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Samsung and Xbox partner for cloud gaming

Samsung on Tuesday finally revealed details of its new flagship phone, the Galaxy S20, and its next folding device, the Galaxy Z Flip, at its Unpacked event. The Korean tech giant also talked up partnerships with companies such as Google, Netflix and, on the gaming front, Microsoft.

David Park, Samsung's director of strategy, said on stage that the company is working with Xbox on a "premium cloud-based game streaming experience." Park didn't offer any other details, just saying more would be revealed in the future.

Microsoft is currently previewing its own game streaming service, Project xCloud. The cloud streaming service is expected to tie-in with Microsoft's upcoming game console, the Xbox Series X, that comes out later in 2020.

Samsung didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the partnership, but Microsoft said they're looking forward to sharing more about service later this year.

"We believe players around the world should have access to great, high-quality games on the device of their choice," a Microsoft spokesperson said via email Tuesday. "Working with partners like Samsung is an important step in our Project xCloud journey and will help make game streaming more accessible for gamers. We look forward to sharing more later this year."

Along with the announcement of a partnership, Park revealed Microsoft's Forza Street will come to Galaxy devices. The racing game was originally released last year to Windows 10 computers. Those interested can pre-register for the game on the Galaxy Store or Google Play.

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There are also other features coming to the service that have not yet been released, such as streaming PC games using xCloud. While the details are still a bit thin, people familiar with the company’s plans state that it looks like the next step for xCloud will offer a solution similar to that of what Nvidia recently launched, GeForce Now. We have seen a similar feature where you can stream games from your Xbox console to another device, PC gamers will soon be able to do the same.

Microsoft’s goal is to make xCloud the backbone for all future gaming options going forward and I expect we will hear more about the company’s plans at GDC which takes place in a couple of weeks. At GDC, the company will likely be pushing its GameStack tools as Micorosft looks to bring more developers into the Azure/Xbox ecosystem.

For now, know that Microsoft is investing heavily into xCloud and that the company is looking to position the service as the foundation of the future of gaming. As the marketing engines kick into high gear for the series X, don’t lose focus that xCloud is the ace in the sleeve for Microsoft.

We want to help all of you discover that next great adventure while making it as easy as possible to view the game and jump in. To do so, we’re rolling out a new feature to Project xCloud preview starting today for Android phone and/or tablet users in all preview markets.

When you open up the Xbox Game Streaming preview app, you’ll see a set of trailers for five different games you can swipe through at your leisure. As you watch the trailer, the game will load in the background and if a particular game catches your eye, you can jump in and play or keep searching for something else.

We’ll continue to mix in new trailers to keep things fresh and to help you try something new.

Kevin LaChapelle and Catherine Gluckstein take you on a deeper dive into what's new this month with Project xCloud.

Yakuza 0 hits Project xCloud, Ninja Theory and Rare working on touch controls

The exact same Series X processor is used in the Project Scarlett cloud servers that'll replace the Xbox One S-based xCloud models currenly being used. For this purpose, AMD built in EEC error correction for GDDR6 with no performance penalty (there is actually no such thing as EEC-compatible G6, so AMD and Microsoft are rolling their own solution), while virtualisation features are also included. And this leads us on to our first mic-drop moment: the Series X processor is actually capable of running four Xbox One S game sessions simultaneously on the same chip, and contains an new internal video encoder that is six times as fast as the more latent, external encoder used on current xCloud servers.

Project xCloud Developer Update: Making Games Cloud Aware

At GDC 2019 we gave a sneak peek at how developers can enhance their games for a streaming experience by making them cloud aware. Since then we have learned a great deal about what developers need and how to help them tailor their games for this new environment. Taking these learnings, we have been focused on improving three key areas:

Input. Gamers playing on their mobile devices want to be able to play anywhere, anytime without having to carry a controller around with them. Support for touch overlays control and native touch interaction allows developers to easily offer natural interactivity for their games.

Screen Size. When games are being streamed to a mobile device you may want to adjust the text size or other elements of the game to make it more playable. We now have APIs that provide device-side characteristics such as screen size that enable to you correctly make those adjustments.

Network. Over the last decade, multiplayer games have worked hard to make sure gamers have a fair and predictable experience even when all players don't have the same network connections. A cloud aware game has the ability to understand the network that the gamer is on and can make adjustments as needed. In addition to APIs to manage connection state and server locations, we also provide a set of tools that allow developers to simulate different network conditions.

As part of Game Stack Live, we've pre-recorded a set of talks to share our learnings from the past year, as well as walking developers through how to build a best in class cloud aware experience for their games. We have posted two new talks that can be found here:

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Microsoft has started testing its Project xCloud game streaming service for Windows 10 PCs this week. The software giant is making the preview version available to all Microsoft employees, and The Verge has been able to obtain exclusive screenshots of how xCloud will work on PCs.

There are a variety of games available to Microsoft employees to test, but the app is currently limited to 720p streams for now. “This internal preview is running at 720p resolution with 1080p just around the corner,” reveals an internal Microsoft support note.

Microsoft also recently upgraded its xCloud server blades to include eight Xbox One S consoles in a single server instance. That’s up from the four the company was previously testing.

Microsoft is now working to eventually transition these xCloud servers to the Xbox Series X processor. This next-gen processor is far more powerful and capable of running four Xbox One S game sessions simultaneously on a single chip. It also includes a new built-in video encoder that is up to six times faster than the current external encoder that Microsoft uses on existing xCloud servers.

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Continued Focus on the Future of Xbox

Everything we’ve done to date at Xbox has been to meet players where they are and reduce the friction between curiosity and play as much as possible. Making it easy for players to discover and play games wherever they are creates new, viable pathways for developers to reach new players and to be rewarded for new ideas. This is where our work can make the widest impact.

Key to this vision is our Project xCloud technology, which we see delivering games to all kinds of screens and windows in your life, including those on Facebook. Gaming is already part of our social fabric, and Project xCloud can take you from discussing a new game – whether it’s a funny in-game moment posted by a friend, an ad, or an ongoing stream – directly to playing it. In the future, through the power of Xbox Live and Project xCloud, we see there being just one click between “I’m watching” and “I’m playing.”

In the meantime, we will continue to invest time, energy, and resources to bring Project xCloud to global scale through Azure. We’re always testing new features and learning, and we’re excited to explore further as we look to debut click-to-play scenarios within the Facebook Gaming and Instagram communities.

Monkey Man wrote:

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Could see me playing some PC Game Pass games on my iphone.

Peter Crisp wrote:

Monkey Man wrote:

twitter.com/tomwarren/status/1273586269969399814

Could see me playing some PC Game Pass games on my iphone.

I have gamepass ultimate but have never considered the PC stuff as all I have is a Chromebook?

Most likely a stupid question but can I play PC games via gamepass with my Chromebook?

Errkal wrote: “If” there is an Android app you may be able to install that and play whatever games are available to android devices.