Xbox Everywhere: Up to 3 Billion Players for Microsoft?On May 5, 2022, Microsoft officially launched Fortnite on xCloud in partnership with Epic Games.The Redmond company took advantage of this surprise announcement to publish a press release highlighting "Xbox Everywhere", a strategy aimed at players having fun with the titles they want, with whomever they want, on the devices they want to own.It's not the first time the software giant has repeated this mantra, but with Xbox & Bethesda Showcase 2022 a month away, Phil Spencer and his team are gearing up to speed up.The goal?Simply reach 3 billion players.Also, Microsoft's desire is not new.This need to no longer worry about the hardware to run an Xbox game surely dates back to 2013, when Halo 4 appeared with the aim of making it playable on smartphones thanks to "the power of the cloud".In 2018, Phil Spencer, vice president of gaming at Xbox, said during E3 that he was in the works on a game streaming service and that it would provide access "to console-quality titles on any device."A teaser that went unnoticed due to the announcement of the acquisition of Ninja Theory that occurred a few minutes before.Two years later, he specified that his competitors were no longer Sony or Nintendo, but Google and Amazon, specialists in the cloud.Some statements that had obviously sparked a controversy but that, however, showed Microsoft's new policy with Xbox: that of trusting the most promising segments of the group to win the lucrative services war. At Microsoft that meant betting on Azure , the cloud platform that can boast of being the engine of the company's annual results.“There are only 200 or 250 million households in the world that are interested in video games on consoles.This is still less than 10% of the three billion players.We need to meet users where they are, meaning on mobile and on other screens or devices,” Phil Spencer said last year ahead of Showcase 2021. Tim Stuart, CFO of the brand, explained that efforts were going to be made on PC and mobile.He specified that economically, "the growing importance of income (...) for services" made game »less dependent (...) on consoles".For decades, we've measured a manufacturer's success on a single metric, that of console sales in stores around the world.This should no longer be a sufficient indicator in the coming years. In addition, Flight Simulator is the perfect example of what a successful alliance between the different divisions of Microsoft, in this case Azure and Bing, gives.Asobo's creation also became the most played work in the cloud on mobile, PC and consoles in March 2022.Hitting hard and fast, first with Game Pass, then with xCloud (long reserved for Ultimate customers), Microsoft now has 25 million subscribers (+39% in a year).Among them, more than 10 million users have tried streaming games through Game Pass Ultimate.This figure, Microsoft wants to see it scale quickly to leave the least possible chance to the competition.This is why the group led by Satya Nadella finalized the acquisition of Bethesda last year and plans to acquire Activision Blizzard.The software specialist wants to deliver to Game Pass as regularly as possible the titles expected by players.With the prospect of extending the influence of its services.As a reminder, the best-selling game on PlayStation in 2021 is none other than Call of Duty: Vanguard.Although Sony is patching up its PlayStation Plus offering, no industry giant today offers a better-built “netflix video game than Microsoft's.According to Ampere Analysis, Game Pass would have a 60% market share of video game subscription services in Europe and North America, compared to 7% for PlayStation Now.Xbox wants to grow quickly in an industry where the brand has all the cards in hand thanks to its parent company's cloud expertise.The levers to maximize growth are content, of course, but also the number of territories that give access to services. On March 29, 2022, the Redmond firm launched Game Pass PC (in advance) in Indonesia, Malaysia , Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.Recently, Phil Spencer's teams opened up cloud gaming to Mexican, Japanese, and Brazilian gamers, bringing the number to 26. For its part, Sony announced that some thirty countries will soon have access to game streaming via the Internet. cloud with the addition of Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.As a reminder, the Japanese manufacturer only offers the game in streaming on consoles (PS4, PS5) and PC.However, PS5 games cannot be played in the cloud, unlike Xbox Series X|S apps with Microsoft deals.Until now, game streaming within the Xbox ecosystem was only offered to Game Pass Ultimate subscribers, on a selection of games that are part of the catalog.On May 5, 2022, Microsoft made a non-decommissioned title playable with Fortnite for the first time.This means anyone with an iOS device, Android mobile device, or Windows PC, without an Xbox Live Gold or Game Pass subscription, can play Fortnite via the cloud.Additionally, this process allows Apple device owners to have fun with Epic Games software.Savings of 30% of “the apple tax” is passed on to users through a price reduction that applies to all purchases made on xCloud, regardless of the platform used to access it.After showing us that it was possible to play Xbox games on machines/devices other than Xbox consoles, the Redmond company shows us that a Game Pass subscription is no longer required to take advantage of the cloud. It wouldn't be surprising to see other free players take advantage of this cloud boost with Rocket League, Call of Duty: Warzone, Phantasy Star Online: New Genesis, and of course Halo Infinite.In its official press release, Microsoft recalls that in less than two years, more than 125 developers have worked to make more than 350 Xbox Game Pass games compatible in the cloud.These versions designed to be played on mobile devices usually have touch controls.The American giant recognizes that 20% of xCloud users do not use any particular accessory to play, and that is why it is important to democratize the touch interface.Since September 2021, when xCloud debuted in beta, the Redmond firm has certainly gained experience.Little by little, the Xbox brand moved to places other than living rooms.It reaches offices with PCs, pockets with iOS or Android devices, backpacks with the Steam Deck... and soon connected televisions.Hallway noises even evoke the arrival of an HDMI dongle to plug into your TV so you can enjoy Xbox cloud gaming without a real Xbox being connected to the display.After Xbox Play Anywhere, now it's time for Xbox Everywhere.Chosen as the best editor of the year 2021 by Metacritic, the American giant knows that it has an army of studios capable of launching games in various genres capable of interesting players with different profiles.If Microsoft manages to finalize the acquisition of Activision Blizzar, the number of Game Pass subscribers could see significant growth.Of course, this bright future ahead for Phil Spencer's teams will intervene only if the technology and content keep up.When an Xbox Live outage makes the cloud inaccessible to millions of subscribers, it's best to keep a cool head.