Will Microsoft achieve what Google failed in the world of cloud gaming? While Google closed its dedicated Stadia gaming studios earlier this year, Microsoft just made several announcements about cloud-based games.
Within an interview For Polygon, the director of Xbox Game Studios explains that the next step for Microsoft will be to create native games for cloud games. This project is still in its infancy, Peter Wyse admitted that “ [il ne sait] not exactly how it looks today, nor how it will play out. »
The team seems to want to quickly get a clearer picture of what these games will be, making the most of the possibilities of the cloud. The studio hired Kim Swift, former head of game design at Google Stadia. Her name may not be unfamiliar to you: she is the portal’s project manager and also worked on Left 4 Dead. During her time at Stadia, Kim Swift was able to forge an engaging cloud gaming experience. ” Kim will form a team focused on new experiences in the cloud, something that will contribute to our mission to connect 3 billion players to our Xbox games. »Explains Peter Wyse.
Today, games are developed for hardware platforms (PC or consoles) that have finite power. Even the games currently available in the cloud were originally developed for one or more well-defined platforms and don’t really harness the power of the cloud. What would games specifically designed for this look like? We can imagine that Microsoft will be inspired by its recent Flight Simulator, the map of which is generated from satellite data stored on its servers.