Microsoft has postponed the release of the hardware, codenamed Keystone because it will deviate from the current version.

We’ve heard that Microsoft is working on a device about the size of a USB flash drive. You plug it into your TV, and you can play games from the cloud through that. The Redmond-based company is already working on a solution: it’s codenamed Keystone in-house (so NOT what it will be called when it hits the shops; for example, Windows Vista was codenamed Longhorn!). However, Windows Central has received an announcement from Microsoft asking for time.

“Our vision for Xbox Cloud Gaming is unwavering. Our goal is to enable people to play the games they want on their devices and anywhere they want. As announced last year, we’ve been working on a game-streaming device, codename Keystone, that could be connected to any TV or monitor without needing a console.

As part of any technical journey, we constantly evaluate our efforts, review our learnings, and ensure we are bringing value to our customers. We have decided to pivot away from the current iteration of the Keystone device. We will take our learnings and refocus our efforts on a new approach that will allow us to deliver Xbox Cloud Gaming to more players worldwide in the future,” the company wrote. However, they should get their servers to work because DRM on even offline games purchased from the Microsoft Store makes them inaccessible if the servers go down. It was something the company has suffered from recently.

So don’t expect the Keystone device to appear at the Xbox E3 coverage in June. In less than two weeks, even one of the biggest tech companies in the world couldn’t create a well-functioning and affordable (!!!) streaming stick from scratch. Not to mention mass production. So it seems realistic that we might see the release of this device in 2023.

The question is, of course, what the company will name it… we dare not think about that.

Source: WCCFTech