Xbox boss Phil Spencer has revealed that the company has parked plans to release its own streaming device.
Project Keystone, as it was known as internally, has been scrapped for now. The Microsoft executive explained during WSJ Live that the deal with Samsung to include Xbox Cloud Gaming as part of its smart TV Gaming Hub has shifted the brand's intentions:
"Keystone is something that we were incubating internally... a streaming console. There's no local play, [it's] low cost, plug it into a television and you'll be able to stream the Xbox games that are available," he said.
"[But] we instead pivoted in late spring to working with Samsung. We put an app on Samsung TVs so that you can play Xbox games.
"Giving people choice - whether they want to play on their tablet, on their smart TV, on Xbox, a PC - we think that's really critical to where we're going. Will we do a streaming device at some point? I suspect we will, but it's years away."
Spencer also explained why a device that looks like the Keystone streaming box was recently spotted in an image he posted on his own Twitter feed: "I still have the prototype - it sits on the shelf behind my computer," he added.
Hopefully, although a dedicated streaming puck is "years away", Xbox will continue to strike deals with other smart TV manufacturers, even streaming device companies like Amazon for its Fire TV platform, Google for Android TV and/or Google TV, Apple TV, and Roku. That way we won't need a dedicated box from Xbox itself, and Cloud Gaming with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate will be readily available to those without consoles anyway.
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