Cloud gaming is gradually going mainstream with big players like Sony, Google, NVIDIA, Amazon and Microsoft speeding up the progress with their own set of ventures. Add to that another big player, Walmart, which is also going to foray into cloud gaming in the future. This revelation comes courtesy a document presented in the ongoing Epic Games vs. Apple court case. The invisible link traces back to 2019 when Epic Games was pitched by Walmart for its cloud gaming streaming service.
Walmart’s cloud gaming service was called Project Storm, and an email thread from April 2019 puts a stamp on the facts. The American retail giant was in talks with multiple developers to whom the service was pitched for collaboration at various levels.
The gaming service to be streamed on cloud is intended to be an open ecosystem platform. Here the games can be streamed from the cloud or downloaded to play on Windows PC for local gameplay between friends.
The document in question confirms Walmart’s intention to rope in big publishers like Epic and have support for third-party launchers. The likes of Steam, Uplay, Origin, Bethesda Launcher or Battle.net that will act as a means to launch indie games.
The gamers will have the option to subscribe or purchase games on Walmart’s platform much like other major players. They’ll also have the option to bring your own game (BYOG) via linking to accounts like Steam or porting across the existing library.
There were other details too like the option of attaching the smartphone to a controller for using the system. According to Mark Rein’s (Epic Games co-founder) email thread, he tested some games on an Android device and it felt like playing on a PS4.
It is still not clear when the service will launch, but when it does, expect Project Storm to be far cheaper than other platforms. Apparently, Epic Games eventually collaborated with NVIDIA GeForce Now to bring Fortnite to cloud gaming.