Microsoft and their console the Xbox is in a bit of a tough spot right now. For you see, ever since the launch of the Xbox One, Microsoft has been struggling to keep up with Sony and Nintendo. Sure, the One beat the crap out of the Wii U, but with the Switch out now, it’s almost been overtaken in less than two years. As for Sony’s PS4, they can’t even compare to those sales numbers. So for Microsoft, the future lies in their Project xCloud.
What is Project xCloud? Well, it’s Microsoft’s plan to connect their console games with Android phones, allowing for a new way to play, and more options for players to have. Phil Spencer Talks about this during a recent conference, noting:
“It’s all about how we reach 2 billion gamers. If you build the market around a couple hundred million people that are going to own a game console or a high-end gaming PC, then your business model diversity can actually narrow because your customers are narrow.”
The biggest part of Project xCloud though is definitely its impending connection with the Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft’s gaming subscription service.
“We’ll have multiple business models that will work with streaming, but the connection of streaming with the subscription model makes a ton of sense,” Spencer explained, citing music and video streaming as examples. “So you can look at Project xCloud and you can look at something like Game Pass, and you can see there’s natural synergies.”
In the end, Microsoft really is thinking about the gamer and what they might want and what they can do with what they have:
“But when you think about reaching a customer with this content where their only computer device could be an Android phone, you think about, well, what are all the ways that that person pays for content if they do at all today?”
No word on when Project xCloud will arrive.
