Microsoft’s new discless Xbox Series far of the only news that has just leaked from FTC v. Microsoft case. The documents may also reveal Microsoft’s far-future plans for 2028, whereby the company believed it could achieve a “full convergence” of its cloud gaming platform and its physical hardware to offer “hybrid cloud gaming.” .
“Our vision: Develop a next-generation hybrid gaming platform capable of harnessing the combined power of the client and cloud to deliver deeper immersion and entirely new classes of gaming experiences.”
Those are the words in just one slide from a leaked presentation called “The Next Generation of Gaming at Microsoft,” which appears to be a May 2022 presentation document that revolves entirely around this idea.
The company envisioned you playing these games using the combined power of a sub-$99 device (possibly a handheld) and its xCloud platform simultaneously.
Image: FTC documents against Microsoft
I’m familiar with this idea because it’s the one I championed in June 2021, pointing out how Microsoft had a unique opportunity to create games that scale from native hardware to the cloud.
It is something that Microsoft already tried to offer photorealistic landscapes in Microsoft Flight Simulator streaming that data from a 2 petabyte cloud instead of your Xbox or PC where most of the game is running. But the best example remains this Amazon demo from 2014, where the Lord of the Rings-These armies don’t actually live on your device, it’s just the ballista that runs locally so you can feel that responsive experience.
Now, in these documents, Microsoft calls the idea “Cohesive Hybrid Computing”: a “cloud-to-edge architecture across silicon, graphics, and operating systems that enables ubiquitous gaming.”
If this is happening, you may already be happening. The team suggested it would need to sign partnerships with AMD for silicon before the first quarter of this year to lock down the company’s Navi 5 graphics (for reference, we’re only on Navi 3 right now), as well as potentially grabbing the company’s Zen 6 CPU cores. (Also considering Arm.)
Microsoft suspected it would also need an NPU (machine learning AI coprocessor) to provide a wide variety of benefits, including super resolution, latency compensation, frame rate interpolation, and more (see below).
Image: FTC documents against Microsoft
The documents include a full potential roadmap for the technology that would have seen hardware design begin in 2024, the first development kits arriving in 2027, and the first hybrid cloud games produced between 2024 and 2026.
Image: FTC documents against Microsoft
But before that, according to another slide, the company needed to make some key decisions about that silicon, aligning itself on building a thin operating system to run the local parts of those cloud games, which teams would be responsible for it, and what hardware it would build. Go with her. It’s entirely possible that none of that happened, just as Microsoft abandoned its “dedicated xCloud SKU” in favor of partnering with other vendors.
According to the leaked documents, the proposal appears to have emerged from a major ongoing conversation between top Microsoft leaders, including CEO Satya Nadella, Xbox chief Phil Spencer, Windows operating systems and devices leader Panos Panay, the CVP of xCloud Kareem Choudhry and more.
“We are building 4 types of computers: (1) all-cloud, (2) a hybrid Xbox, (3) hybrid Windows, and (4) hybrid HoloLens,” Nadella wrote, according to the lead documents. “We need to bring together the enterprise’s systems talent to align on a unified vision.”
“We can’t go from one great idea to another. We need a great, single idea to mobilize the company,” she wrote.
In another document from May 2022, called “Roadmap to 2030,” the company suggests that its new strategy may revolve around the driver. “The controller becomes the hero,” reads a key principle, adding: “The new Xbox controller is the only thing you need to play on all devices.” That document goes on to describe Sebile, a new Xbox controller that includes “Direct to Cloud” connectivity, as well as Xbox Wireless and Bluetooth.
It also contains an image of a possible “mobile controller,” a “one-handed controller,” and a gaming keyboard and mouse that Microsoft apparently considered building itself.
Image: FTC documents against Microsoft
The document also mentions a “Cloud Console (Keystone)” as a project that had already been funded, along with the new Xbox Series product” for Sebile. It was currently not approved as of May 2022.
In 2021, Microsoft hired Kim Swift, former Google Stadia design director best known for Valve Portal, to create a new team focused on cloud-native gaming, but it’s unclear if that has anything to do with this initiative. Sony also hired Jade Raymond away from the Stadia rubble, and her studio is working on cloud gaming technology ahead of a likely new cloud gaming push from Sony.
