Microsoft recently sat down with The Verge to predominantly discuss and unveil a new gaming cloud division that is preparing the company for the future landscape of games, which may look very different than it does today.
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As The Verge notes, this isn’t the most surprising news, as the behemoth company has been swallowing up and acquiring multiple gaming-related companies over the years with Havok (2015), Simplygon (2017), and PlayFab (2018), all of which have bolstered its ambitions in the space of cloud gaming. And now Microsoft is nearing launch of its own cloud gaming services, which will be headed up by company veteran Kareem Choudhry, whose credentials include Outlook, DirectX, and Xbox engineering
According to Choudhry, Phil Spencer, Microsoft’s head of gaming who now reports directly to CEO Satya Nadella, wanted to have a dedicated team to focus exclusively on cloud gaming. Apparently, these conversations began last summer, and were followed by creating the structure of the organization a few months later, at the end of year. The new division is chiefly used to allure developers and publishers to Microsoft’s various cloud services. Companies such as Ubisoft have notably been using Microsoft’s Azure cloud services for its multiplayer hit Rainbow Six: Siege, but Microsoft is aiming for even more.
Choudry adds that Microsoft believes there is going to be two billion gamers in the world, and it wants to be able to reach all of them, which, hopefully, cloud gaming should enable.
One of the first steps towards this new future Microsoft has taken is with Xbox Game Pass, a gaming cloud subscription service that enables users, in Netflix fashion, to pay a monthly fee to access an evolving library of games, including all Microsoft first-party titles going forward. Commenting on the subscription, which only launch this past summer, Choudry had the following to say:
“We’re really pleased with the success that’s happening [with Game Pass],” said Choudhry. “We continue to believe in user choice, and we also believe there’s room in the industry for a gaming subscription and that’s what we’re going to build.”
As The Verge notes, the one problem Microsoft will face is that in order to create a Netflix-like service for games, it will need to expand to other platforms beyond Windows PC and Xbox One. However, rival platforms like Nintendo and PlayStation 4 are certainly not going to invite Microsoft on-board anytime soon, which is why it is already looking at other devices.
“We’re looking at ways to make that content available to anyone no matter what device they’re on,” said Choudhry.
It’s worth noting that Microsoft is mostly just getting started on many of its cloud-based initiatives, or rather you may not see anything come to fruition for a little awhile, but you will eventually. Good or bad, one way or the other, Microsoft is dipping big time into the pool of potential that cloud gaming offers.
