Microsoft is working on a Netflix-like streaming service for games

It seems like Microsoft is already looking at a future of gaming that is beyond what it is today. As per a report by The Verge, the company has unveiled a new gaming cloud division that would be headed by Kareem Choudhry, who has been a Microsoft employee for 20 years and has worked on Outlook, DirectX, and Xbox Engineering. In an interview with the website, Choudhry said that the new service would work in a manner similar to Netflix. He said, “We believe there is going to be 2 billion gamers in the world, and our goal is to reach every one of them.” The new service would employ a subscription based model, similar to the company’s Xbox Game Pass. 

The report notes that the company is planning to launch the Xbox game streaming service within three years and will be a big part of the company’s cloud gaming division. Choudhry notes that there are a “bunch of thing” that need to come together,  including making a business model that will attract third parties. 

Choudhry also noted that the new service could be used by all gamers regardless of the platform that they are on. Since the game itself is stored on the cloud and simply streamed to users, the games would not be confined by hardware. However, asking other rival console makers like Sony and Nintendo to support the service could be tricky. Back in 2016, the company had announced support for cross-play. A feature that would allow Xbox gamers to play multiplayer games with PlayStation and PC gamers. However, the company only enabled support for this feature with the hope that developers would support it in future releases. However, since announcement, no major games have supported the feature between the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Fornite might be the game that manages to break the divide between the two consoles.

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