed sell as much as analysts predict.

 

Source: The Examiner

 

Jacked from Neowin, taken from The Examiner. But I think this deserves it's on thread on the forums.

 

This is a massive feature.

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Kind of hard to believe Microsoft is actually giving people something without a gold string noose attached.

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The weird thing is that this is also not new. Maybe they got another confirmation, but MS already mentioned this months ago, around E3. It was even on some leaked pr documents.

 

Maybe the not requiring Gold bit is new, but not the unlimited part. These gaming news sources miss a lot of stuff.

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What will you use this unlimited cloud storage for?

 

Game files and data will already be on their servers so not a part of your personal cloud storage.

 

Game Save files and Recorded gameplay videos? 

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Kind of hard to believe Microsoft is actually giving people something without a gold string noose attached.

 

 

"Microsoft has now stated that this service will now be available for all users whether Gold or Silver."

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can i disguise my movies collections as 'gameplay videos' ?

 

MS stated ages ago that this storage would be for your media (music, movies etc) as well as games saves etc.

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"Microsoft has now stated that this service will now be available for all users whether Gold or Silver."

 

 

Kind of funny MS is giving away unlimited storage but puts things like IE on XBox behind a gold sub.

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If Microsoft use the safe definition of ' unlimited ' as the ISPs do here in the UK, what you'll really get a 10 uploads per month any more then that and Microsoft will send you a nasty letter saying that you're using the service too much. Along with a speed cap of 100KB/s and when it's peak time, it'll be reduced to 20KB/s to stop abuse of the service. Want to watch a friend's video they've stored on their personal cloud? Because they couldn't cope with true unlimited cloud, they've had to use a cache for videos,  it'll probably be broken since they've outsourced the video cache system and it's corrupt again.

 

Seriously though, their unlimited probably isn't going to be unlimited, or developers will have a restriction placed on them of how much they can use, say 20 videos per account for example.


MS stated ages ago that this storage would be for your media (music, movies etc) as well as games saves etc.

 

Most likely another one of Microsoft's pipe dreams where they envisaged merging your Skydrive with their cloud computing for xbox one. As such, you could already argue that we already have that on the 360. Until you're actually using it and it works how Microsoft said it would, take it with a pinch of salt. 

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What will you use this unlimited cloud storage for?

 

Game files and data will already be on their servers so not a part of your personal cloud storage.

 

Game Save files and Recorded gameplay videos? 

 

 

Think of it as a digital locker. Anything you purchase via the xbl service could be stored there. That includes games, music, movies, etc. The point of that is to make media accessible from any X1. For movies, music, and tv content, that could also mean accessing it on your pc or other device that can access your account. I know music would work that way.

 

Your right about game saves and gameplay videos though. People seem to be poking fun with the idea of saves taking up any space, but they do. Heck, play any football game long enough and check out the size of the save files.

 

The whole idea of streaming games you buy (i.e. allowing you to play while they continue to download/install) would require each user to have a pool of space dedicated to all of your content.  Plus, the original digital sharing features would have required cloud storage in order to serve up any game you owned, retail or digital to any console without using a disk. The idea was that any game you owned had a digital copy stored on the cloud.

 

 

 

Kind of funny MS is giving away unlimited storage but puts things like IE on XBox behind a gold sub.

 

 

Will IE still be behind Gold? I don't think that has been explained directly. I get the feeling we aren't done hearing about positive announcements that will 'shock' people. I put that in quotes since its not really shocking, some people just react that way with MS.

 

 

 

I wonder if we can install our games on the cloud? If so.. wow. 

 

 

The original plan was that if you bought a game at retail or digitally, MS would store a digital copy of that game in the cloud. Then you could get to that game via any X1, plus you no longer needed the disc in your system to play it.

 

That part is now up in the air when they changed their policies. It may return in some form, but there is little info on when.

 

 

 

Most likely another one of Microsoft's pipe dreams where they envisaged merging your Skydrive with their cloud computing for xbox one. As such, you could already argue that we already have that on the 360. Until you're actually using it and it works how Microsoft said it would, take it with a pinch of salt. 

 

 

 

Merge Skydrive with the cloud computing? I'm not sure what your talking about, but that's not the point here.

 

Skydrive will in fact be the backend for their storage plans. In fact Skydrive is accessible on the X1. Its all one 'cloud'. The idea is that they want to get rid of the artificial barriers between their devices. They want them all to leverage the cloud in some way.

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What will you use this unlimited cloud storage for?

 

Game files and data will already be on their servers so not a part of your personal cloud storage.

 

Game Save files and Recorded gameplay videos? 

Is there anything you can't portray in a negative way?

 

This is excellent news, I never filled up my cloud storage on my 360 but this is definitely welcome. Remember people, you won't be able to store things like games because even though its in the cloud. You've still got to download that data so you'd essentially be downloading the game again. This means you don't have to worry about game saves anywhere.

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Think of it as a digital locker. Anything you purchase via the xbl service could be stored there. That includes games, music, movies, etc. The point of that is to make media accessible from any X1. For movies, music, and tv content, that could also mean accessing it on your pc or other device that can access your account. I know music would work that way.

 

Your right about game saves and gameplay videos though. People seem to be poking fun with the idea of saves taking up any space, but they do. Heck, play any football game long enough and check out the size of the save files.

