During GDC 2022, Microsoft took to the stage to announce a new cloud gaming division that will be a part of Xbox Game Studios Publishing. The division will be headed by Kim Swift, who previously worked as a developer on Left 4 Dead and Portal for Valve and Star Wars Battlefront II for EA. Prior to joining Microsoft last year, she worked as Design Director at Stadia Games and Entertainment.
The presentation outlined what the new division is aiming to achieve, with Swift explaining that the cloud gaming area would partner with world-class game development teams to develop cloud-native games to bring unprecedented experiences to players that can only be achieved with cloud technology.”
‘Cloud-native’ games are different from those streamed to a player’s display using PlayStation Now or Game Pass. Swift is referencing titles not designed for home consoles–games that use the cloud to process parts of the game, such as environments, AI, lighting, or physics. This can potentially free up processing power on consoles and ensure that those playing an online game can get the same synchronized experience as other players.
During the talk, Swift noted that this kind of cloud gaming is still in its infancy. She sees the future of this technology as falling into three categories: ubiquity, runtime calculations, and cloud AI.
Ubiquity refers to the ability to stream games on any device, even those that wouldn’t be powerful enough to run them natively. Cloud AI will, as she states, “advance what developers can do by using technology like machine learning, natural language processing, and reinforcement learning.” Runtime calculations could be used to improve graphics rendering, randomization, destruction effect, and many more aspects of a game.
“I really think this is what people think of when they hear cloud gaming,” Swift said. “At one point I was working on a cloud title and was asked the question, ‘how do we build massive, concurrent scale for players and make that more engaging? How can we have more players in a space than we’ve ever seen before?’
And these are areas that definitely require longer-term investment, but we’re excited to start looking forward and driving what that possibility space could be.”
