2020 is going to be a massive year for the video games industry as two rivals are poised to release their next-generation gaming consoles. The rivalry between Sony's PlayStation and Microsoft's Xbox has been ongoing for ages. But, it appears that Xbox Series X is taking the competition at a different level, this time away from the PlayStation 5 and unto a new market segment.

Xbox Series X Taking On Google And Amazon

In a recent interview with Xbox Boss Phil Spencer, he shared several interesting revelations about the future of the Xbox Series X and Microsoft's gaming segment as a whole. According to him, he did not consider Sony and Nintendo as Xbox Series X's main rivals now. Instead, Spencer is seemingly focused on positioning Microsoft's next-generation gaming console against Amazon and Google.

It is safe to say that Microsoft is leveraging its massive presence in the cloud to push for the future of its gaming console. It is actually not surprising considering that long before Google launched Stadia, Microsoft already introduced Project xCloud in the market. With the help of the skilled and experienced Xbox team and the support of Microsoft Azure, Project xCloud could be a threat to the game streaming war.

Game Streaming

Game streaming has not yet become the mainstream giant that Google wanted it to be, but it is attracting interests from other tech giants in the industry. GeForce Now is available; Google Stadia is there too, Apple is also hinting that it might soon enter the game streaming industry with its Apple Arcade. Amazon has not yet introduced a similar service, but it has the Amazon Web Services that could take on Microsoft Azure's infrastructure.

Both Amazon and Google have not yet announced that they have plans to create a gaming console for the game streaming industry. However, both may be prepared to take on Xbox Series X, or any Microsoft gaming console, in the event that Spencer's visions become a reality. According to Spencer, Google and Amazon are focused on how to offer gaming to 7 billion people around the world, and that is the goal of Microsoft too.

Whether we like it or not, the future of gaming is streaming. And if that future is going to happen, Microsoft would not have to worry about selling its gaming consoles per unit. All it has to worry about is how it could sign up several billions of people for its game streaming subscription service. The only problem is, if Microsoft has seen this happening, it is possible that Sony has too.