 

The whole idea of streaming games you buy (i.e. allowing you to play while they continue to download/install) would require each user to have a pool of space dedicated to all of your content.  Plus, the original digital sharing features would have required cloud storage in order to serve up any game you owned, retail or digital to any console without using a disk. The idea was that any game you owned had a digital copy stored on the cloud.

 

Will IE still be behind Gold? I don't think that has been explained directly. I get the feeling we aren't done hearing about positive announcements that will 'shock' people. I put that in quotes since its not really shocking, some people just react that way with MS.

 

The original plan was that if you bought a game at retail or digitally, MS would store a digital copy of that game in the cloud. Then you could get to that game via any X1, plus you no longer needed the disc in your system to play it.

 

That part is now up in the air when they changed their policies. It may return in some form, but there is little info on when..

 

So I can watch my movies and listen to my music at home? where my movies and music already is. awesome!

 

Also you don't need dedicated 'cloud' space to play games while they are downloading that is just silly, download a game to the 'cloud' server just so you can download it from the 'cloud' server?

When you start downloading a game it downloads the required game files first and then the early game stage onto your console so you can start playing, the download is directly from the Microsoft server where it stays and doesn't need to go to your personal cloud storage.

 

Games will not be stored in your personal cloud, it may be seen as being there but there is no point because Microsoft already will host the game data and will just link to it.

 

The Xbox was supposed to have DVR functions right? maybe you could record tv shows and upload them to the cloud so it doesn't take up space on the Xbox? That would be a good use for the unlimited cloud storage.

 

 

Is there anything you can't portray in a negative way?

 

This is excellent news, I never filled up my cloud storage on my 360 but this is definitely welcome. Remember people, you won't be able to store things like games because even though its in the cloud. You've still got to download that data so you'd essentially be downloading the game again. This means you don't have to worry about game saves anywhere.

 

 

Everything has its positives and its negatives, so probably not.

 

But I wasn't trying to be negative it was a real question as to what people would actually use the storage for. 

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**** yeah!  Unlimited gigabytes for my 100kb save files.

 

Errr.... movies, music, pictures, recording etc etc

 

 

Most likely another one of Microsoft's pipe dreams where they envisaged merging your Skydrive with their cloud computing for xbox one. As such, you could already argue that we already have that on the 360. Until you're actually using it and it works how Microsoft said it would, take it with a pinch of salt. 

 

I'm not sure the definition of 'pipe dream' is something that's certainly going ahead and is ready to go.  The truth is some people will try their level best to put a negative spin on anything.

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Errr.... movies, music, pictures, recording etc etc

 

 

I'm not sure the definition of 'pipe dream' is something that's certainly going ahead and is ready to go.  The truth is some people will try their level best to put a negative spin on anything.

+Agree with you.

When they offer something for you free, people complains about it being free. When they don't offer, they still complain that it's not free.

That's why people like them should be forced to pay till they die.

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+Agree with you.

When they offer something for you free, people complains about it being free. When they don't offer, they still complain that it's not free.

That's why people like them should be forced to pay till they die.

 

You do pay for it, its not free. XBL subscription.

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You do pay for it, its not free. XBL subscription.

 

Microsoft has now stated that this service will now be available for all users whether Gold or Silver.

Doesn't this basically mean it's free?

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You do pay for it, its not free. XBL subscription.

Last time I checked, Silver was free.

 

Read the OP first.

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Things new here are these,

- Cloud storage without gold

- Unlimited cloud storage for game saves+profiles

We already have "unlimited" storage for Games, Movies and Music on Xbox 360. ;)

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So I can watch my movies and listen to my music at home? where my movies and music already is. awesome!

 

Also you don't need dedicated 'cloud' space to play games while they are downloading that is just silly, download a game to the 'cloud' server just so you can download it from the 'cloud' server?

When you start downloading a game it downloads the required game files first and then the early game stage onto your console so you can start playing, the download is directly from the Microsoft server where it stays and doesn't need to go to your personal cloud storage.

 

Games will not be stored in your personal cloud, it may be seen as being there but there is no point because Microsoft already will host the game data and will just link to it.

 

The Xbox was supposed to have DVR functions right? maybe you could record tv shows and upload them to the cloud so it doesn't take up space on the Xbox? That would be a good use for the unlimited cloud storage.

 

 

 

 

Your taking this way too literally, that's why I said think of as a digital locker. Look, I'm not saying its some huge feature, but it is nice. I just don't get the negative reaction by some.

 

Its not about a pool of storage like a hard drive where you upload any data you want. It seems clear that MS is leveraging cloud storage to offer a digital copy of any content you buy digitally. Initially, this would include any retail game you bought.

 

Think of it like music match features that are offered by all the major music subscription services. You let the service scan your music and then a digital collection is created for access across devices. That would have been the same for all games used on the X1.

 

That isn't happening for now, so what is left would be game saves, recordings, etc.

 

You guys are hung up on the 'unlimited' term, but I think the only reason they wanted to say that was to point out that you won't have to 'manage' your space like on the 360. There may be a limit on the backend for developers, but MS may simply keep consumers from having to worry about a limit by growing storage for each user dynamically as needed.

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