New Xbox Streaming Service Reaches Major Milestone

One of the most exciting and ambitious Xbox projects in the works is xCloud, which is Microsoft's game-streaming service. It's now reached a major development milestone.

Xbox boss Phil Spencer said on Twitter that the team working on xCloud recently completed the "takehome release" for xCloud. That's a big deal because it means people at Microsoft are now able to test the service at home in a real environment as opposed to a studio lab.

Spencer added that xCloud remains on track to become available for more people through public trials later in 2019; that's always been the plan.

According to Microsoft insider Brad Sams, Microsoft may plan to show off xCloud in a home environment during E3 2019 in June. The takehome release suggests that could happen.

xCloud is the working title of the streaming service. Microsoft is promising "console-quality gaming on any device" with xCloud, and we've already seen Forza Horizon 4 running on the service.

xCloud will go up against other similar streaming services like Google Stadia. Microsoft's Mike Nichols recently said that Google lacks compelling content to make the service attractive.

Cloud-based gaming is a fairly new and complex technology; be sure to check out our detailed explainer on everything you need to know about cloud gaming.