Could Cloud Gaming Be Microsoft’s Next Big Project?
This upcoming holiday season is the scheduled release for Xbox’s cloud gaming capabilities, letting players try out a game over the internet before downloading the file. Cloud technology has been a relatively new inclusion for the games industry, but hasn’t yet caught on in a major capacity. I’m sure you all remember the Stadia, right? Many were pessimistic about that particular venture, and given its current state it’s hard to call those fears unfounded.
But now, a random selection of Xbox Insiders will have a chance to use that technology for themselves. Today, they’ve been given an early look at what’s to come.
Xbox Cloud Gaming (Beta) for Console is coming to a random subset of Alpha Skip-Ahead and Alpha #XboxInsiders today! You can read all about the new feature at the blog post linked below: https://t.co/T1h7b3SC44
— Xbox Insider (@xboxinsider) September 28, 2021
This move has been part of a much larger initiative on Microsoft‘s part, as they have plans to make hardware limitations less of an issue for consumers. A reduced barrier to entry would certainly increase their products’ accessibility, though that depends wholly on the technology being up to par. As a random example, these efforts could result in Xbox Series X/S games being playable for Xbox One console owners. The fact that Microsoft can do a sort of “trial run” with the Insider program is certainly going to be a boon to making this effort as successful as possible.
There are over 100 titles available for Insiders to test out, though a handful have some known issues. You can’t, for example, reliably play the base game for things that come in a bundle, like the Master Chief Collection. But that still leaves a ton of experiences for the lucky Xbox Insiders to sink their teeth into, and it’ll give Microsoft a wide variety of feedback to process and utilize.