What you need to know
- Project xCloud is Microsoft's upcoming game streaming service.
- More datacenters are being added.
- Leading developers like Capcom and Paradox Interactive are already testing it.
- Public trials should launch in 2019.
Project xCloud is Microsoft's upcoming game streaming technology. WIthout any modifications, all Xbox One games can run through the cloud and can be played on any device. While everyone may be talking about Google Stadia, that hasn't stopped the company from dropping new details about Project xCloud. Today, we got a better understanding of its industry support.
Microsoft's Corporate Vice President of Gaming Cloud Kareem Choudhry said the following in a post on Xbox Wire. We didn't know that leading teams such as Capcom and Paradox Interactive now have the ability to easily test their games directly from Project xCloud without having to port to a new platform.
Our vision for Xbox is that you can play the games you want, with the people you want, on the devices you want. Project xCloud brings us closer to fully realizing that vision... We recently rolled out an alpha version to Microsoft employees through our take-home program and are using the feedback to make improvements, ensuring Project xCloud offers customers a great experience... We want to make it as easy as possible for developers to make their games available to all gamers with support for existing games, those currently in development, and future games. The power of Project xCloud... comes from Azure datacenters spanning the globe, with hardware that shares a common set of components with our Xbox consoles. We've already deployed our custom Project xCloud blades to data centers across thirteen Azure regions with an initial emphasis on proximity to key game development centers in North America, Asia, and Europe. Leading global development teams such as Capcom and Paradox Interactive now have the ability to easily test their games directly from Project xCloud without having to port to a new platform. This is just the beginning of our buildout, with our ultimate goal of supporting gamers in Azure regions around the world. Today you can play three generations of amazing games on Xbox One. That means that Project xCloud has the technical capability to stream more than 3,500 games, without any changes or modifications required by a developer. In other words, developers will be able to dramatically scale their existing games across devices, with no additional development, no additional code base maintenance, and no separate updates. When a developer updates the Xbox One version of their title, those updates will also apply to all versions available on Project xCloud without any additional work. There are currently more than 1,900 games in development for Xbox One, all of which could run on Project xCloud... We also recently added enhancements to our standard Xbox Developer Kit... to add support for streaming.
It'll be interesting to see how much support Project xCloud will launch with. We should find out soon because the streaming service should enter public trials this year.
Which games do you want to play on Project xCloud? Would you prefer it over a traditional experience? Let us know.
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