During the London Games Conference this week, Microsoft spoke out about the concept of "cloud gaming," basically dismissing the driving force behind the upcoming OnLive video game system and its seeming rival, Gaikai.

Xbox Live EMEA boss Jerry Johnson told those in attendance that such streaming machines will "NOT be mass market," or at least, not "for the foreseeable future."

"...streaming technology is something that the industry is betting on longer term... right now I don't believe that technology can scale out against the experience we can offer on a local machine," he stated.

"The technology will continue to improve," he adds. "As an industry we'll have to accept that and move with it - but I don't think it's on an accelerated timeline for the foreseeable future."