'Exciting' Cloud Services Coming to the Xbox 360, Microsoft Says

Microsoft's Xbox division is set to present some more cloud features in the future, as a special executive from the company, Brian Prince, hinted that some 'exciting' services will be deployed for the Xbox 360, although he can't say anything else about them.

Microsoft's Xbox 360 home console is experiencing a huge surge in sales in the recent year, managing to grow in profit ahead of its rivals like the PlayStation 3 or Nintendo Wii.

Now, just as the platform is getting ready for the release of a brand new dashboard interface later this month, which will bring alongside it new features like TV on Demand, Microsoft is hinting at the future of the device and how more cloud services are scheduled to appear.

Speaking at the Game Developers Conference in China, via Gamasutra, Microsoft's Brian Prince, its "cloud evangelist", confirmed that, "You will be seeing things in the Xbox platform that are cloud-specific. I'm already doing it, it's really exciting, but I can't tell you about it or else I'll get fired."

As you can imagine, he didn't reveal any other details, but did talk about current cloud gaming services like OnLive or Gaikai, which are becoming more and more popular in recent times.

"These are really gaming platforms as a service," he said. "There are some limitations here, but I really do think this is the distant future of gaming in the cloud. You lose a little bit about how people are finding and playing your game, which can be important. And this is yet another publisher you have to deal with... another contract you have to sign."

From these statements, one can conclude that Microsoft wants to deliver a more streamlined cloud service that makes the life of developers that much easier.

For now, however, the company is set to deliver a cloud save feature for the Xbox 360, similar to the one already offered by Sony for its PlayStation Plus members.