Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella officially confirmed on May 24, 2022, at the annual Build Developer conference that over 10 million players across 26 countries are enjoying its Xbox Cloud Gaming. Speculation was ripe that xCloud, the earlier version of Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming, launched for the public in September 2020 after a hectic public review will catch with the crowd.
However, Microsoft never came out with real numbers, especially for its cloud gaming segment, except Nadella claimed the same 10 million users while presenting its third-quarter earnings call. Even the company’s most recently released earning reports were devoid of any data.
At Microsoft’s annual Build developer conference on Tuesday, the CEO gave out the number officially while pitching Xbox Cloud Gaming technology as an innovative way to bring video games to Xbox fans and gamers using Apple’s iPhone or iPad or devices powered by Google’s Android. And, he said, it’ll be trivial to code for as well.
Nadella, while discussing Xbox Cloud gaming during the conference, said that it is similar to Netflix. As OTT allows people to stream shows from the cloud, the Xbox Cloud Gaming services will let people play video games on the go as long as the user has a stable internet connection.
Microsoft’s gaming advances
The Xbox Cloud gaming allows users to stream a game and play it instead of downloading it. While pitching the Xbox Cloud Gaming, the Microsoft CEO said, “One of the coolest things is that there’s no need to change your code as a game developer. You can publish to the Xbox store as a game developer, and your game can be accessible on every device.”
Microsoft aims higher to get a good share of the gaming industry and doesn’t want to restrict itself to the regular competition of selling video game consoles. The company has turned to the streaming industry with its $15 per month Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription to attract more players interested in gaming but might not own an Xbox.
Recently the company partnered with Epic Games, maker of the famous battle royale game Fortnite. It is now available as free to play on X box Cloud for players. Nadella said, “You can break free of device restrictions that often get in your way.” The CEO’s statement holds weight as Microsoft found a way to provide access to Apple users to Fortnite, after the company banned the game.
