Microsoft Testing Playing Xbox Games in PC Browsers

Neowin is reporting that Microsoft is testing out playing Xbox games in a PC browser. A few weeks back, a Microsoft research project showed that the company had built a cloud-based gaming service that reduced the lag by a significant margin. Of course, Microsoft has many research products that never seem to make it out of the labs for one reason or another, but this product is a bit different.

Microsoft is testing out playing games in your browser and not just any games. We're talking Xbox games - and not just last-generation titles either. In fact, even Xbox One titles are currently said to be in the works too. 

And don’t think this is some watered-down experience; one source told us that he thought the experience was right around 60FPS, while another stated that this is going to be the company’s next killer gaming feature. 

The Xbox 360 games offer up the full experience, including the dashboard running in the browser too. So don't think this is some hacked together project, this is the real deal. The product, as it stands right now, has Xbox branding and works outside the walls of Microsoft. 

It makes sense too - think about how quickly you can connect to Microsoft’s Azure platform when using the Xbox One and then apply that to this service. Microsoft has already proven that cloud-based off-loads can work with Titanfall and this is the next extension of that concept. 

The service is not perfect as there are many barriers to overcome to bring this product to market. One issue is licensing; Microsoft may have to work with publishers to allow for this type of gameplay as it could cut into their revenue from PC game sales. 

The implications here are huge for Microsoft as it removes the console from the equation to tap into the gaming market. Also, by off-loading the processing power needed to run these games, it means that they can run on any type of device. Microsoft’s current solution is not browser-locked either; it runs in Chrome as well as it does in Internet Explorer. 

It was about this time last year that Microsoft showed off Halo 4 running in the cloud on various devices at the company’s all-employee meeting, and this project is the on-going work from that demo to bring it to more users. Our understanding is that significant progress has been made from that demo and it is now being rolled out to more users.