Written by Kyle Von Lanken
The writing has been on the wall for years that the future of gaming is in the cloud--so it’s no surprise that Microsoft caught onto this phenomenon fairly early on in the game (no pun intended) and began working on Project xCloud at least earlier than their tease about the service at E3 2018.
It would, however, be remiss to ignore the fact that other gaming companies were also at work on or were already offering their own cloud gaming services. With PlayStation offering PSnow and Google offering its entire gaming service solely on the cloud via Stadia, how has Microsoft managed to compete with the other tech giants on the cloud gaming front?
In reality, the answer is indeed quite simple and can be broken down into two vitally important factors of the equation: Game Pass and device diversity.
While Sony has opted to use their PSnow cloud gaming service as a means for their players to access titles from console generations past, the only way to access this is by first owning a PlayStation device. Microsoft on the other hand, has taken a different, much more accessible route. For those who have subscribed to Game Pass Ultimate, games from generations both current and past are available to those who don’t even own an Xbox console.
Even if you only have an Android phone or tablet, there is a growing number of games available for you to play on the cloud if you are a member of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
On the other side of the coin, Google’s Stadia offers a cloud only gaming experience with no hardware options at all whatsoever. While quite possibly ahead of its time, with internet service speeds and availability still varying wildly, the world just isn’t ready for a cloud only gaming experience. It is here that Microsoft has struck the delicate balance between offerings that are hardware based (Xbox consoles and PCs) and offerings that are strictly cloud based (tablets and phones). If you have slow internet but a hardware based console, you’ve got gaming options with Xbox. If you have a solid internet connection but only a tablet or phone to your name, you’ve still got gaming options with Xbox.
At this point in time, a mix of hardware based and cloud based gaming options working in tandem under the hood of the Xbox name has allowed Microsoft to get their foot in the door better than any other gaming company to date, paving the way for the future of cloud gaming.
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