Microsoft's new disc-less Xbox Series X is far from the only news leaked in the FTC v. Microsoft case. The documents may also reveal Microsoft's long-term plans for 2028 - by 2028, the company believes it can achieve "complete convergence" of cloud gaming platforms and physical hardware to provide "cloud hybrid gaming."
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"Our vision: Develop a next-generation hybrid gaming platform that leverages the combined capabilities of client and cloud" - this is the text on a slide in a leaked presentation titled "Microsoft Next Generation Gaming".
The company envisions players playing these games using both a sub-$99 gadget (perhaps a handheld computer) and the combined power of the xCloud platform.
Microsoft has already tried this approach, delivering realistic scenarios in Microsoft Flight Simulator, streaming data from 2 petabytes of the cloud instead of the Xbox or PC that runs most games. But the best example is this demo from Amazon in 2014 - in which the Lord of the Rings-style army didn't actually run on the device, it just ran the footage locally so that it could feel like a responsive experience.
Now, in the documents, Microsoft calls the idea "cohesive hybrid computing" -- a "cloud-to-edge architecture across chips, graphics and operating systems to enable ubiquitous gaming."
This may already be happening. The team says it needs to sign a chip partnership deal with AMD by the first quarter of this year to lock in the company's Navi5 graphics processor (FYI, we're only using Navi3 right now) and potentially get access to the company's Zen6 CPU cores. (It’s also considering Arm.)
Microsoft believes an NPU (machine learning AI co-processor) is also needed to provide various benefits, including super resolution, latency compensation, frame rate interpolation and more - see below.
The documents include the entire potential technology roadmap, with hardware design starting in 2024, the first development kits arriving in 2027, and the first hybrid cloud games launching between 2024 and 2026.
But before that happens, the company needs to make some key decisions about the chips, according to another slide, about building a thin operating system to run the local parts of these cloud games, which teams will be responsible for it, and what hardware will be built to go with it. It's likely that none of this will happen, just as Microsoft abandoned its "dedicated xCloud SKU" in favor of working with other vendors.
According to leaked documents, Microsoft's top leaders, including CEO Satya Nadella, Xbox boss Phil Spencer, Windows devices and operating system chief Panos Panay, xCloud CVP Kareem Choudhry and others, appear to be having an important ongoing conversation, and this proposal appears to have emerged from the conversation.
"We are building 4 types of computers: (1) Everything in the cloud, (2) Hybrid Xbox, (3) Hybrid Windows, and (4) Hybrid Hololens," Nadella wrote in the document. "We need to bring the company's system talents together and align on a unified vision. We can't go from one big idea to another. We need a unified big idea to unite the company's strength."
In another document from May 2022 titled "Roadmap 2030," the company hinted that its new strategy might revolve around controllers. "The controller becomes the star," is one of the key principles, adding: "The new Xbox controller is the only thing you need to play games on every device." The document goes on to describe Sebile, a new Xbox controller that includes "direct cloud" connectivity as well as Xbox Wireless and Bluetooth capabilities.
The document also contains an image of a possible "mobile controller," a "one-handed controller," and a gaming keyboard and mouse, which Microsoft is apparently considering making in-house.
The document also mentioned that "Cloud Console (Keystone)" is a project that has received funding support, in addition to the new "Brooklin" Xbox Series
In 2021, Microsoft hired Kim Swift, the former Google Stadia design director known for Valve's "Portal", to form a new team focused on cloud-native games, but it is unclear whether this is related to this plan. Sony also hired Jade Raymond from the wreckage of Stadia, and her studio is developing cloud gaming technology, and Sony is likely to launch new cloud gaming products.