Microsoft says more than 20 million people have used its Xbox Cloud Gaming service.
Satya Nadella, the company’s CEO, revealed the figure during an October 25th earnings call. For context, Xbox Cloud Gaming is available on a variety of devices, including Xbox consoles, PC and mobile.
In late April, Microsoft said over 10 million people had streamed games through the service. Since then, the company has teamed up with Epic to bring Fortnite to Xbox Cloud Gaming — a particularly notable move since it’s the only game in the catalogue that can be streamed for free. Everything else offered through Xbox Cloud Gaming requires a $16.99/month Game Pass Ultimate subscription.
That said, it’s unclear exactly how much Fortnite has contributed to the service’s growth. Moreover, Microsoft simply saying 20 million people have used the service doesn’t tell us how many are actively streaming. We don’t even know how many people are subscribed to Game Pass, as Microsoft last revealed such data (25 million members) in January.
On the whole, gaming companies have been mum about their cloud offerings. Google never disclosed how many people have been using its Stadia service, though it clearly wasn’t that many since it’s being shuttered in January. Likewise, we don’t know how well Nvidia’s GeForce Now or Amazon’s U.S.-only Luna have been performing.
Nonetheless, there’s clearly an interest in continuing to invest in cloud gaming. Earlier this month, reputable analytics firm Newzoo published a report outlining how the games industry is set to generate approximately $2.4 billion USD (about $3.25 billion CAD) in cloud revenue this year. That’s a 74 percent increase year-over-year and works out to roughly 31.7 million consumers paying for cloud gaming.
Microsoft, in particular, has big plans in this regard, as it looks to bring Xbox Cloud Gaming to more TVs, a dedicated streaming stick and even VR. Meanwhile, PlayStation provides streaming alternatives for a variety of games, especially PS3 titles, while the Nintendo offers cloud versions of games on Switch that would otherwise be too technically demanding. Most recently, Netflix also floated the possibility of expanding its nascent Games platform into the cloud.
Via: The Verge
