The ability to play over 3.500 Xbox titles existing or the 1.900 that are in development without the need for a console sounds very good. That is what Project xCloud wants to offer, a proposal that we already knew something about and now we have new details.
The pinnacle for the Xbox brand
It's been months since we met Project xCloud, the streaming video game platform that Microsoft was working on. Now, from the hand of Kareem Choudhry, head of cloud games at Microsoft, we know some extra details and everything looks very good.
As published in the section of xbox web news, the servers that will bring the project to life are already implemented in data centers in 13 Azure regions. These have been chosen to strengthen the platform's arrival in what, for Microsoft, are now its main markets: North America, Europe and Asia. That, of course, does not mean that it will not reach other places once everything starts rolling.
With a hardware very similar to that of the Xbox, Microsoft intends to allow you to play any of the more than 3.500 titles available between the three generations of Xbox that have existed. A proposal that is complemented by the 1.900 titles that are in development for the platform.
All without the need for extra effort on the part of the developers. With tests that have already started with companies like Capcom or Paradox, the idea is that they continue to focus on creating new games and not adapting anything to work on xCloud. What's more, what they can do if they want is to take advantage of a new API called "IsStreaming". With this, they could identify when they are playing through xCloud and on which device, which would give them the possibility of modifying some element of the interface or adapting the control.
Of course, with all this the Redmond company is not saying that it is going to kill console as we know it. On the contrary, they are aware of the advantages that dedicated hardware brings, and how being able to connect it to a 4K TV to enjoy higher resolution, HDR support, surround sound, etc. improves the experience.
The idea of Microsoft with xCloud it is simply offering the same advantage that users have with music or video. That ability to take all that content with them and no matter where they go, to play it whenever they want from the device they want.
That's the idea, to give the user the ability to continue or start games on Xbox games they like no matter where they are and what gear they have with them. Or almost, because together with Xbox and PC, they would be the mobile devices (iOS and Android) those who could access the service.
Public test by the end of the year
Now, after internal tests, the xCloud servers are ready to start with the first public tests. Here it is expected that in the coming weeks, possibly during the Microsoft event during E3 which is now held in June, let's know some more details.
For now we have to wait, but it is logical that with ads like this one or the one from Google with Stadia There is no doubt, the future of the video game goes through streaming. Although it does not abandon the console as we know it.