If you"ve spent the past couple of days living under a rock, you may have missed Google"s announcement of Stadia, a cloud gaming platform which will let gamers access their favorite games on any device they prefer. The company made waves with its GDC keynote, and naturally, Microsoft isn"t ignoring that.
As reported by Brad Sams over at Thurrott.com, Microsoft"s Phil Spencer sent out an internal email to the company"s gaming division addressing Google"s announcements and how Microsoft will fight back. Spencer says that Stadia is validation of the direction Microsoft is taking with its own offering, currently known as Project xCloud. This is despite the fact that Google seems to be trying to supersede consoles, while Microsoft recently said that Project xCloud will be a complement to them.
The e-mail also recognizes some of the strong points of Google"s offering, such as the YouTube integration and the clever Stadia controller that connects directly to the data center rather to a specific device. Microsoft"s Xbox controllers are not Wi-Fi enabled, so it will be interesting to see if Redmond can counter Google"s move in an effective way. As for YouTube, it"s highly unlikely that Microsoft can compete directly with the Mountain View giant, but it"s possible that something similar could be done with Mixer.
Spencer says that Google "went big" with its Stadia announcement yesterday, but it isn"t going to sit idly while its rival takes over the market, with the e-mail further stating that Microsoft will "go big" at this year"s E3.
The head of Xbox believes Microsoft has all the key elements to make a successful platform, and that "it"s all about execution". It remains to be seen if that"s where the Redmond company will shine over Google.