EA readies cloud gaming trials

Electronic Arts have revealed that it is about to initiate the first trials of its cloud gaming technology – which forms part of Project Atlas, the company's forthcoming cloud-based development engine.

Project Atlas is designed to both bring cloud-based game-streaming to consumers and to allow developers to build games directly to the cloud. EA revealed that the first test of Project Atlas's ability to stream games will take place on the PC, and will involve the games FIFA 19, Titanfall 2, Need for Speed Rivals and Unravel.

EA's Chief Technology Officer Ken Moss fleshed out the cloud gaming trial in a Medium post. He said: "I'm excited to share that we'll be taking an important step in this learning journey as we host an exclusive external trial for our players to experience games streamed through EA's cloud technology.

"As our games will continue to be the creative heart of EA, we are focused on testing and understanding their performance in cloud gaming. So our goal with this exclusive trial is to gather more inputs at scale to test performance and quality of service in a variety of network conditions and on multiple server routing scenarios. While this particular trial will be focused on cloud gaming on PC, we are also working to understand performance across multiple other devices. Most importantly, we are here to learn how to improve and enhance the cloud gaming experience for our players."

Moss touched on what EA aims to achieve from the test: "Now that the global cloud infrastructure is finally reaching ubiquity, EA is working on leveraging AWS and the public cloud so that we can deploy as close to the players as possible, even in the face of unstable networks and changes in bandwidth. This player test will help us to better understand how our games perform across real-life scenarios."

Plus he discussed the technology's cross-play potential: "As part of the trial, we're testing the technical functionality of cross play that will allow players to play the games they love with others no matter where, or on what device, they have chosen to play — a major step toward cloud gaming finally uniting platforms in play. It will also allow for players to be able to save their progression on one platform and have that reflect in another. In fact, during this trial, players in the cloud gaming trial can engage with the live PC environment on Origin. Players will also be able to test out their cross-progression when they login to PC after the conclusion of the trial. This is a very tangible connection between what is possible now and the future we aim to create."

If you're interested in signing up for the Project Atlas trial, head to this webpage. [[https://go.ea.com/cpt]] And for more general Electronic Arts news, keep an eye on the publisher's website. [[https://www.ea.com/en-gb]]