Microsoft’s Project xCloud Rollout Hits 13 Regions, Capcom, Paradox Testing
Microsoft’s take on cloud-gaming — an approach to game development and deployment that theoretically makes games playable on any system without the need for porting — continues its rollout, with the company on Friday detailing work they’re doing with developers Capcom and Paradox Interactive.
Project xCloud now has custom server blades at Azue datacenters in 13 regions with an emphasis on “proximity to key game development centers in North America, Asia, and Europe,” according to a post on Xbox Wire by Kareem Choudhry, Corporate Vice President – Gaming Cloud, Microsoft. “Leading global development teams such as Capcom and Paradox Interactive now have the ability to easily test their games directly from Project xCloud without having to port to a new platform. This is just the beginning of our buildout, with our ultimate goal of supporting gamers in Azure regions around the world.”
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Choudhry notes that as of today “you can play three generations of amazing games on Xbox One. That means that Project xCloud has the technical capability to stream more than 3,500 games, without any changes or modifications required by a developer. In other words, 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. 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.”
There are more than 1,900 games in development for Xbox One, all of which can run on Project xCloud, he said.
The update comes with E3 — the game industry’s annual celebration of upcoming video games and the tech that drives them — looming less than a month away.
Cloud gaming — which Microsoft, Google, EA, and others are either working on or have said they’re interested in pursuing — is sure to be a big focus at the show. The advent of true cloud gaming would mean that people could play high-end PC and console-quality games without the need of special hardware like a Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, or Xbox.
It could also completely change the paradigm when it comes to how games are purchased, owned, and played.
“Project xCloud is an exciting journey that we are all on together,” Choudhry wrote. “We can’t wait to invite the community to provide feedback, help us shape it and participate in development in a very open and transparent way.”
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