The Netflix of gaming gets closer as Microsoft looks up to the cloud

Video games are following television and music into the cloud, with console-quality play on its way to becoming a streaming service as easy to access as Netflix or Spotify. Computing power in data centres and in devices from televisions to smartphones has surged as streaming technology has advanced. This has provided the tools necessary to break blockbuster titles out from the confines of consoles or personal computers. During a recent Microsoft earnings call, chief executive Satya Nadella said the keenly anticipated X Cloud video game streaming service was in its “early days” but was excited by the prospect of giving players access to games on all kinds of internet-linked devices. “Most critical is having a platform where gamers are already there,” Nadella said, noting booming revenue from its Xbox console unit. “I am most excited about the core [Xbox] community and content we have. I think that is what even gives us permission to think about streaming.” Video game titan Electronic Arts this week laid out a vision of streaming video games enhanced with artificial intelligence to create “living, breathing worlds that constantly evolve”. EA, maker of the popular Battlefield and Fifa game franchises, has more than 1,000 employees working on a platform to harness the power of cloud computing and artificial intelligence in a game service hosted on the Californiabased company’s servers, according to chief technology officer Ken Moss. The effort is called “Project Atlas.”