At its Galaxy Unpacked 2020 event in San Francisco yesterday, Samsung announced more than just its upcoming lineup of smartphones. In particular, the Korean company announced a partnership with Microsoft to bring a "premium cloud-based game streaming experience to mobile players".

“This is just the beginning of our gaming partnership with Xbox,” explained David S. Park, head of Samsung’s US marketing, on stage. “Both Samsung and Xbox share a vision for bringing great gaming experiences to mobile players around the world. With our 5G-enabled portfolios and Microsoft’s rich history in gaming, we are working closely together to create a premium cloud-based game streaming experience. You’ll hear more about it later this year.”

While more details were scant, it's likely a move to bring Project xCloud to Android-powered Samsung devices. Speaking to The Verge, Kareem Choudhry, Microsoft’s Project xCloud chief, seems to confirm those speculations with the following statement: “We’ve seen positive feedback from Project xCloud preview participants testing a range of Galaxy devices, and it will only get better as we continue to work closely with Samsung on refining the experience. It’s an exciting time to be working on Project xCloud, and we can’t wait to share more about our work with Samsung later this year.”

Park also revealed the upcoming Forza Street for Galaxy devices, with pre-registration open now:

​

Would you like to see Project xCloud on your smartphone?

SOURCE

 

[Lodad]

Samsung seems like a really weird bedfellow for MS to get into a cloud gaming service with. I hope it's not exclusive to Samsung devices.

 

[Deleted User]

Samsung seems like a really weird bedfellow for MS to get into a cloud gaming service with. I hope it's not exclusive to Samsung devices.

You'll still have xcloud coming to pretty much every other mobile device, so I'm really not sure why they thought this was all that necessary

 

[tech3475]

Samsung seems like a really weird bedfellow for MS to get into a cloud gaming service with. I hope it's not exclusive to Samsung devices.

You'll still have xcloud coming to pretty much every other mobile device, so I'm really not sure why they thought this was all that necessary

It's not too strange if you think about it.

MS/Xbox will likely be mentioned when Samsung's marketing the S20 with some apps preinstalled as bloatware on their devices.

Samsung have a known service/partner they can use in marketing to try and attract gamers. MS may also help promote Samsung e.g. Xbox Dashboard and may also use their devices when demonstrating games.

Money may have also been involved one way or another.

 

[MiiJack]

Xbox trying its best to appeal to the East it seems.

 

[Taleweaver]

Samsung seems like a really weird bedfellow for MS to get into a cloud gaming service with. I hope it's not exclusive to Samsung devices.

Erm...as an alternative to whom, exactly?

Apple and microsoft working together would be hilarious, but given they're direct competitors: not very likely.
Partners with alphabet (google) would be even weirder.
Sony? These guys also make smartphones, so...wouldn't they be interested in a partnership?
Huawei probably would have been a decent alternative if they weren't Chinese (Trump would have a field day on this one...and even him notwithstanding: that corona situation would cause some serious delay), but even so: samsung's more high end smartphones, afaik.
The only logical partner would be (microsoft's owned) nokia, but...these guys aren't exactly leading the high end smartphone device range.

 

[spotanjo3]

No thanks to Cloud gaming. I am stick with physical discs. Cloud gaming wont success at all. Nintendo of President said that they are not ready for it but they will have Cloud gaming in the near future. Again, either way, I am not supporting cloud gaming. Stick with physical discs as tradition. I love to collect my favourite games. Cloud gaming, you cannot collected them as collector's item. NO THANKS!

 

[Deleted User]

Erm...as an alternative to whom, exactly?

Apple and microsoft working together would be hilarious, but given they're direct competitors: not very likely.
Partners with alphabet (google) would be even weirder.
Sony? These guys also make smartphones, so...wouldn't they be interested in a partnership?
Huawei probably would have been a decent alternative if they weren't Chinese (Trump would have a field day on this one...and even him notwithstanding: that corona situation would cause some serious delay), but even so: samsung's more high end smartphones, afaik.
The only logical partner would be (microsoft's owned) nokia, but...these guys aren't exactly leading the high end smartphone device range.

Nokia isn't owned by Microsoft. They're actually a pretty big network infrastructure provider.

Samsung has been partnered with Microsoft for a while now, so this news isn't surprising.

 

[codezer0]

No thanks. After the Note 7, I choose not to buy a phone from a maker who would rather literally end my life than make a good phone again.

 

[Taleweaver]

Nokia isn't owned by Microsoft. They're actually a pretty big network infrastructure provider.

Oops...you're right.

Lemme explain a bit: they were set to take over nokia, but backed down. Upon googling it, I came across this semi-recent article, but indeed: I should have read instead of just skimmed.

My mistake...

 

[kumikochan]

The reason for this on microsofts end is probably getting more brand recognitionnin asian countries that they are severly lacking at the moment. It's a smart choice with the end result people bying more xbox branded products futurewise.

 

[Lodad]

Erm...as an alternative to whom, exactly?

I was thinking more along the lines of "Why partner with anybody at all?"

EDIT: but I didn't know they were partnered already, makes sense to develop something together as long as you have that partnership.

 

[Vorde]

No thanks. After the Note 7, I choose not to buy a phone from a maker who would rather literally end my life than make a good phone again.

I've owned Samsung products since the Galaxy S Captivate, and I've never thought they've made a product that would end someone's life lol. Yes, they messed up and they manufactured a bunch of batteries wrong, it happens, nothing is perfect. Also the problem was known pretty early on with the Note7 phones, and they were offering upgrades or replacements etc.
They responded appropriately and timely and have made solid products since that mishap. It's unfortunate that some people got hurt, but things aren't perfect.
I'd never mess around with batteries and put gas into a car without respecting the option that it has that type of potential to happen.

 

[Bladexdsl]

stopped reading at mobile

 

[Vila_]

Samsung basically partnered with everyone...

 

[Taleweaver]

Would you like to see Project xCloud on your smartphone?

Yup. I'll put it directly next to the google stadia app, geforce now, moonlight, steam play and...whatever that was that PS4 did (playstation now? I honestly wasn't paying attention ).

That is to say: I'll put it directly in the recycle bin.

 

[pop13_13]

.

 

[leon315]

I could see this is a better alternative as Cloud gaming if SAMSUNG resolves the heat up problem when use 5G lol. M$ combined with 5G's speed should resolve/reduce entirely input delay.

 

[Rahkeesh]

It's really strange to hear "this is for the Asian audience" when Samsung is the #1 phone maker period, and is the default Android phone in the U.S. There's a reason form-specific add-ons like from Razer target Samsung devices.

 

[Vila_]

the new Minecraft launcher, Windows

I actually like the new minecraft launcher, it is a bit worse than the old one but atleast its functional...