Microsoft's Project xCloud game delivery service has only been previewed for a month, but the library has already grown from four to more than 50 games and the company just announced that the service will be rolled out in Canada, India, Japan and Western Europe. But the plan is not to stop there, not even close.
The Microsoft team has high aspirations for Project xCloud, they want to see the streaming service on every possible device and possibly reach every player in the world.
But global dominance takes time, and Microsoft is in no rush to convert everyone to its game streaming service in the next six months.
We caught up with Kareem Choudhry, company vice president, and Catherine Gluckstein, CEO of Project xCloud, at a panel discussion at X019 to discuss the expansion, the xCloud roadmap, and how it would play out against Google Stadia.
Expand the service
(Image credit: Microsoft)
One of the biggest announcements from X019 is that Project xCloud will add 50 new titles to its preview library, along with the project to bring Project xCloud to PC next year.
If that wasn't enough, the xCloud project brief will also be coming to Canada, India, Japan, and Western Europe in 2020. Previously, this summary was only available in the UK and the United States, and while Canada and Western Europe appeared to be "safe bets", entering Japan and India is somewhat surprising.
According to the Internal Data Corporation (via CNBC), Japan has always struggled to make its mark on the Xbox, only 0.3% of the 46.9 million Xbox Ones sold worldwide (as of Q2019 XNUMX) Were in Japan. It is a risky move.
"Japan is a very big market for console games, but not a big market for Xbox," Gluckstein told LaComparacion. "It is very interesting to see how we play in this market, especially regarding the Preview."
"We are working with a ton of partners to bring the xCloud project to every device."
Catherine Gluckstein - Executive DirectorSimilarly, India is another area where Xbox has not shown its strength. But, with xCloud, it is something that society wants to try to rectify,
"India is a huge gaming market. I think there are more people playing in India than the US population, about 300 million people," says Gluckstein. "So a great game market, but a market that we've played in before. This is a really interesting place for us to learn."
But what does Microsoft want to learn from expanding its network, especially in areas where Xbox may have struggled to find its starting point?
"We are really looking to increase the number of players," Gluckstein said. "It's about testing the competition, really testing our platform and our efficiency as a broadcast platform, but also testing geographic areas."
"We will use Windows 10 computers next year, but we will not stop here, we are working with a ton of partners to integrate the xCloud project on every device. Anyone who has games on Xbox to play these games, and we will also integrate streaming to Xbox Game Pass, which will allow you to discover and play your games anywhere, anytime. "
By the playbook
(Image credit: Microsoft)
Deploying the service in all these areas may seem like a feat, especially since xCloud always previews itself, but Microsoft finds its formula to be well defined as well, logistically at least. The focus now is on how players interact with the platform. in addition.
"Now we have our playbook, it's like you're a retailer opening new stores," says Gluckstein. "We know the recipe book that we have to do in terms of who we need to collaborate with, what we are looking for in particular, so in all these markets we have a very clear attribute that we test and we have really focused on that."
But it's not just about new geographies that xCloud looks at. Currently, the service is only available on Android, at least publicly. We found that xCloud was running on an Apple device at X019 and it appears that the deployment projects on iOS are clearly in the viewer, although we don't know when.
"We see the potential to reach 2.600 billion players in the world"
Catherine Gluckstein - Executive Director"Our application is now operational," Gluckstein told us. "It is currently a prototype, we are testing it internally within Microsoft, and obviously we are talking with a wide range of partners, and we would certainly like to integrate it into the system." iOS ecosystem ".
Microsoft is really taking its time to feel xCloud. With the power of the monolithic company's servers at your disposal, the goals of serving "all devices" don't seem so ambitious to date. But don't expect to see a full version of xCloud anytime soon.
"We really see this as a multi-year journey," says Gluckstein. "So you have to be very careful about how you prioritize and prioritize your time and investments, and really determine where these initial gains are."
"Because we see the potential to reach 2.600 billion players in the world, but then there are their first customers and these are the ones we are trying to prioritize."
The streaming landscape
(Image credit: Google)
It's no secret that one of Project XCloud's biggest competitors will be Google Stadia, but it's not something that has bothered the team or their game plan, it's on the surface of the game. unless Microsoft is confident enough.
"We are more focused on the customer and what we can do for them than when we look over our shoulders," said Choudhry. "We really believe that the key ingredients are the three Cs: content, community and cloud. We have a phenomenal cloud of our own on Azure, spanning 54 regions and 140 countries." Therefore, the scope of the distribution is an incredible asset: the base of the content library, both the first and the third part of the Game Pass subscription, and we already have the dynamic multiplayer community.
"I think any company that wants to be successful in the broadcast business is going to need a strong historical legacy of investment and success in all three at the same time, and combining them." correctly... I like our position."
Project xCloud will remain in public preview for the foreseeable future, with Microsoft declining to comment on a release date or price.
"It was a very conscious decision to present the Project X cloud as a public preview," says Choudhry. "We have done something very similar with the console, we are rolling out new console updates for many consumers, we are receiving their feedback and we are having fun." Fixing that is more important to us than it is. To get something ".