Game streaming isn’t really something new for mobile devices. Many developers and publishers have tried their hand at things but the end result is usually never worth your time. Valve’s implementation is great and Eli has been using it for a while but Apple wasn’t a fan of people buying games elsewhere to enjoy on iOS. In fact, Steam Link for iOS has still not been approved while Android users have been enjoying it for months now. Today, Microsoft unveils Project xCloud that will let you stream thousands of Xbox One games to phones and tablets across the globe. Watch the reveal for it below:
Microsoft’s view of the future of gaming lets you play whatever you want, whenever you want, on whatever device you want, and with whoever you want. They want to reduce the barriers for everyone to enjoy games through streaming. Project xCloud has planned public trials for 2019 and developers who have and will release games on Xbox One will have to do no additional work. Microsoft wants to give iOS and Android gamers access to thousands of games not available on mobile through their state of art streaming technology. If this actually does work well, Forza Horizon on the go will be a reality.
This project is a multi year journey for Microsoft and will leverage a new customisable blade that hosts multiple parts of multiple Xbox One consoles that will scale across Azure locations across the world. Right now, Project xCloud runs on phones and tablets with an Xbox Wireless Controller paired through Bluetooth. They are working on a touch input method for those who don’t want to use or buy a controller. Right now, it needs 10 megabits per second bandwidth but the aim is to get it working on much slower connections as well. I can’t wait to see how this ends up working and to see how Apple blocks it once again given their past actions with any form of game streaming content from other platforms to iOS devices.
