A report by Direct-Feed Games has stated that there could be some rather major projects happening between Nintendo and Microsoft this year.
According to anonymous sources, Microsoft is expected to begin publishing some Xbox One exclusive video games on the Switch later in 2019 starting with an Ori title. The company will also launch an Xbox app which will enable Xbox Game Pass membership and video game streaming via the upcoming xCloud service on the Nintendo Switch console.
Due to xCloud processing all of the gameplay in the cloud, this would allow the Switch, which is significantly underpowered when compared to the Xbox One, to play games it wouldn’t otherwise be able to handle.
Could this report be legit?
Well, it is worth acknowledging that the source of this news comes from a relatively small YouTube channel and not a major media outlet with a strong history of reliable tips. His sources could be real or they could be completely fabricated. There’s really no way to tell.
Having said that, a lot of what the report suggests does seem incredibly likely. The xCloud technology has already been officially announced by Microsoft and is literally designed to make modern AAA games playable on weaker devices like smartphones and the Nintendo Switch so this part of the story makes complete sense. In fact, Nintendo has already experimented with game streaming like this on the Nintendo Switch themselves in Japan so the company already has interest in this sort of tech.
The Xbox Game Pass rumor is an interesting one and feels like something that would only launch after the game streaming service has rolled out due to the fact that the majority of Xbox games in the service aren’t available to play on the Nintendo Switch. This same limitation is also why Xbox Game Pass has such a small presence on Windows 10 right now.
The Xbox app is a bit of an unknown. If it’s used to house the xCloud game streaming and Xbox Game Pass, that would make a lot of sense. Of course, it could be a basic Xbox app like the ones on Windows 10, iOS, and Android that’s used for connecting with friends and checking Xbox Achievements. Achievements can already be earned on the Nintendo Switch in Minecraft so there’s already kind of a need for this on the console.
Think Xbox functionality on the Nintendo Switch sounds crazy? Microsoft actually revealed an Xbox Live cross-platform SDK for developers earlier this month during the Games Developer Conference that was specifically described as being built to “enable game developers to connect players between iOS, Android, and Switch in addition to Xbox and any game in the Microsoft Store on Windows PCs.”
What do you think about these rumors? Would you like to play Xbox video games on a Nintendo Switch? Share your thoughts with the community in the comments below and then follow us on Pinterest for more Xbox gaming content.
