Microsoft intends to enter into the world of streaming video games and, therefore, announced today Project xCloud, a service that will enable the streaming of the Xbox One games on computers, smartphones and tablets.
According to the reports, the company is currently testing the platform and should begin the public testing phases in 2019. In a publication on the official website, Microsoft said that studios could take advantage of the project without “additional work.”
“Our goal with Project xCloud is to deliver a quality experience for all gamers on all devices that’s consistent with the speed and high-fidelity gamers experience and expect on their PCs and consoles,” the report said.
In Project xCloud’s presentation video, Phil Spencer, the Xbox division boss, along with other executives, poses the question: What if everyone in the world could play Halo?
The idea behind the question is that at this moment players from around the world, a number estimated by Microsoft at 2 billion, are separated by platforms. With such a service, which works on virtually every device, everyone would have access to Microsoft games.
The biggest hurdle in such a service is evidently the latency inherent in the Internet streaming of a game, but Microsoft believes that its Azure cloud technology is capable of solving the problem.
Microsoft has already conducted private testing of Project xCloud on 4G and 5G networks, using tablets and smartphones connected to an Xbox command over bluetooth. The public tests are scheduled for 2019.
The news was released a week after Google announced its own streaming platform, Project Stream, which came in closed beta this weekend and allows testers to play Google Chrome.