At this year’s E3 conference, Microsoft teased a streaming service which would allow gamers to play console quality games on any device they want. Today, it officially announced the platform, called Project xCloud.
[jwplayer ufxzSg8Y]
The company released a video that explains the details and gives a little taste of how it all functions. Users will be able to play with a controller or even via touchscreen controls, similar to those on current mobile games.
Essentially, Project xCloud works by outsourcing the work a PC or gaming console would usually do to the cloud, which leaves your device free to simply display the images. Assuming the team has found a way to keep latency low, this would indeed allow for graphics far superior to what a smartphone or an iPad can currently run.
You can check out more details in the clip below.
“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,” Microsoft said via a blog post.
“We’ve enabled compatibility with existing and future Xbox games by building out custom hardware for our datacenters that leverages our years of console and platform experience.”
In other words, they’re keen to make upcoming games like Red Dead Redemption 2 or Fallout 76 playable on the platform. It’s currently being tested, but there are plans to extend that to the public at some point next year.
The biggest downfall with something like this is the need for a strong internet connection. Streaming a game will likely require much more data than your average Netflix stream, so playing on the go could be challenging with mobile data restrictions. More importantly, Australia‘s internet is ass at the best of times, which could mean a second-rate experience for us here.
Either way, it’s exciting to see what could well be the next era of gaming beginning to unfold.
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