Microsoft is hoping to use its cloud technology to develop a service that will allow users to stream video games the same way Netflix streams video content, according to Fortune.
The video game industry has traditionally been siloed, with many titles offered exclusively on specific consoles. Microsoft aims to offer a subscription-based game pass that would give gamers playing multiple consoles access to video games hosted on the Microsoft cloud. While it is unclear if companies like Sony and Nintendo would join Microsoft's service, the majority of games are created by third-party developers who are not console-exclusive.
"We believe there is going to be 2 billion gamers in the world, and our goal is to reach every one of them," Kareem Choudhry, corporate vice president of Xbox software engineering at Microsoft, told The Verge. "What we're doing with game pass and creating a subscription-based product, where over half the content is third-party content. I would say we're getting started from a subscription product perspective," he added.