Microsoft hired the former Google Stadia design director
Microsoft hired Kim Swift, former design director of Google Stadia. Kim Swift will join the Xbox department as a senior director of cloud gaming. I believe it can bring a lot of improvement to Microsoft’s cloud gaming service Xbox Cloud Gaming.
Peter Wyse, head of the publishing department of Xbox Game Studios, said in an interview with Polygon: “Kim is going to build a team focused on new experiences in the cloud, something that’s going to support our mission of bringing our Xbox games to connect 3 billion gamers to play our games.”
Image: Asobo Studio/Xbox Game Studios
Xbox Cloud Gaming is a service provided for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members since September last year, allowing Xbox players to stream their games on their Xbox on mobile devices or computers. However, there are no games in the Xbox game library at this stage. When developing, it is aimed at cloud games. Basically, all games are developed for Xbox or PC.
The new cloud gaming experience that Kim Swift is responsible for may refer to games that require multiple servers to operate at the same time to bring players faster loading times and better picture quality and the hardware performance requirements of these games may be far beyond the reach of a single Xbox or PC. If this guess is correct, then the potential of cloud gaming is beginning to show, and this will also be a new direction for cloud gaming. Just think about it, a game running on multiple servers or data centers at the same time must be larger than current games, and the performance of NPCs will be more realistic due to powerful AI and various algorithms. All the players need to do is to connect to the server to play.
Of course, the most important part of cloud gaming is actually the network of the player’s own device. Therefore, if cloud games want to be successful, the network aspect needs to be optimized. On the player’s side, 5G may also be needed to enjoy a better streaming or cloud gaming experience.
