Xbox One owners have been told about an interesting new service is being built by Microsoft with their console games collection in mind.
The new Project xCloud, something that was talked about briefly at E3 2018, has been officially revealed today by the tech giant.
Microsoft is gearing up to make some significant changes to how they offer games to their Xbox customers, starting with what devices can be used.
Project xCloud is “a state-of-the-art global game-streaming technology that will offer you the freedom to play on the device you want without being locked to a particular device, empowering you, the gamers, to be at the centre of your gaming experience”.
That’s according to Microsoft, who has confirmed that their new game streaming service will make it possible to play thousands of games on your mobile phone.
The first tests are being run now on mobile phones and tablets paired with an Xbox Wireless Controller through Bluetooth.
Public tests won’t start until 2019, with Microsoft announcing they are also working on a new game-specific touch input overlay “that provides maximum response in a minimal footprint for players who choose to play without a controller.”
This is all exciting stuff; however, Microsoft does face some tough challenges when it comes to providing a top gaming experience.
As anyone who has used game streaming before knows, low latency is the number one thing needed when trying to play online, or offline.
Microsoft says they are working on new tech to help combat issues of high latency and quality drops.
They’ve confirmed that they are currently working at 10 megabits per second, a huge achievement if that can be maintained for hours.
“Developers and researchers at Microsoft Research are creating ways to combat latency through advances in networking topology, and video encoding and decoding,” a statement from Kareem Choudhry, Corporate Vice President, Gaming Cloud, explains.
“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.”
Microsoft has also confirmed that they have plenty of data centres in both the United States and Europe to handle the challenges of keeping fps and graphics quality in check.
“With datacenters in 54 Azure regions and services available in 140 countries, Azure has the scale to deliver a great gaming experience for players worldwide, regardless of their location,” the statement from Choudhry adds.
“Delivering a high-quality experience across a variety of devices must account for different obstacles, such as low-latency video streamed remotely, and support a large, multi-user network.
“In addition to solving latency, other important considerations are supporting the graphical fidelity and framerates that preserve the artist’s original intentions, and the type of input a player has available.”
These challenges will become much easier to solve with the launch of 5G on mobile devices, however, until then, cloud gaming will rely on new tech to help make it a pleasant experience.