The legal battle between Epic Games and Apple is an interesting one. There’s a lot on the line for both as the main reason the legal action is from a revenue split. Apple wants a cut for the money developers may within their game purchases consumers make. Meanwhile, Epic Games wants to keep the full amount and bypass Apple completely. It’s unknown just who will come out on top, but so far there’s been plenty of interesting documents to have come out into the public eye.
For instance, Epic Games recently had documents that showcased just how much they paid developers for their free games given away every week. Now we’re finding a document that dealt with Microsoft and Nintendo. Unfortunately, all the juicy bits in the document have been redacted since Nintendo feels the information is sensitive regarding the negotiations with Microsoft. However, the internet is already speculating just what this could potentially mean for the future.
One of the popular speculation pieces going around right now and may prove to be quite the fan-favorite is Microsoft discussing Xbox Game Pass coming to the Nintendo Switch. The Microsoft Xbox Game Pass is a service that Microsoft is pushing heavily. This service opens up all the Microsoft exclusives along with a slew of third-party video game titles for free just as long as you pay a monthly fee. Best of all, Microsoft is pushing out their xCloud service which is allowing players to stream these games from Microsoft’s servers rather than downloading them to your hardware and installing the games.
Microsoft’s Phil Spencer who is the head of Xbox has expressed his interest in bringing Xbox Game Pass to every device. It would open up the ability for more players to enjoy the latest video games just as long as they have a stable internet connection. While xCloud has been available for the likes of Android for a good while now, Microsoft had recently started a close beta to see xCloud streaming across computers through a web browser. Since Nintendo Switch is under powered to what games could run on it from Microsoft’s library of titles, xCloud could be a massive game-changer.
Of course, it would be interesting to see just how that deal would play out. Nintendo would need some kind of an incentive to allow a competitive service like Xbox Game Pass on their hardware to begin with. Then again, the redactions could be about something completely different. For now, all we can do is wait and see if any official announcement comes out regarding a Microsoft and Nintendo partnership.
