Project xCloud will receive Stream-exclusive games? Yes – Microsoft has already hinted that the Project xCloud will not only get a boost in its hardware but also in its software library, too…

„In terms of [Project xCloud] exclusives, we’re in early talks with first- and third- parties, but we don’t have any announcements to share. New content and IP takes eighteen months to two years to develop. The first thing that we’re doing is… just lifting and shifting content that doesn’t require any development changes into the cloud. So right away [with xCloud] we’ve got a platform that can run any of the 3000 games you can run on Xbox today,” Kareem Choudhry, Microsoft’s corporate vice president, told Stevivor in an interview at X019. That’s new: until now, Microsoft never talked about exclusive games on xCloud, but with this hint, it means Microsoft is going to directly follow Google Stadia’s example. (It will also get exclusive, internally developed titles – this effort is spearheaded by ex-Ubisoft employee Jade Raymond [Assassin’s Creed].)

Choudhry added that the xCloud’s SDK (Software Development Kit) has recently received a cloud-aware functionality. Why is it important? „So that the game knows at runtime [if it is] being streamed or not, [enabling developers] to make any changes that they want, specific to streaming — things like changing the font sizes or… changing some of their networking code to account for the fact that the server is in a data centre,” he said.

He also revealed that in the future, the data centres’ servers (which are currently Xbox One S-based) will also be upgraded to the Xbox Project Scarlett hardware: „We designed [Project] Scarlett with the cloud in mind as well, and just as you’re going to see our console product family evolve with that next generation, the cloud is going to evolve along with it.”

The xCloud preview program is expanding to Western Europe, Canada, India, and Japan next year.

Source: WCCFTech

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