Microsoft has announced that it is working on a new project called Project xCloud that will let gamers stream Xbox games on a number of other devices like PCs, tablets and smartphones. The company says its goal is to deliver the same quality of gaming experience across all devices and it will start the public trials in 2019 so that it can learn and scale with different volumes and locations. Microsoft says that Project xCloud’s global game-streaming technology will offer gamers the freedom to play on the device they want without being locked to a particular device.
“Project xCloud provides gamers – whether they prefer console or PC – new choices in when and where they play, while giving mobile-only players access to worlds, characters and immersive stories they haven’t been able to experience before. To realise this vision, we must make it easy for developers to bring their content to Project xCloud. Developers of the more than 3,000 games available on Xbox One today, and those building the thousands that are coming in the future, will be able to deploy and dramatically scale access to their games across all devices on Project xCloud with no additional work,” Kareem Choudhry – Corporate Vice President, Gaming Cloud at Microsoft, said in a statement.
Microsoft says that it has enabled the compatibility with existing and future Xbox games by building out custom hardware for their datacentres. The company has “architected” a customisable blade that can host the component parts of multiple Xbox One consoles, as well as the associated infrastructure supporting it. The tech giant notes that over time, it will scale these custom blades in datacenters across Azure regions, including in India.
The Windows-maker said that it is currently testing Project xCloud. The test runs on devices, like mobile phones and tablets, which can be paired with an Xbox Wireless Controller through bluetooth, and the game is also playable using touch input. Not only that, the company claims that its developers and researchers at Microsoft Research are creating ways to combat latency through advances in networking topology, and video encoding and decoding.
“Project xCloud will have the capability to make game streaming possible on 4G networks and will dynamically scale to push against the outer limits of what’s possible on 5G networks as they roll out globally. Currently, the test experience is running at 10 megabits per second. Our goal is to deliver high-quality experiences at the lowest possible bitrate that work across the widest possible networks, taking into consideration the uniqueness of every device and network,” the executive noted.