Microsoft announced yesterday that Xbox Cloud Streaming would be available through browsers like Edge, Chrome, and Safari, and it’s all thanks to Rainway. You might remember our previous coverage of the streaming app, which launched its Open Beta in January 2018 and has since raised more cash through investment rounds.
Kevin LaChapelle, General Manager of the Project xCloud Platform, stated:
Rainway CEO Andrew Sampson added:
On the Rainway blog, Sampson revealed how this partnership came to be in the first place.
A few weeks later, Microsoft would begin facing its intractable problem: bringing Xbox Cloud Gaming to iOS. We’re no strangers to the strict restrictions put in place by Apple around game streaming on the App Store, but for Microsoft, this was a massive blow to the ability for their service to become the true “Netflix for Video Games.” That moniker isn’t just about the ability to stream games; instead, it is the ability for consumers to engage with and play traditional desktop and console games on any device they want.
With billions of potential customers being left unable to access their service, they looked to us for a solution. As such, we cut the proverbial Gordian knot with the Rainway SDK. Our solution not only brings Xbox Cloud Gaming to Safari on macOS, iPad OS, and iOS devices. It also brings it to modern web browsers on Windows, Chrome OS, and even Linux. No extensions, no plugins, and most importantly no downloads.
