Microsoft’s mysterious game-streaming service is reportedly making good progress. Recently codenamed “Arcadia” (the name of the United Earth Government Colony in the Halo universe), the project is current in development at Microsoft’s Operating Systems Group. In various job postings for Microsoft, the company appears to be touting Arcadia as “the next big thing.”
The technology was previously hinted at by Microsoft during an internal showcase of Halo 4 in 2013, with the company calling the project a “grand experiment.”
It seems that Arcadia is being built on the foundation established by Microsoft’s Azure cloud. Speculation says that the project is not likely to show up at next month’s Microsoft Windows 10 event – reasons being that the project is presumably still early on in its development cycle to reveal.
Read more on Microsoft’s game-streaming service after the break.
Microsoft “Arcadia” Moving Forward
In regards to the PC and Xbox consoles, Arcadia could possibly utilize the Azure network to stream games or apps.
Albert Penello of Microsoft stated the following regarding the matter:
“Using our Azure cloud servers, sometimes it’s things like voice processing. It could be more complicated things like rendering full games like a Gaikai and delivering it to the box. We just have to figure out how, over time, how much does that cost to deliver, how good is the experience.“
These developments coincide with recent reports regarding the streaming of Xbox 360 and Xbox One games to consumer’s web browsers.
On the other had, Sony’s game-streaming counterpart – PlayStation Now – is currently available as a beta for all PlayStation platforms – PS3, PS4, and PS Vita.
Regardless, it appears that Microsoft is hard at work developing a competent game-streaming service for release in the future. For gamers, it’s just a matter of patience.
What are your thoughts on Arcadia? Excited or no? Do you feel that streaming from the cloud is, or will become, the future of digital media consumption? Why or why not?
Let us know in the comments section below! As always, stay tuned to Gamer Headlines for the latest in video game and technology news.