Internal emails reveal that Microsoft is planning to stream PC games to Game Pass subscribers using Azure servers.
As The Verge reports, the emails from 2021 were revealed as part of the court case between the FTC and Microsoft over its proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion.
The first email is from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to Phil Spencer (Xbox boss), Kareem Choudhry (head of Microsoft's cloud gaming division), and Sarah Bond (head of the Xbox creator experience). It was triggered by Google potentially turning Stadia into a white label service, with Nadella asking "I am assuming we will do the same for Game Pass PC – right?"
The question suggests Microsoft is planning to stream PC games, and Spencer confirms this is the case in his response by stating, "Google has the ability to reuse their Linux cloud hardware and yes as we stream PC native games from an Azure GPU SKU we would have more re-use scenarios to recoup costs."
Choudhry also confirms in the email thread that PC game streaming is in the works, saying "Sarah [Bond] and I in partnership with Jason’s [Zander] team are driving a suitable Azure SKU... as part of a series that will serve the customer demand we see externally for IAAS and to run our xCloud PC streaming stack."
Google decided to shut down Stadia in January, but it's clear Microsoft intends to introduce game streaming to Game Pass at some point. The only question that remains is when exactly it intends to launch such a feature? Nvidia's GeForce Now is already proving such a service can attract tens of millions of subscribers, and Microsoft even signed a deal with Nvidia to bring PC and Xbox games to GeForce Now for 10 years.
