Quantum Break on PC requires internet connection to stream all cutscenes

[Scorpus]

The version of Quantum Break that is coming to PC next month appears to be one of the most restrictive major game launches on the platform in some time. The game not only requires Windows 10, due to its use of DirectX 12, but also a consistent and reasonably fast internet connection.

Quantum Break requires an internet connection because the game's live action cutscenes are not included with the rest of the game's locally stored assets. In other words, the cutscenes are not downloaded to your hard drive along with everything else during the Windows Store installation process, and instead will be streamed from the cloud.

The reason why the cutscenes won't be downloaded (or included on the physical disc) is pretty straightforward: there are simply too many cutscenes, shot at a 4K resolution, to download and store in any sort of reasonable way. As explained by the game's narrative designer Greg Louden:

"We have 40 different variations of the show in total where basically your choices get to make it evolve and change... Then combined with that, the show length can change based on your decisions because some episodes are longer as a result and some episodes are shorter."

With 40 different variations of the live action cutscenes, all shot in 4K, you can see how it mightn't be feasible to store all these video files locally. Instead, the cutscenes will be streamed to gamers' PCs at up to 4K resolution, which will require a pretty decent internet connection depending on the quality that's being delivered.

Gamers in countries with decent fibre or cable internet connections without bandwidth or data caps won't be troubled by streaming cutscenes. On the other hand, anyone with a bad internet connection or low data cap might be annoyed at this requirement, and anyone wishing to play the game offline won't be able to do so.

Only some cutscenes will be included on the Xbox One version's disc, with the majority of cutscenes also being streamed, albeit at 1080p. Quantum Break will be released on both platforms on April 5th.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/63981-quantum-break-pc-requires-internet-connection-stream-all.html

 

[Burty117]

Yeah, so rather than giving PC users the option to either download the cut scenes or stream them, you're forcing everyone to stream them? Most PC gamers have quite large hard drives, somehow 40 different scenes that are probably only a couple of minutes long in 4k will be a fair few gigs, yes. But nothing as drastic as they are making it out to be, if it was, then streaming wouldn't be viable either.

Does the game keep a copy or cache of the streamed cut-scenes after you've played them? If not, why not and this just sounds like extreme DRM to me.

 

[EClyde]

I guess someone thinks it a good idea, not me but there are addicts of all forms so it'll fly

 

[Camikazi]

My guess is that the main reason they are doing this is to keep the scenes secret for at least a while, if the scenes are not on the discs or on the HDD then no one can find out the content unless they play every single possible option. I don't plan on getting this game anyway but this part alone would keep me from getting it until you can have all of it on local storage.

 

[yRaz]

Live action cut scenes in games have always been horrible, from production quality to acting. This is just one bad idea after another....

 

[EEatGDL]

Really, if we're already pushing the boundaries of games to up to 60 GB, Quantum Break being even 80-100 GB with the 4K clips wouldn't be a dealbreaker. Even better, let the user decide to download either 1080p or 4K version of the cutscenes on installation; for the people that don't have 4K displays and don't want to waste both bandwidth [downloading or streaming] nor storage space for a gimmick.

 

[Technician]

Bad business desicion, it should be a choice, better yet put it on a disc and let the player install all scenes to HD or run from disc.

 

[Arturo]

Hahahaha! It had to be Microsoft. They are always an obstacle. Obviously, I won't buy this game despite my internet moving at 500Mbits.

 

[gingerbill]

They really will do anything to try and get people on windows 10 , such a farce .

There is no way I will buy this game.

 

[Panda218]

Live action cut scenes in games have always been horrible, from production quality to acting. This is just one bad idea after another....

Command and Conquer used to have some pretty good live action cut scenes if I remember correctly.

Why is everyone so afraid of windows 10? It's not terribly hard to shut off the always online features and its not like they are charging you anything for the upgrade if you're running a system with Win7 or 8.

All that aside this game looks pretty horrible so who cares about its system requirements.

 

[yRaz]

Command and Conquer used to have some pretty good live action cut scenes if I remember correctly.

Why is everyone so afraid of windows 10? It's not terribly hard to shut off the always online features and its not like they are charging you anything for the upgrade if you're running a system with Win7 or 8.

All that aside this game looks pretty horrible so who cares about its system requirements.

Pre-EA C&C cutscenes were pretty good, have you seen the cutscenes from Tiberium wars and Tiberium twilight? You can plainly see the cardboard cut outs they used on set and the acting was atrocious. It's like they didn't even try. That said, the first red alert cutscenes were pretty awesome.

I just don't understand why they can't animate the cutscenes and use the data that's already in the game to render the cutscenes. Especially today where graphics quality in games is so high it's getting to be boarder line photorealistic.

 

[Panda218]

Pre-EA C&C cutscenes were pretty good, have you seen the cutscenes from Tiberium wars and Tiberium twilight? You can plainly see the cardboard cut outs they used on set and the acting was atrocious. It's like they didn't even try. That said, the first red alert cutscenes were pretty awesome.

