20 PCWorld JULY 2019NEWS PROJECT SCARLET
to follow suit.
And as you might
expect, Halo Infinite is
confirmed as one of the
first Project Scarlett
titles. We got a decently
long trailer during E3,
showing off the end of
humanity’s battle, the
fall of Master Chief, and
other very ominous
imagery. It should make
for a great launch title,
especially if it’s as different gameplay-wise
from Halo 5 as we’ve heard.PROJECT XCLOUD
You won’t need to wait until next-generation
hardware for a taste of the next generation
though. Microsoft also announced that
Project xCloud, its game-streaming service,
will arrive in October—ahead of Google’s
Stadia (go.pcworld.com/stad).
That’s...basically it though. Console-
based streaming was listed as a tentpole of
Microsoft’s new strategy, but we didn’t get
any details on connection speeds, pricing,
game compatibility, or any of the details you
might want if you were waiting to make a
choice between the streaming platforms of
the future.
Phil Spencer started with “Two months
ago, we connected all Xbox developers to
Project xCloud,” which certainly soundspromising. We’re also due to get hands-on
time with the service here at E3, so perhaps
we’ll be able to wrangle more details in the
coming days. For now though, all we can
say is “It’s coming, and Microsoft’s
definitely invested.”BOTTOM LINE
This is basically a teaser for next year’s press
conference though. Neither Sony nor
Microsoft want to play their hand too early, so
while both have given us basic specs—very
similar-sounding specs, I might add—it’ll be
E3 2020 where we hear about pricing, hard
release dates, and launch lineups. I’d expect
many of the games, including Cyberpunk
2077 and Dying Light 2, plus From Software’s
newly announced Elden Ring, to either
straddle the console generation changeover
or be Scarlett exclusives, but that’s probably
news for next year as well.Microsft confirmed Halo Infinite as one of the first Project Scarlet titles.