Xbox introduces a new publishing division focused on “cloud-native” games

Xbox Game Studios Publishing officially announced his new “cloud gaming organization“. This new division “works with studios develop cloud-native titles and bring them exclusively to the Xbox ecosystem“.

In a video presentation aimed at developers, Kim Swiftwho joined Xbox last year as Head of Cloud Gaming, explained that the division’s mandate is “partner with world-class game development teams to develop cloud-native games and deliver unprecedented experiences for gamers that can only be achieved with cloud technologye”.

The concept of gamescloud native” differs somewhat from simply streaming games to the player’s screen through something like your own Xbox Game Pass service. Although technically this counts as “cloud native“because it depends on remote servers, these servers are still running games that were designed for home consoleswhich would provide identical performance if installed locally.

Instead, the gamescloud native” they use the cloud to process certain parts of the game, such as physics, lighting, environments or AI. This has a number of potential uses, such as freeing up processing power on a home console, or making sure players joining an online world can all have the same synchronized experience.

A first example of this is the “demolition zone” multiplayer mode of Crackdown 3which uses the cloud to render the physics of destruction, allowing players to blast huge buildings into countless small pieces without slowing down in performance.

“Cloud gaming is still in its infancy,” Kim Swift said in her presentation, comparing the position of the new division to the one Netflix had when it started to transition from a disc-shipping company to a streaming service.

“At the time Netflix was formed, internet speeds weren’t where they needed to send packages fast enough to support streaming, so instead they sent physical packages through the mail in the form of DVDs, and they had to wait. for technology to catch up with their vision. But they were prepared for it.”

Kim said he sees the future of cloud gaming in three distinct categories: ubiquity, cloud AI and runtime calculations.

the ubiquity -the ability to stream games on any device, even if it’s not powerful enough to run them natively- is the “ripe fruit for cloud content“.

AI in the cloudmeanwhile, “advance what developers can do using technology like machine learning, natural language processing, and reinforcement learningThis could benefit players in the form of more compelling NPCs, but could also lead to useful tools for developers, such as the ability to create quality control robots that can use machine learning to test games at scale detection and toxicity filters, or use machine learning to improve games with procedurally generated features

Finally, calculations at run time could be used forincrease power at runtime“, which would allow for better graphics rendering, AI agents, randomization (for crowd scenes, for example), destruction effects… or, as Swift puts it, “all things.”