I just don't understand why they can't animate the cutscenes and use the data that's already in the game to render the cutscenes. Especially today where graphics quality in games is so high it's getting to be boarder line photorealistic.

Yeah it's been a while since I played a C&C game. The last one I played you selected what role your HQ would be... I gave up on that one pretty quick

 

[DaveBG]

I automatically assume something is crap if it requires crap OS to run on so yeah... another failure of the locked windows 10 bull***

 

[Panda218]

I automatically assume something is crap if it requires crap OS to run on so yeah... another failure of the locked windows 10 bull***

Why is it a crap OS though? Everyone is good at complaining about Win8 and Win10, but no one ever explains their reasoning... I've used it for both work and personal since it was released and only have issues with GPO's working correctly in the office, but I love my rig at home that's running it.

 

[Thorney]

It is beacuse the Quantum Break show will change as affected by players and will be episodic it will not be available entirely when the game is released so PC players will stream it just like Xbox users, its no different than streaming Netflix so why the tears.

 

[robb213]

Live action cut scenes in games have always been horrible, from production quality to acting. This is just one bad idea after another....

Pre-rendered are right up there too. Don't know why they didn't just render the cutscene real time. I'd assume it would be cheaper than hiring a production company and so forth.

Pre-EA C&C cutscenes were pretty good, have you seen the cutscenes from Tiberium wars and Tiberium twilight? You can plainly see the cardboard cut outs they used on set and the acting was atrocious. It's like they didn't even try. That said, the first red alert cutscenes were pretty awesome.

I just don't understand why they can't animate the cutscenes and use the data that's already in the game to render the cutscenes. Especially today where graphics quality in games is so high it's getting to be boarder line photorealistic.

Yeah it's been a while since I played a C&C game. The last one I played you selected what role your HQ would be... I gave up on that one pretty quick

I thought all their cutscene, even in the original '95 Gold Edition were korny as hell. Tiberium Sun is still my favorite regardless of that though

 

[thorpj]

I automatically assume something is crap if it requires crap OS to run on so yeah... another failure of the locked windows 10 bull***

Why is it a crap OS though? Everyone is good at complaining about Win8 and Win10, but no one ever explains their reasoning... I've used it for both work and personal since it was released and only have issues with GPO's working correctly in the office, but I love my rig at home that's running it.

We're not saying Windows 10 doesn't work, nor necessarily that it's a bad OS, but all the shoddy decisions Microsoft have been making, surrounding it, are concerning.

For example: * Ads * preinstalled programs that keep reinstalling after I've removed them * the "windows 10 universal" games debacle * directx 12 only for win10 * they're constant moves to satisfy xbox gamers that have a pc, and not pc gamers* the way the previous three point reflects on their attitude towards PC gamers * forced automatic updates * privacy issues. I'm sure there's more that I've forgotten.

Windows 8 was terrible because of how it's so clearly meant for touchscreen devices, and using the metro ui at was incredibly frustrating. Windows 8.1 was fine, as long as you used a third party start menu.

 

[Technician]

Hahahaha! It had to be Microsoft. They are always an obstacle. Obviously, I won't buy this game despite my internet moving at 500Mbits.

Even if you had a faster internet connection it's a bad decision by Remedy on this one, it should be an option and it (and all games) should have an option to buy it on a disc. I don't know what Remedy Entertainment (Max Payne, Max Payne 2, Death Rally, Alan Wake) was thinking when they made that decision.
I am sure MS gave then enough money to do it differently if they wanted to.

 

[Technician]

Why is it a crap OS though? Everyone is good at complaining about Win8 and Win10, but no one ever explains their reasoning... I've used it for both work and personal since it was released and only have issues with GPO's working correctly in the office, but I love my rig at home that's running it.

Of those that use Steam, This is what OS they are running, the percentage using it, and the difference from last month.
Windows 7 64 bit
34.21%
-0.10%

Windows 10 64 bit
34.01%
+1.24%

Windows 8.1 64 bit
13.24%
-0.79%

Windows 7
7.80%
+0.03%

Windows XP 32 bit
2.39%
+0.08%

Windows 8 64 bit
1.71%
-0.19%

Windows 10
1.30%
+0.02%

Windows 8.1
0.37%
-0.03%

Windows Vista 32 bit
0.25%
-0.03%

Windows 8
0.16%
0.00%

Windows Vista 64 bit
0.12%
-0.02%

Windows 7 has fewer every month and WX gains more.

 

[Leonardo Muniz]

Yeah, so rather than giving PC users the option to either download the cut scenes or stream them, you're forcing everyone to stream them? Most PC gamers have quite large hard drives, somehow 40 different scenes that are probably only a couple of minutes long in 4k will be a fair few gigs, yes. But nothing as drastic as they are making it out to be, if it was, then streaming wouldn't be viable either.

Does the game keep a copy or cache of the streamed cut-scenes after you've played them? If not, why not and this just sounds like extreme DRM to me.

