Despite Google announcing it will be shutting down Stadia, Xbox has already made significant steps forward in cloud gaming. The company is expected to make a big leap forward via the reveal of a device people will be able to use to stream Xbox games, but according to Phil Spencer, that project is still years away.The device doesn't have an official name just yet but has been codenamed Keystone. That name first leaked when it was discovered on an internal Xbox list right below the codenames for previous consoles. As for when we might see Keystone, or learn anything new about it, that's probably going to be a while.“Keystone was something that we were incubating internally. Late spring we pivoted to working with Samsung. I still have the prototype,” Spencer confirmed via Tom Warren. “Will we do a streaming device at some point? I expect we will, but it's years away.” Confirmation the prototype exists may confirm the small device spotted on Spencer's shelf was what Warren believed it to be after all.
The timeline also lines up regarding Samsung's inclusion. Even though Xbox still doesn't have a dedicated device people can buy to stream its games, there are a number of ways you can access Xbox's cloud gaming platform, and Samsung TVs are one of those ways. Samsung launched its first TVs capable of streaming Xbox games earlier this year. With that ability likely coming to more modern TV sets in the future, it seems Xbox saw that as the easier and quicker way to get its cloud service to more people for the time being.
Xbox isn't the only company pushing forward with its cloud gaming plans despite the demise of Stadia. Netflix has also announced plans to expand what is currently just a collection of mobile games to include bigger projects that will be available through TVs and laptops in the future via its own cloud gaming service.