Cloud-based gaming has been getting a lot of press in the last six months. Ramping up things in 2020 Samsung has made new announcements. The latest comes during their presentation for the newest Galaxy line phones the Galaxy S20 and Galaxy Z Flip. Samsung head of U.S. marketing, David S. Park, also spoke about a new beginning with Xbox.
“Both Samsung and Xbox share a vision for bringing great gaming experiences to mobile players around the world. With our 5G-enabled portfolios and Microsoft’s rich history in gaming, we are working closely together to create a premium cloud-based game streaming experience. You’ll hear more about it later this year.”
Speaking with The Verge, Microsoft also confirmed Mr. Park’s statement but did not elaborate much further. Kareem Choudry, Microsoft’s Project xCloud chief, did expand that having partners to deliver high-quality streaming was paramount. He also said that they have seen positive feedback from Project xCloud preview participants which leads some to speculative that this service will play a role in the partnership. Neither company has made an official statement confirming Project xCloud as being the streaming platform they are collaborating on but OC3D has theorized that we may see an Project xCloud app pre-installed on select Samsung mobile devices. One confirmed example of this partnership is the launch of Microsoft Studios Forza Street for Galaxy Devices and pre-orders are up now.
What are the differences?
This newly announced service does seem a bit different than what Google has done with Stadia and NVIDIA is doing with GeForce Now. While all three are offering a cloud based game streaming service each has their own flavor. Google’s Stadia focuses on games in their catalog. NVIDIA’s Geforce Now lets you stream games from any of your devices but then has tier levels with added options. This Microsoft/Samsung service would seem to focus on a mobile device based cloud gaming experience. One thing is for sure and it is that big tech is throwing their hats into the cloud-based gaming arena in 2020.