If this year was Google’s one thanks to Stadia, the next one is scheduled to be Microsoft’s year with their xCloud streaming project. Another streaming service is about to emerge and compete against the notorious Stadia, while some other Microsoft’s projects will probably stagger due to the course of development of xCloud. But there’s a sort of different question when it comes to rivalry, which is somewhat typical in the video game industry. The problem is, will xCloud offer exclusives or not?
On that matter, Microsoft has revealed the stance, but it should be considered for a temporary one. The xCloud service is currently in Beta and mostly serves for testing purposes to further polish the cloud platform itself. In a recent statement to Gamasutra, Microsoft representative clarified that at this point, there are no plans for exclusive titles on the xCloud.
Cloud-Exclusive titles, on the other side, could be up-and-coming and profitable for the company, but only if xCloud manages to top Google’s Stadia. Speaking of which, Google already has a video game exclusively available on Stadia. A fact that inevitably pokes an interest in Microsoft’s eyes of upcoming exclusives once the streaming service goes live.
We are investigating a variety of new capabilities made possible by the cloud. However, we remain committed to an approach with game streaming that is complementary to console and have no plans for cloud-exclusive content at this time.
But, the whole cloud-streaming service is a joke in this era. No firm conclusions have brought Stadia to a glance of success, but negative reviews are still pouring in. Conceptually and at this very moment, the best route for both Google and Microsoft would be ignoring this matter at the time being simply because the streaming service results do not peak far. To sustain this better, Microsoft didn’t speak about exclusives just yet, but mentioning them and knowing that a competitor already has one in its repository, a blow may strike out of nowhere.
