Gaming will go cloud-based "someday", says MS's Spencer

Microsoft Studios boss Phil Spencer has said all gaming will be based in the cloud "someday", but stressed that day is far out for now.

"Cloud is a huge opportunity. And someday, yes, someday," Spencer said to IGN.

"But if you look at the internet capabilities today, it's a challenge. Even, forget about games. If you said everybody was going to watch the Champions League Final concurrently via the internet at HD-level quality, the internet can't handle that.

"And that's just people watching a football game. That doesn't include the level of interactivity of a game and a two-way pipe going back and forth."

Spencer had a lot of praise for cloud service Gaikai, but said the cloud services of today weren't up to scratch to have full games in a stream only capability without disc.

"I like the work that Gaikai does, I play games on Gaikai, and if I get the right bandwidth situation they're actually good experiences," said Spencer.

“But today it's not really up to scale. You're still going to be pushing boxes out to people's houses that they're going to plug into the TV. That's what they're going to use to play their triple-A games. And I think that'll be the case for a while.

“But that's not trying to downplay what Gaikai is doing, because I think that it's great that they're investing in it.”