We laid eyes on a bunch of confidential documents last week as part of the Epic Games Vs. Apple court battle, and the latest document doing the rounds has appeared to reveal some interesting information about Xbox Cloud Gaming.
This 222-page confidential document - created in September 2020 - has reportedly been verified by The Verge, and appears to suggest that Microsoft now requires indie developers to support Xbox Cloud Gaming in order to publish on the platform, supposedly using "harsh language around the requirement" according to Epic.
"Elsewhere in the document, it’s also revealed that Microsoft has apparently been requiring indie devs to agree to xCloud game streaming support to publish on Xbox. 'Microsoft is using harsh language around the requirement,” claims Epic, noting that it’s “sign or be removed from Xbox.'"
It's no surprise that Microsoft wants indie developers to comply with xCloud - it's going to be a big part of the company's future - but Epic's partners have reportedly expressed concern about their EGS exclusivity agreements as a result.
Of course, Xbox Cloud Gaming doesn't currently support any games other than Xbox Game Pass titles, so assuming this requirement is true, it looks like Microsoft is gearing up to support a much wider library in the future.
The Verge says it has reached out to Microsoft for comment, so we'll update you if we hear anything.
What are your thoughts on this? Let us know down in the comments section below.
[source theverge.com]
Comments 10
1. EGS is not an indie dev so they can always strike a different deal with Microsoft.
2. Supporting xCloud doesn’t mean one can’t stream with other platforms.
Honestly I think this is only about ID@Xbox titles.
This sounds like a good way to push indie devs away from xbox.
@SegataSanshiro @Senua The issue would be with indies that have signed a deal with Epic, then find themselves blocked out of Xbox, or in breach of their Epic contract by publishing on xcloud.
@Richnj Does Epic provide cloud game streaming service?
@Senua No,
"but Epic's partners have reportedly expressed concern about their EGS exclusivity agreements as a result."
And I'm just saying that indies have enough to worry about, instead of getting caught in between two multibillion dollar companies strong arming them with contracts and potentially suing them left and right, just to bolster their platforms.
@Richnj Reminds me of the mess in 2013 regarding indie developers not being able to self-publish on XB1 and that you couldn't release games on XB1 if you released it earlier on other platforms. Fortunately Microsoft backtracked on both.
@Xiovanni This does not stop you from doing so. What Xbox wants with this is to make sure that games become as widely available as posible by putting it on Xcloud (specially on the Asian Markets which are Mobile-centered and rarely buy Home consoles and Gaming PCs). This also allow to compensate for the fact that Xbox Series will be remaining scarce due to the Semi-conductor Shortage preventing them from making more of them
@Xiovanni What the document says is that if a Indie Studio publish their game on Xbox, it is also being published on Xcloud as well as the Console (due the fact that both are the same thing as Xcloud is in fact a cloud-based VM that runs Xbox OS (which is a gamer focused version of Windows 10)). This actually does not mean you can't publish in any other competing cloud service (which is the way Epic is trying to demonize this, which is not surprising as Epic's greed is so on the roof they're so out of touch with reality, what Apple did was to expose this to the general public)
@Xiovanni Sorry but that's not up to you. If you release your game on Xbox, it releases on Xcloud, because it will be a automatic process once Xcloud gets fully implemented outside of Game Pass. Like it or not, that's the way it is as Xcloud and Xbox are the same thing software wise and will share the same store (the only difference is that one is Cloud-based and the other is Hardware based). Microsoft wants everything Xbox-related to be a unified one ecosystem. Just like Apple is doing right now with the arrival of the Apple Silicon-Based Macs (and a hypothetical game console if rumors are to be beleived), they want every single Device from now on to be unified in a single ecosystem and the new Macs complete the process by abandoning Intel
@Xiovanni it's going to be the entire library once it becomes independent of Game Pass. Right now is in developing phase
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...