Microsoft’s game streaming project reaches significant milestone

Microsoft’s upcoming game streaming service, Project xCloud, has reached a major new milestone.

Read our E3 2019 dates schedule for every conference and live stream date.

Xbox boss Phil Spencer said on Twitter that the technology is now at a stage where Microsoft employees can test it in their homes in a real world environment, ahead of the planned launch of public trials later this year.

xCloud was announced at E3 2018 and is expected to be shown in further detail at this year’s Xbox E3 briefing.

According to a report on tech site Thurrott, Microsoft has considered the possibility of demoing xCloud running from someone’s house and not on-stage, where the demo might appear scripted and heavily controlled.

Kareem Choudhry, CVP of Gaming Cloud at Microsoft, said of the service in March: “While our vision for the technology is complementary to the ways in which we use consoles today, Project xCloud will also open the world of Xbox to those who may not otherwise own traditional, dedicated gaming hardware.

“True console-quality gaming will become available on mobile devices, providing the two billion-plus gamers around the world a new gateway to previously console and PC exclusive content.”

To illustrate the point, Microsoft used an Inside Xbox stream to demo Forza Horizon 4 running on xCloud hardware in a date centre, streamed to an Android phone attached to an Xbox One controller via Bluetooth.