“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.”

Original story: Xbox is preparing to make some games exclusively for its Project xCloud streaming service, but we’ll probably need to wait a while before we hear more about them. The company’s previous announcements positioned xCloud as a bridge to let people play their existing Xbox games anywhere, rather than a gaming destination as its own. However, xCloud head Kareem Choudhry revealed in an interview at X019 that Microsoft plans to expand its scope.

“In terms of [Project xCloud] exclusives, we’re in early talks with first- and third- parties, but we don’t have any announcements to share,” Choudhry said, as reported by Stevivor (opens in new tab). “New content and IP takes eighteen months to two years [to develop].”

In this case, first parties would likely mean the many developers under the Xbox Game Studios umbrella, which opens up the possibility for all kinds of studios to create games for the service. If Microsoft ever plans to put xCloud forward as its own gaming solution, that could do a lot to set it apart from services like Google Stadia (opens in new tab) – which is also working on its own first-party games (opens in new tab), but is building its internal studios from the ground up at the same time.

Choudhry made sure to reiterate that the first priority for xCloud is “just lifting and shifting content that doesn’t require any development changes into the cloud,” letting it run any given Xbox game. Changes on the development end will allow games to tell if they’re being run on the cloud or on a local device, which could let them optimize themselves by changing their font size, networking code, or other considerations. 

Though Microsoft is giving the new Xbox Series X (opens in new tab) hardware most of the spotlight, it’s become clear that you’ll want to keep a close eye on xCloud too – if at first only for the novelty of officially playing Xbox games with a DualShock 4 controller (opens in new tab).

You can create your own smorgasbord of discounted video game delights with our guide to Black Friday game deals (opens in new tab).

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Booty talked extensively about how Microsoft approaches acquiring third-party studios, during which he revealed that there are “projects underway at Obsidian that we’ll learn about in the future that they’ve already started working on”. How intriguing. To add to the excitement surrounding this revelation, Booty went on to talk about The Outer Worlds a bit more, expressing Microsoft’s high hopes for the game and the potential it holds for the future. 

After being asked if Xbox has plans to make an Outer Worlds 2 and if it could it be a big Microsoft exclusive going into the future, Booty said: “I think that’d be that kind of game. From what we’ve seen of the Outer Worlds, my hope is that that’s something we can build and that it really becomes an enduring franchise and it really starts to grow and we can help expand that.” 

When approaching the subject surrounding making a series an Xbox exclusive, Booty explained that it depends on if it suits the franchise and whether it would benefit from being open to all platforms, or be better supported by the resources Xbox can put into it. Booty explained that he believes The Outer Worlds could be a franchise Xbox helps to build on in future because of its big universe and narrative. 

In the rest of the interview, Booty shed more light on the future of Xbox’s game library and revealed that several Xbox exclusives are in the pipeline, which is good news ahead of the release of the Xbox Project Scarlett (opens in new tab). Whether these exclusives will be ready for when the new console is due to release in holiday 2020 remains to be seen. The Outer Worlds is set to release October 25 and looks set to be one of this year’s most exciting releases. To hear a sequel is already in the realms of possibility is pretty exciting. 

Want to know more? Check out our preview and find out why The Outer Worlds is the best RPG Bethesda never made (opens in new tab).

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That’s not to say there won’t be announcements from the annual industry expo, though, and this year’s Gamescom could be even more important than most, now that we know both Microsoft and PlayStation will be in attendance, presumably to announce more about their plans for the future of 2019 and beyond.

This news arrives via a Twitter user by the name of GraviKnight (opens in new tab), who uncovered confirmation of Microsoft and PlayStation’s attendance via some promotional material announcing the full lineup of “Gamescom 2019 Guarantees”, which also includes Bethesda, 2K Games, Capcom, EA, and more. 

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PS5’s next-gen PSVR headset will be wireless, cost $250, and can even track your eye movement (opens in new tab)

Microsoft has made an increasing effort to show up at Gamescom in recent years, but the news of Sony’s attendance speaks volumes, given that the tech company decided to avoid E3 completely this year as it continues to work on its confirmed next-gen console, the PS5 (opens in new tab). 

It’s unlikely, but not impossible, that we’ll be hearing any more news from PlayStation about that hardware at Gamescom itself, and the same goes for Microsoft’s own upcoming console, the Xbox Project Scarlett (opens in new tab), but either company wouldn’t be showing up unless they had something to announce, so it’s worth staying tuned either way. 

You can keep an eye on GamesRadar in the lead up to, and throughout, Gamescom 2019 for all the big news as it arrives, but – in the meantime – don’t forget that the San Diego Comic Con 2019 schedule (opens in new tab) kicks off today, promising all sorts of information about Marvel Phase 4 (opens in new tab), The Walking Dead season 10 (opens in new tab), and much more. 

For more, check out all the big new games of 2019 (opens in new tab) still on the way, or watch our Release Radar below for a guide to everything else out this week. 

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