SAN FRANCISCO, May 7 — The Microsoft Xbox game streaming service, Project xCloud, is moving towards public trials later in 2019 after an internal "takehome” test phase has been completed.

Microsoft’s game streaming platform, xCloud, is continuing along a development roadmap that leads to public trials in 2019.

Head of Xbox Phil Spencer made the announcement through Twitter last week, as noted by Eurogamer.

Google announced its own game streaming service, Stadia (formerly known as Project Stream) at the Game Developers Conference in March.

Operating through the Google Chrome web browser it offers a degree of device agnosticism and, like xCloud, it is targeting public availabilty in 2019.

Xbox has been preparing its console line for an internet-centric future, introducing the Xbox One S All-Digital edition for a May 7 debut, a model which does away with the standard Xbox Ones’ disc drive and is intended for use with the digital Xbox Marketplace store, Xbox Game Pass subscription and, it would appear, Project xCloud.

Sony’s Xbox rival PlayStation has game-streaming subscription PlayStation Now, which added a full download feature towards the end of 2018. PlayStation Now currently has the larger library of titles while Xbox Game Pass has been prioritizing high profile launch-day releases. — AFP-Relaxnews