Project xCloud – Play Xbox Games on a Phone

Microsoft has announced a new service, named Project xCloud. It will allow games from the huge Xbox One library to be played on smartphones and tablets. The developers claim Project xCloud as a revolutionary step in the industry – it puts players at the center of their gaming universe. The release of a version for public testing is planned for 2019.

This isn’t the first such service from a big company – recently, Google started beta-testing of the service Project Stream with very similar functionality.

The idea of Project xCloud looks very interesting:

Microsoft has demonstrated the ability to play on a smartphone with the Xbox One controller, connected through Bluetooth. Still, the company emphasizes its efforts to adapt games to touchscreen control.

We are developing a new, game-specific touch input overlay that provides maximum response in a minimal footprint for players who choose to play without a controller, - Microsoft says in the official blog post.

Comparing Projects Stream and xCloud, that of Microsoft might have an advantage. The company has been in the gaming industry for a long time, and quite successfully. For the manufacturer of Xbox consoles, it’ll be rather easy to make agreements with developers about streaming games. Also, Microsoft Studios itself produces excellent game titles.

For xCloud, Microsoft is going to use its cloud services Azure, located all over the world.

It seems like Project xCloud is a nice decision for Microsoft – the Xbox One is not very successful in competition with the PlayStation 4.

The idea of this streaming service is to make various games available regardless of the device you own. So far, it looks unrealizable – there is almost no chance that Microsoft will reach an agreement with Sony and Nintendo about streaming PlayStation exclusives or the original Nintendo games (Mario, Zelda, Pokémon).

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