Xbox One has "infinite" cloud grunt, power of ten Xbox 360's - Microsoft

Xbox One engineering manager Jeff Henshaw has said the processing power of the new console is literally limitless.

Speaking at a console demonstration, as reported by GamesIndustry, Henshaw said the Xbox One has "the computational power of more than 10 Xbox 360 consoles" but that "the cloud brings infinite additional processing power".

"Microsoft has hundreds of thousands of servers and dozens of data centers geographically distributed all around the planet, and Xbox One has the ability to instantly tap in to that limitless computational horsepower," he said.

Because of its ability to draw on "virtualized cloud computing resources", the Xbox One can process tasks "without even breaking a sweat" that would cause any other device to "melt a hole in the ground".

"Game developers can now create persistent worlds that encompass tens or hundreds of thousands of players without taxing any individual console, and those worlds that they built can be lusher and more vibrant than ever before because the cloud persists and is always there, always computing," Henshaw said.

"Those worlds can live on in between game sessions. If one player drops out, that world will continue on and can experience the effects of time, like wear from weather damage, so that when a player comes back into the universe it's actually a slightly evolved place in the same way that our real world evolves a little bit from the time we go to sleep to the time we wake up. Game developers have given us incredibly positive feedback on the crazy different ways that they can use this incredible new cloud power resource."

The Xbox One will launch in November in 21 territories for $499.