Microsoft is looking into AI for use with xCloud

Microsoft’s upcoming Project xCloud service may utilize AI to make the mobile gaming service more responsive for consumers.

According to a patent reported on by Windows United, xCloud will use artificial intelligence to learn each user’s behaviours. With this information, the service will be able to anticipate which game a person would want to play next.

For example, when a player is done playing one game on their PC and wants to switch to Xbox, the AI would be able to predict what game the person would want to play and have it ready and waiting for them.

A patent filed by Alex Kipman has the following (translated) excerpt:

Features of the current invention allow players to instantly access games and begin playing via an online service. To make the games available immediately, an online service keeps instances of games in active memory waiting for a player to be added. The games running in active memory are not tied to a player profile or an I/O channel of a game client. Once the player requests a game, the player profile of the player is loaded into the running game instance and an I/O channel is mapped by the game client to the game instance. From the player’s point of view, the pre-installed game instances allow the player to navigate from game to game with very little delay, optimizing the use of server-side resources.

Project xCloud is an intriguing proposition from Microsoft. With Xbox One games available anywhere and anytime, even on mobile internet, there’s no guarantee that xCloud will ever work as well as it needs to.

Source: Windows United.