Microsoft is currently developing a way to make gaming become more like Netflix, which is a successful library of movie that offers online streaming.
Microsoft has been in the console gaming business ever since the release of their first Xbox in 2001. Although that quite late compared to the company’s competitors, Microsoft has been constantly making efforts to topple its peers. This time, Microsoft’s idea is to transform gaming into something like Netflix.
As the later generation of consoles is coming with a more powerful the one before, which requires more powerful hardware to run it. Unfortunately, the later generation of hardware is pretty expensive, thus, players can’t properly experience the newest games on older versions of hardware. The problem can be seen in PC gaming as well.
It has been a struggle for gamers to keep their hardware up to date, and even more so when players have to spend their money on games to play on it. However, Microsoft has seen through this problem, and they currently have an ingenious method for it.
It is obvious that there is not much to console sales, players don’t regularly upgrade their hardware. However, when people don’t buy your consoles, the same can be said for your games.
Microsoft initial goal is to provide players with high-quality gaming whether they own an up to date platform or not. Thus, cloud gaming is the only way for them to achieve that.
Basically, when you’re streaming a movie on Netflix, you don’t have to actually download the movie at all or even have a hard disk at all. Microsoft’s project xCloud will work the same way.
And it just what is left is a device that could run the game, which can be a smartphone or a PC. xCloud will let you stream the game, and the server side will run all the processing. All it takes now is a good internet connection, then you can play the newest high-graphics console game with a mid-level device.
The xCloud project has been teased by Microsoft for a while now, with a recent demonstration on a Samsung Galaxy, which was running games such as Forza and Halo. The platform is planned to go live this year. And Microsoft is having their fingers crossed hoping that the platform will become a standard in gaming in the future.
However, they are not the only pioneer in this development, Google is currently testing their Project Stream, Nvidia’s GeForce Now has been in beta for the past three years, however, without any information about the official release date. Moreover, Amazon, Nintendo, and Sony are reportedly joining the train as well.
Despite the late head start, Microsoft has already announced their official release, which makes them the lead in the development of game streaming services. For starter, you can expect to pay a certain subscription fee for the service, similar to Netflix, and Xbox games will be available on your phone.