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Microsoft's xCloud Capable of Streaming 3,500 Xbox Games

Microsoft is telling game developers porting existing Xbox games to the company's upcoming cloud gaming service will be easy. 'Developers will be able to dramatically scale their existing games across devices, with no additional development,' a company executive said.

By Michael Kan
May 24, 2019
Microsoft Project xCloud

A big question facing Microsoft's upcoming cloud gaming service is what you'll be able to play. So far, the company hasn't said much. But on a technical level, the Microsoft xCloud service will be capable of streaming any Xbox game ever made —without any changes needed by the developer.

"That means that Project xCloud has the technical capability to stream more than 3,500 games," Microsoft vice president Kareem Choudhry said in a blog post on Friday.

The statement isn't really a surprise. To develop the xCloud gaming service, Microsoft has been building custom servers using Xbox One hardware, which is built to play three generations of Xbox games going back to the original console.

The real takeaway is how game makers can port their existing titles to the new platform. According to Choudhry, it'll be easy. "Developers will be able to dramatically scale their existing games across devices, with no additional development, no additional code base maintenance and no separate updates," Choudhry said.

"When a developer updates the Xbox One version of their title, those updates will also apply to all versions available on Project xCloud without any additional work," he added.

Getting developer support for xCloud will be crucial for Microsoft. The company is competing against Google's own cloud gaming service, Stadia, which is slated to launch later this year.

However, translating Xbox games over to xCloud may give Microsoft a key advantage in the game streaming market. According to Choudhry, more than 1,900 games are in development for the current Xbox One console. Leading game developers such as Capcom and Paradox Interactive also now have access to test their games over the xCloud platform.

"We've already deployed our custom Project xCloud blades to datacenters across 13 Azure regions with an initial emphasis on proximity to key game development centers in North America, Asia and Europe," Choudhry added.

The company has also been letting Microsoft employees test an alpha version of xCloud. You can expect public trials of the service to begin later this year.

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PCMag Logo Google unveils new gaming platform Stadia

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About Michael Kan

Senior Reporter

I've been with PCMag since October 2017, covering a wide range of topics, including consumer electronics, cybersecurity, social media, networking, and gaming. Prior to working at PCMag, I was a foreign correspondent in Beijing for over five years, covering the tech scene in Asia.

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