Never Ending Realm

Video game reviews, fan fiction, gaming news, and more! Since 2003. We especially love JRPGs, RPGs and the best of the rest. Never Ending Realm: Where your favorite games live forever!

Menu
  • News
    • PlayStation
    • Nintendo
    • Xbox
    • PC
    • Mobile
  • Fan Fiction
  • Opinion
    • Throwback Bit Thursday
    • Games Costing A Kidney
    • Thank God It’s Friday
  • Lists
  • Reviews
  • Humor
  • About
Menu
Streaming to a Cell

Microsoft and Samsung’s Partnership: The Future is Now

Posted on August 5, 2020January 2, 2021 by Samuel Rivera

 

There is a reason that Microsoft does not seem at all too concerned with the likely prospect of losing the console war to Sony (and Nintendo), yet again with the Xbox Series X. If their latest showcase was any indication, the company is more concerned about keeping, and growing its number of GamePass subscriptions, than it is on selling its next-generation console.

At one-point last year, there were rumors of GamePass arriving to the Nintendo Switch. Many Nintendo and Microsoft fans celebrated the rumors as a partnership between the two video gaming giants. Such a partnership could have spelled some trouble for Sony, it would have triggered a growth in sales for  the Nintendo Switch, while at the same time considerably increasing Microsoft’s revenues and subscription numbers of their GamePass service.

Microsoft would go on to dispel the rumors of said partnership, and perhaps at some point it might have been on the cards, but Microsoft remains invested on the hardware business. In a way, it made little sense for the company to support Nintendo’s Hardware, when they themselves are trying to get people to buy an Xbox One, and in a few months from now; an Xbox Series X.

No such conflict of interest exists with Samsung ( a Cellphone, Tablet, and TV Maker), and Samsung (and Android) actually provides a much larger – growing – market for Microsoft and the Xbox brand to tap into.

Over 2 billion people around the world use Android, that is a much more tempting market than the current 60 million installed user base that supports the Nintendo Switch.  With its Cloud streaming service or xCloud making its debut on September 15th Microsoft is setting the bases for what it hopes will become the “Netflix of Video Games” in their Ultimate Xbox GamePass.

Note 20 games
Xbox Game Streaming through Android devices is the future of the company’s GamePass services.

The Service will cost $14.99 monthly, and it will be available on Android devices across 22 countries. Currently iOS users are being left out, as Apple’s restrictions seem to have hindered Microsoft’s testing on said devices.

Still, Microsoft is taking a page out of Nintendo in leaving the conventional Home Console Business (as Nintendo left home consoles for the portable market with the Switch) as a secondary platform of their Xbox Business.

The partnership with Samsung is a sign of this. The Smart Phone giant is unveiling its new Galaxy Note 20 handset today, and a unique Xbox Game Pass partnership with it. This unique version will allow users to acquire DLC items, in exchange for their redeemable tokens on the Xbox Store, among other features. These features will  not be present on the regular Google Play Store.

This partnership is interesting because it is possible that in the future, Xbox Game Pass will make its way into Samsung’s TV sets, xCloud on TVs would undermine the necessity of owning and Xbox Home Console if users possess a fast internet connection to stream 4K content.

While Google Stadia has been a massive failure in terms of bringing about the future of game streaming to the masses, it seems Microsoft is doing things the right way.

It has taken more than half a decade for Microsoft to finally deliver on the “Power of the Cloud” promise, but it seems that on September 15th we will finally get a taste of it. Microsoft might have lost and might continue to lose the home console race war, but perhaps 20-30 years from now when consoles are (unfortunately) a thing of the past, and streaming devices rule the Video Gaming landscape, Microsoft will have had the last laugh.

Category: News, Xbox
Tags: Microsoft, Samsung, xCloud

Follow us on social media!

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram

Must Reads

  • 2023 is Here and The Never Ending Realm Turns 20 Years Old
  • Throwback Bit Thursday: Remembering a Merry 1998 Christmas 
  • A Mid 2022 PlayStation 5 vs Xbox Series X Comparison
  • TBT: Five Critically Underrated 32-Bit Era JRPGs
  • The Rise and Fall of Japanese Role-Playing Games (JRPGs)
  • Yoshida: Final Fantasy is Struggling to Keep Up With Industry Trends
  • The Top Ten Greatest Final Fantasy Games of All-Time
  • Top Ten Greatest ‘The Legend of Zelda’ Games of All Time
  • 5 Of The Best JRPG Heroes
  • The Top 10 Best Selling PlayStation 2 JRPGs (All Time Sales)

Action-Adventure Action-RPG Bandai/Namco Bethesda CD PROJEKT RED Chrono Cross Cyberpunk 2077 Final Fantasy (Series) Final Fantasy IX Final Fantasy VI Final Fantasy VII Final Fantasy VII Remake Final Fantasy XVI First-Person RPG First Person Shooter Halo: Infinite Halo Series JRPG Microsoft Nintendo Nintendo 64 Nintendo Switch PC PlayStation PlayStation 1 PlayStation 2 PlayStation 4 PlayStation 5 RPG SEGA Sega Saturn Sony Square Enix Tales Series The Legend of Dragoon The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time The Legend of Zelda Series XBOX Xbox 360 Xbox Game Pass Xbox One Xbox Series S Xbox Series X Xenogears

  • Legend of Dragoon
    Masayuki Kasebe: The Legend of Dragoon Could Have Saved FFVII Remake
  • Wukong cover
    Wukong Dev: No ‘Black Myth’ Version for Xbox Thanks to Difficulties on Underpowered Series S
  • Astro Bot Water Effects
    2024 Recap: Xbox Launches its Best Games, Xbox Gets out of the Race Against Sony, Astro GotY, and More!
  • Intergalactic protagonist
    Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet the Most Hated New Game Reveal? Concord 2.0?
  • Astro Bot Water Effects
    Astro Bot Review (PS5)
  • FFVII Rebirth
    Final Fantasy VII Rebirth: Welcome to the Multiverse! Review (PS5)
  • Echoes of Wisdom Raises Zelda To New Heights Through Brilliance, Grace and Elegance – My Review and Verdict
  • Legend of Zelda Fanfiction: The Plane of Masked Yearning – Part Seven
  • PS5 Pro
    PlayStation 5 Pro’s $700 Tag: A Peek at a Future Without Xbox?
  • Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster
    Final Fantasy Should be “Political”: Has Sakaguchi Been Misunderstood By News Outlets?
  • About
  • Privacy Policy
Copyright 2022 by Never Ending Realm, Mont Cessna & Samuel Rivera