Click to Skip Ad
Closing in...

Forget new Xbox consoles, Microsoft wants to bring Xbox games to iPhone and Android

Published Jun 11th, 2018 6:50AM EDT
Xbox Game Streaming Service
Image: Xbox Wire

If you buy through a BGR link, we may earn an affiliate commission, helping support our expert product labs.

The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2018 (E3) kicked off on Sunday, with several companies making various gaming-related announcements. Microsoft, of course, is one of the companies to watch at E3. The Xbox may not be as popular with buyers right now, but that doesn’t mean Microsoft isn’t working on new, exciting Xbox products.

Yes, a new console is in the works, but forget all about that for the time being. Microsoft’s more daring project is a game streaming service that will bring Xbox games to any device out there, iPhone and Android included.

Microsoft is “deep into architecturing the next Xbox consoles,” the company’s gaming chief Phil Spencer said at E3, per The Verge.

Artificial intelligence (AI) may very well be a part of that. “Our experts in Microsoft Research are developing the future of gaming AI, so the worlds and characters we enjoy will be more rich and more immersive,” the same Spencer said, without revealing any other details about the future of the Xbox.

While the next-gen Xbox may indeed be exciting, you might not need to buy it to enjoy the latest games. Spencer confirmed at E3 the rumors that said Microsoft is working on a game streaming service of its own.

“Our cloud engineers are building a game streaming network to unlock console gaming on any device,” the exec said.

If fruitful, the project should be compatible with any PC, smartphone, and tablet out there. Of course, Microsoft isn’t the first company to try its hand at offering customers cloud-based game streaming services. But Microsoft does have one particular type of resource others lack, and that’s cloud services of its own and a strong team of engineers.

Spencer did not say when this Xbox streaming service is going to be available to gamers.

Chris Smith Senior Writer

Chris Smith has been covering consumer electronics ever since the iPhone revolutionized the industry in 2008. When he’s not writing about the most recent tech news for BGR, he brings his entertainment expertise to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe and other blockbuster franchises.

Outside of work, you’ll catch him streaming almost every new movie and TV show release as soon as it's available.