In what has seemingly sneaked under the radar. Microsoft recently announced that it’s launching a cloud gaming division. Marking out to the rest of the gaming industry that they’re entering the world of game streaming. They’re taking it seriously too.

The verge are reporting that it’s something that’s been building up for quite some time. Recently the huge computing giant acquired small gaming focused cloud companies. PlayFab who focus on game development in the cloud are now a Microsoft company. Will we see an Xbox that’s solely focused on cloud gaming?

Microsoft basically have something similar with Xbox Game Pass. Think Netflix but for gaming. However, instead of streaming the games you download them, keeping the license for x amount of months until you stop paying the £15 a month. There aren’t many good games on there at the moment, but that will soon change. Microsoft recently announced that alongside catalogued games, games like Sea Of Thieves, State of Decay 2 and Crackdown 3. All HUGE titles for Microsoft are being made available on their subscription service.

Cloud Gaming Direction

Consequently, Microsoft’s announcement almost proves that they want to move away from their users downloading their games to streaming them. As that was a major criticism of many users. Not enough up to date games available on the Game Pass. The two recent announcements could hint at the direction Microsoft are taking.

While OnLive a cloud game streaming service, failed. Other platforms game streaming is alive and kicking. Playstation Now From Sony allows users to play PS4 games on their PC’s and Nvidia has GeForce Now (Beta) Microsoft obviosly isn’t saying anything to anyone. However Kareem Choudhry Corporate VP of Xbox hints that they want users to play content on any device.

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