Interview with Director Xbox France - xCloud is the video game revolution

[vivian334]

Xbox news could not have been richer in recent months. With the takeover of many studios, the arrival of a new Xbox at the end of the year, the Xbox Game Pass which is going up and xCloud which is entering the test phase in Europe, the brand has the wind in its sails. A French website started an interview with Director Xbox France, Ina Gelbert.

Q: Since you're talking about clarifying the offer, we see the cousin of the Game Pass coming soon and currently in beta: xCloud. And we say that you have Xbox Live Gold and Silver, Xbox Game Pass PC and console, Ultimate… and soon xCloud. How are you going to harmonize this, with xCloud which will be added to all this?

Ina Gelbert : You have to understand that xCloud is a feature. It's just a way to access the Xbox ecosystem without necessarily having a console, that's the promise we make. For the moment we are still in test version which we call preview. We are lucky in France to have this preview available, which is not the case everywhere, and we are watching and listening to what the community tells us, the feedback we have at the technical level , in terms of content, does it work well depending on the licenses… We have not yet defined the business modelbehind xCloud. We have already said that we are working on a rapprochement between existing services and this xCloud functionality which provides access to the mobile ecosystem via the Microsoft infrastructure.

Q: If the business model is not yet found, could it be “If you subscribe to Xbox Game Pass, you can use it with xCloud” as a new Ultimate ++ subscription? Are all doors open today?

Ina Gelbert : It will be a rapprochement between the two. It is not that we have not yet found the model, but that we have not yet defined what was best. But there will necessarily be a rapprochement between the Xbox Game Pass and xCloud at some point.

Q: xCloud is still in testing yes. I have it on my phone and since I live in Belgium, I was able to test it recently, with a slight delay compared to France. I'm testing it now and it sounds crazy, and we are really in the future ...

Ina Gelbert : For me it's the current video game revolution. There is the technical side of the consoles and all that we can tell about the Xbox Series X, and next to that there is the streaming which is quite incredible.

Q: Exact, and suddenly we say that xCloud has been in testing for a long time now in the United States or in South Korea for example, in very advanced countries in terms of their network infrastructure. It happened here a short time ago, and can we be sure today that it will arrive in a final and stable version for the public this year in France or in Europe?

Ina Gelbert : I cannot make a final promise. We do have plans, but the preview version is good for measuring, learning, and also for correcting. We are starting to get initial feedback on what players do when they access xCloud. What are the titles they like to access, when they play, where they are when they play ... It is important to understand all these criteria and then be sure of the solution that will be put on the market. We do not want to come up with a final version if we are not sure of all the criteria.