Microsoft is all in on cloud technology at this point, and as that continues to grow, it’s going to become more and more integrated with game development. The potential of the sort of scale that games developed using the cloud can exhibit is exciting, and it seems like that’s something Xbox has its eyes on.
Microsoft have recruited Kim Swift as a senior director in the Xbox Cloud Gaming team. Swift is going to “build a team focused on new experiences in the cloud”, Xbox Game Studios publishing head Peter Wyse told Polygon. Wyse says that is “something that’s going to support our mission of bringing our Xbox games to connect 3 billion gamers to play our games.”
Swift has previously served as lead designer on Portal, following which she was a designer on Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2. She has also had a stint in EA Motive, where she worked on Star Wars Battlefront 2’s single player campaign. Most recently, she was a game design director at Stadia.
In a report on GamesBeat, journalist Jeff Grubb claims that if the rumoured Hideo Kojima-Xbox deal goes through, Swift’s role will also include collaboration with Kojima Productions for their cloud-native game.