Microsoft XCloud game service to offer free streaming to phones

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Attendees hold Microsoft Corp. Xbox One controllers while playing during a UbiSoft Entertainment SA event ahead of the E3 Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles on Monday. Ubisoft announced that Uplay+, its new subscription service, will launch on Sept. 3 for Windows PC. Players will be able to download more than 100 games, including new releases. Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg | BLOOMBERG

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SAN FRANCISCO/SEATTLE – Microsoft Corp. said a new service that will let users play video games from their Xbox consoles on their smartphones will be offered for free.

The service, which will be rolled out starting in October, is one part of the company’s new xCloud game-streaming strategy. The other piece will let gamers without access to a console play games using Microsoft’s cloud — the company will store and run the games, and deliver them to players over the internet — for a fee.

“It’s about the games you love, the games you already have, with the friends you already have, on the go wherever you want to be on the device you have,” Matt Booty, vice president of Xbox game studios, said during an interview from the E3 conference in Los Angeles. Booty declined to disclose the pricing of the second part of xCloud, except to say that it will be competitive with offerings from Alphabet Inc.’s Google, whose Stadia game-streaming service will go for $10 a month, and Ubisoft Entertainment SA, which unveiled a $15 monthly service.

At a news conference ahead of the trade show on Sunday, Microsoft gave the first details on its next-generation console, code-named Project Scarlett. The company said the device will be four times more powerful than the current Xbox One X, thanks to an Advanced Micro Devices Inc. processor that allows speeds of 120 frames per second. Booty declined to comment on pricing for the upcoming console, which goes on sale in 2020, but said the company wants to create a premium product for gamers.

“It will absolutely be the most powerful, immersive console on the market,” he said.

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