Some cutscenes take as long as 20 minutes, like a full blown episode from a TV series.

 

[Technician]

Some cutscenes take as long as 20 minutes, like a full blown episode from a TV series.

Another bad choice if that's true, who wants to watch a game? I want to play it. I hate youtube because that's so boring, it would be the same in my own game if the scenes are that long.

 

[DaveBG]

Why is it a crap OS though? Everyone is good at complaining about Win8 and Win10, but no one ever explains their reasoning... I've used it for both work and personal since it was released and only have issues with GPO's working correctly in the office, but I love my rig at home that's running it.

Are you REALLY saying you do not know the reasoning? Have you heard that MS steals even your keystrokes (in addition to all web sites visited, programs used etc.); Displaying adds in your LEGAL paid copy; removed multiple features Windows 7 users had; made it impossible for other software to change the default program like the default browser or PDF application etc. Not to mention the HORRIBLE tile "apps" that are so broken and dumb that if they were introduced with windows 7 everyone would think they are malware or at least junkware.. etc... etc... I am just scratching the surface.

 

[Alex M]

Why is it a crap OS though? Everyone is good at complaining about Win8 and Win10, but no one ever explains their reasoning... I've used it for both work and personal since it was released and only have issues with GPO's working correctly in the office, but I love my rig at home that's running it.

Are you REALLY saying you do not know the reasoning? Have you heard that MS steals even your keystrokes (in addition to all web sites visited, programs used etc.); Displaying adds in your LEGAL paid copy; removed multiple features Windows 7 users had; made it impossible for other software to change the default program like the default browser or PDF application etc. Not to mention the HORRIBLE tile "apps" that are so broken and dumb that if they were introduced with windows 7 everyone would think they are malware or at least junkware.. etc... etc... I am just scratching the surface.

Bla bla bla, so you "belive" that they have nothing better to do than to rummage through other ppl's trash ? Srsly, if M$ wants anything from your pc they can very well hack their way through...they designed it and know every back door to the system, and guess what, there's nothing you nor anybody else can do about it besides physically disconnecting the internet cable. And this is for every windows OS ever made.
The thing here is that they don't actually have any reason to do that, unless you give them one.And that my friend is your(or the user's) fault.

PS: not a native english speaker, so forgive my mistakes if you can.

 

[BSim500]

"The game not only requires Windows 10, due to its use of DirectX 12, but also a consistent and reasonably fast internet connection. Quantum Break requires an internet connection because the game's live action cutscenes are not included with the rest of the game's locally stored assets."

So what happens in a few years time after the sales have dried up but the ongoing cost of the game's server + bandwidth is deemed "not worth it" and the streaming server shut down? The game crashes due to half of it being missing? It won't even start? It'll be removed from your library and remotely uninstalled? Or you end up downloading a cracked "repacked" version by pirates who've helpfully captured, downscaled and recompressed the missing 4K streams (whose UltraHD res benefits all of 0.08% of gamers according to Steam HWSurvey) to 720p/1080p so you can actually play the game?

Is this really the "future" of gaming - a lame full priced time-limited rental complete with a glorified "kill-switch by design"? A few years back people were boycotting GFWL due to the "need" to be online just to save (and even then "cloud" saves regularly got corrupted). It's both amusing and sad to watch just how low modern gamers expectations have fallen with Microsoft's "new" GFWL-Reloaded (Windows 10 Store) just because "it's DX12".

Some cutscenes take as long as 20 minutes, like a full blown episode from a TV series.

And the problem with such low-interactivity "games" is that you might as well just watch someone else play it on Youtube for free...

 

[Camikazi]

Why is it a crap OS though? Everyone is good at complaining about Win8 and Win10, but no one ever explains their reasoning... I've used it for both work and personal since it was released and only have issues with GPO's working correctly in the office, but I love my rig at home that's running it.

Are you REALLY saying you do not know the reasoning? Have you heard that MS steals even your keystrokes (in addition to all web sites visited, programs used etc.); Displaying adds in your LEGAL paid copy; removed multiple features Windows 7 users had; made it impossible for other software to change the default program like the default browser or PDF application etc. Not to mention the HORRIBLE tile "apps" that are so broken and dumb that if they were introduced with windows 7 everyone would think they are malware or at least junkware.. etc... etc... I am just scratching the surface.

But my default browser and PDF app are not the MS ones and it was simple to do (in both Windows 8.1 and WIndows 10). Based on your faulty information right there the rest of what you said comes into question. As for the "keylogger" it is the same type of thing that Google and Apple Siri does to make Cortana work better and you can turn it off, overreacting much? I can't say much for ads since I have a retail version of Windows 10 and have not seen any ads at all but have heard that the free version might have some (surprise, actually it's not). I actually can't speak on the features removed since I have no run into them, I guess I don't use those features so can't comment. Overall you do a lot of typing but not much sense is being made, you need to work on that.