Polymega – the all-in-one, modular retro gaming platform which will allow you to play your original NES, SNES, Mega Drive, PC Engine, PlayStation and Saturn games on a single system – has added cloud gaming support to its arsenal ahead of its official launch this year.
The creators of the console have already confirmed impressive software support for vintage games and the possibility of an online store to rival the Virtual Console, but this latest piece of news is more forward-thinking; by offering support for "current-gen" cloud gaming services, the Polymega takes one step towards being the only console you need under your TV.
Given the rather tepid response to cloud gaming platforms like Google's Stadia, that might be a rather lofty objective, but by offering such support it does at least mean that Polymega will be capable of much more than just playing old games.
Here's the statement from the team behind the system:
As everyone knows, there’s a ton of ways of playing old games, and there’s also plenty of ways to play new games, too. However, there’s zero products on the market today that are capable of playing both the vast majority of legacy physical games, and cutting edge new games on one system that’s modern, easy to use, and most importantly, legal.
In the near future, mainstream adoption of a new technology called cloud gaming may disrupt the current-gen video game console business. If and when this happens, we think it’s going to create a short window of opportunity for an insurgent new product to seize a big piece of the console video games market. If you’ve paid attention to our interviews and media in the past, you’ve seen us drop hints about this.
We’ve been carefully moving the chess pieces for years to put Polymega into a unique and advantageous position to blur the lines between the past, present, and future of gaming — and this is the last piece of critical information people who are interested in this product should know.
So today, we’re excited to formally announce that Polymega will support current gen game streaming services. Build your ideal playlist with the most advanced and visually intense games on the market today, streamed directly to your Polymega – while also having physical backwards compatibility with thousands of classic CD and cartridge-based games. Play it all through one incredible user experience.
We’ll be showing more of this functionality working on Polymega in the very near future, as well as provide formal announcements around the services we’ll be supporting, and anticipated release date later this Summer.
In the same update, it was also confirmed that while the second wave of beta test units will be mailed out this month, the launch of the final Polymega hardware has been delayed by "around one month" so the online OTA update system can be tested fully. This isn't the first time the Polymega has been hit with a delay; it was originally supposed to arrive in 2019. Are you still waiting patiently for your pre-ordered system? Let us know with a comment.
This article was originally published by nintendolife.com on Mon 1st June, 2020.
[source polymega.com]
Comments 35
Worst idea ever....no one that bought this wanted modern game support. If they wanted to do this they should have just pushed it as a firmware update. I'm sure the release date will slip again too.
@Synthatron_Prime I think the aim is to add cloud support later anyway, so it won't impact the launch. I see no issue with this being added - if you don't want to make use of it then there's no reason to, but a lot of people will see this as a bonus.
@Damo You may be correct but I think most people that put money into this would rather see support for other older consoles worked on (either disc or module) rather than time and resources wasted on modern game streaming. You can already stream a million ways. Why add 1 more? Especially to what is supposed to be a retro gaming console. They are spreading themselves too thin when it's already proven they can't keep up with what they have.
I love the whole retro system but the price will be to high for this. I will stick with my original tech, Mame, My Retron 5.
Yikes, they should really work on just getting the things out the door in working order before comitting to something like that.
I think when streaming does become the norm that'll be the time to retire from new games for me.
My Homebrewed Wii can play 14 classic consoles and their full libraries all the way back from the MAME, 2600, NES, GB/GBA, SEGA MS/GN/GG/CD, MS-X 1&2, Turbo-Grafx16, Neo-Geo Pocket, N64, and OpenBOR. Hell it even has it's own classic Doom port with mods, an arcade perfect port of Outrun and you can watch porn on it. Beat that you fake retro console!
@Damo It’s just an excuse for more delays.
This thing has had so many delays and sounds like it’s still nowhere near ready to ship any time soon.
Just to let people know, it will in fact not have all the streaming services as Stadia, GeForce Now, and xCloud (It will be added to GamePass once the preview is over at no additional cost) are all competing services and some of them do not play nice together or want to be on the same devices. At best they will end up with two of them.
If you want to play streaming games you will be buying a $99 or less box to stream games with. No one would spend this kind of money for that.
@Jokerwolf "It will be added to GamePass once the preview is over at no additional cost"
Has that been officially confirmed that there will be no additional cost? From what I recall they haven't said one way or the other but perhaps I missed it.
Hopefully they add Netflix next, then it will really fly off the shelves!!!
Good for them! Base unit still a disgraceful rip off @ $400!
@redd214 xCloud will be added to GamePass at no additional cost as far as I can tell. I know the ability to stream your own console anywhere is going to be a free feature even without GamePass once the preview is over sometime in the fall which is very nice. I can tell you though, MS wins the game streaming battle, been using their xCloud servers on the beta/preview and it is damn nice, not one disconnect that wasn't my fault and very few hiccups.
@Jokerwolf yes I know how it works, been using xcloud for months now. I'm also aware that it's being added to Gamepass. However I was asking if Microsoft has officially said that the cost will not be going up. That is one detail they have not definitively said as far as I know.
@NoPhysicalNoBuy Beta units are already out there - I think it's the real deal now.
@redd214 Best guess people have had is it will be part of GamePass Ultimate and not the base GamePass which is fair enough if they take that route.
shouldnt they worry about getting the thing shipped first
@Jokerwolf that's what I've guessed as well, was just wondering if they had confirmed and I missed the news. Glad you're enjoying the preview as well
@redd214 Ya! I am blown away by how seamless it is!
This is just the latest way to push the "release date," this is never coming out. Vaporware baby! It checks all the boxes.
Polymega is doom`d !!!
Well this is a very interesting development. Let's see how it pans out. . . .
All these talks and it still not out yet, they couldn't even tell us what cloud gaming scam they are supporting either. Why even announce anything when nothing is ready?
I'll genuinely amazed if this thing ever does actually see the light of day and delivers on the hype.
It's not NEEDED for streaming you fools. It's a fun option.
Quit looking for a reason to hate it and see the versatility of streaming.
Wake up! You're all just parroting YouTube lies.
@jokerwolf, @redd214
From what I’ve read, it will be free to use your own Xbox to stream games using xcloud. When using MS servers instead (for a game you don’t have installed) there will be an additional cost. No confirmation on whether the additional cost will be rolled into ultimate “for free” or not
All I'm really interested in with something like this is the emulation quality, and since the core unit is still system on a chip, it's doubtful this thing will be any better than a retropi or any number of non-fpga systems. I'm not paying $250 for brute force imperfect emulation and some novelty features.
@Jokerwolf gamepads will become xcloud. Just a fyi
Rather than cloud gaming, I wanted this device to support N64, GBA and Game Boy. Just one more step in the wrong direction.
This is a mistake, i hate cloud gaming and i think a large part of the audience for this does.
@Dirty0814 Not sure what you mean lol.
@Coalescence it’s now $399 just for the base unit, they put the price up to probably try and make up for the large amount of cancelled pre-orders.
@Deanster101 mother of god. This thing is such a scam.
So this toaster now makes coffee too!
Why?
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