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Walmart’s unannounced cloud gaming service detailed in confidential Epic emails

KyoZz

Tag, you're it.
Project Storm was being worked on in 2019
small_logo.png

An exhibit in the Epic Games v. Apple trial reveals Walmart’s efforts to pitch its cloud gaming service to Epic Games and get Fortnite on board.

“I played Walmart’s demo on an Android phone (with an Xbox controller) and the experience felt like playing on PS4 and superior to playing on Android or iOS,” said Epic Games co-founder Mark Rein in an email thread from April 2019.
Rein also excitedly shares a photo of a game clip with the rest of the Epic Games executive team, showing how Walmart was planning to sell this in stores to let a phone attach to a controller.
“They’re going to sell the clip for a crazy low amount, they were saying something like $2,” said Rein.

C3v4bG6.png


A presentation attached to the emails shows how Walmart had been pitching its cloud gaming service to publishers like Epic Games.
The company was planning to run the service on Windows, with third-party game launchers like Steam, Uplay, Origin, Epic Games Store, Battle.net, and Bethesda Launcher supported.

It’s not clear from Walmart’s presentation when the company planned to launch the service, with a beta period originally set to launch in July 2019.
An early mock-up of the user experience looks very similar to other cloud gaming services, with a list of games, genres, and a search function.

e6XQGZt.jpg


Walmart was planning what it describes as an “open ecosystem,” with the ability to stream from the cloud or download and play games locally.
The technology behind Walmart’s cloud gaming service is LiquidSky, a service Walmart acquired. LiquidSky was previously powered by IBM Cloud’s bare metal servers and Nvidia GPUs, and it appears to offer a powerful Windows PC for cloud gaming.

Epic Games was one of many publishers to which Walmart pitched. Reports originally surfaced about Walmart’s plans in 2019, but the company has still not officially announced any cloud gaming service.
Sources familiar with Walmart’s plans tell The Verge that some publishers and developers had signed up to produce or host games on Walmart’s service, but that the launch had been put on hold once the pandemic began last year.

It’s not clear if Walmart’s cloud gaming service will still launch. We reached out to Walmart to comment on Project Storm, but the company did not respond in time for publication.

 
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That's wild, Walmart is an unexpected cloud gaming player in my mind. Obviously all of the cloud companies make sense, but the only non ecommerce digital storefront that Walmart owns is Vudu......
 

graywolf323

Gold Member
That's wild, Walmart is an unexpected cloud gaming player in my mind. Obviously all of the cloud companies make sense, but the only non ecommerce digital storefront that Walmart owns is Vudu......
they actually sold Vudu to Fandango last year around the start of the COVID-19 lockdowns IIRC
 

DaGwaphics

Member
What I'd like to know is what any of this has to do with the Epic vs. Apple case to begin with. What do the other companies have to do with Apple or are they expecting the judge to force Apple to do something because so and so is doing it?
 
My thoughts too. How is it possible for this (I'm assuming) sensitive information to be made public like this. I'm sure Walmart wouldn't want to disclose future plans they have prematurely?

What the hell is going on here?
On lawsuits there is a discovery period.
Epic and Apple have to share everything surrounds the lawsuit. Whatever information they withhold will be used against them. Thats how Epic is bypassing NDAs.
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned
Project Storm was being worked on in 2019
small_logo.png

An exhibit in the Epic Games v. Apple trial reveals Walmart’s efforts to pitch its cloud gaming service to Epic Games and get Fortnite on board.

“I played Walmart’s demo on an Android phone (with an Xbox controller) and the experience felt like playing on PS4 and superior to playing on Android or iOS,” said Epic Games co-founder Mark Rein in an email thread from April 2019.
Rein also excitedly shares a photo of a game clip with the rest of the Epic Games executive team, showing how Walmart was planning to sell this in stores to let a phone attach to a controller.
“They’re going to sell the clip for a crazy low amount, they were saying something like $2,” said Rein.

C3v4bG6.png


A presentation attached to the emails shows how Walmart had been pitching its cloud gaming service to publishers like Epic Games.
The company was planning to run the service on Windows, with third-party game launchers like Steam, Uplay, Origin, Epic Games Store, Battle.net, and Bethesda Launcher supported.

It’s not clear from Walmart’s presentation when the company planned to launch the service, with a beta period originally set to launch in July 2019.
An early mock-up of the user experience looks very similar to other cloud gaming services, with a list of games, genres, and a search function.

e6XQGZt.jpg


Walmart was planning what it describes as an “open ecosystem,” with the ability to stream from the cloud or download and play games locally.
The technology behind Walmart’s cloud gaming service is LiquidSky, a service Walmart acquired. LiquidSky was previously powered by IBM Cloud’s bare metal servers and Nvidia GPUs, and it appears to offer a powerful Windows PC for cloud gaming.

Epic Games was one of many publishers to which Walmart pitched. Reports originally surfaced about Walmart’s plans in 2019, but the company has still not officially announced any cloud gaming service.
Sources familiar with Walmart’s plans tell The Verge that some publishers and developers had signed up to produce or host games on Walmart’s service, but that the launch had been put on hold once the pandemic began last year.

It’s not clear if Walmart’s cloud gaming service will still launch. We reached out to Walmart to comment on Project Storm, but the company did not respond in time for publication.


tenor.gif
 

gundalf

Member
Hmm as I understand, this basically a Gaming PC in a server rack behind a VPN with a custom launcher that wraps around all other launchers and stores.
I have to say while this is quite the ghetto solution, the simplicity and BYOG system behind it gives this a lot of potential.

Btw isn't there already a similar service for cloud gaming PC's?
 
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brian0057

Banned
With the amount of leaked documents revealing unannounced things by different companies I wonder ,when the dust settles, if said companies will start giving Epic the cold shoulder for this fuckery.
 

FStubbs

Member
With the amount of leaked documents revealing unannounced things by different companies I wonder ,when the dust settles, if said companies will start giving Epic the cold shoulder for this fuckery.
Sure as soon as a viable competitor for Unreal Engine appears.
 
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