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Apple might be developing a cloud gaming service of its own for 5G iPhones

By Kenneth Ang - on 19 Aug 2020, 12:54am

Apple might be developing a cloud gaming service of its own for 5G iPhones

Image: Apple

If you've been keeping up with the news, you should already be familiar with why Apple doesn't support the notion of cloud gaming services on the iOS platform. After all, their recent "dispute" of sorts with Microsoft over Project xCloud and the Xbox Game Pass says as much - the company has mentioned that it isn't comfortable offering stuff through iOS that it can't monitor and review directly, which is why they've decided to play it safe and say no to Microsoft. 

However, like every Transformers show, there's always more than meets the eye, and it seems that Apple hasn't been telling us the full story here, and it's important because it offers a much simpler (and more business-minded) perspective on why they're against having such services on iOS. 

To put it bluntly, it's because such services will end up clashing with their own products, or to be more specific, their own cloud gaming service. At this juncture, nothing is confirmed of coure but based on a new patent that was recently published in Europe, it seems that the tech giant has also been working on its own little cloud gaming project, one that's reportedly meant for upcoming 5G iPhones

Image: Patently Apple

Of course, it doesn't read "Apple's Top Secret Cloud Gaming Service" on the cover, but the patent does describe it as "Enabling Interactive Service for Cloud Rendering Gaming in 5G System". And if that's not enough to convince you, the document goes on to detail a little more about the project, mentioning how user inputs from a device are transmitted to a server and recorded, following which the server sends back a response containing the game's feedback.

On top of that, it seems that Apple has also identified and more importantly, fixed several known issues with cloud-based gaming services, such as how to manage network resources more efficiently, as this report from Patently Apple (thanks!) details. 

TL; DR: Everything about it basically screams cloud gaming, and folks are bound to start asking questions about this sooner or later. But for the time being, it seems that Apple doesn't have to worry about answering them - people are more concerned with the ongoing legal three-way between Apple, Google and Epic over alleged "monopolisation" of the app development space, and that saga continues to grow more intense with every passing day. 

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