Microsoft is going to take their own big swing at game streaming next year with xCloud. The service is in beta service right now, and already people are using it in unexpected ways. But one thing that raised some eyebrows not too long ago was talk about exclusive content coming to xCloud. It was a surprise for a variety of reasons, but it seems as if Microsoft is keen to walk that one back a bit.
In a statement to Gamasutra, a Microsoft spokesman clarified that, at this point in time, there’s no plans for exclusive titles for xCloud. Right now the service is being used to service their console and PC core business and is focused purely on streaming.
“We’re very early in the multi-year journey for Project xCloud, which is currently in public preview,” the spokesperson said.
“We are investigating a variety of new capabilities made possible by the cloud. However, we remain committed to an approach with game streaming that is complementary to console and have no plans for cloud-exclusive content at this time.”
It’s a sigh of relief for a lot of fans, no doubt, who thought they may be left out of things if titles were exclusive to a side service they weren’t interested in or internet wasn’t capable of utilizing properly. Of course, if streaming takes off like many expect it to, it does seems like an inevitability that exclusive content for streaming services will come in some form or another. Stadia, for instance, has an exclusive game and content for previous titles already. It won’t be too shocking to see others follow down the road.