Epic Games v. Apple court reveals Walmart’s cloud gaming service
In the trial in the case of Epic Games against Apple, information surfaced about the unannounced cloud gaming service Walmart, codenamed Project Storm. The retailer introduced it to Epic and wanted to incorporate Fortnite into it.
“I played the Walmart demo on an Android phone (with an Xbox controller), and it felt like I’m playing on PS4 – much better than Android or iOS,” Epic Games co-founder Mark Rein said in a thread from April 2019. He also shared the image with the rest of the Epic Games executive team, showing how Walmart planned to sell the cloud service in stores. “They’re going to sell it for an insanely low price. According to them, something like $ 2, ”said Rein.
Walmart also planned to launch the service on Windows with support for third-party game launchers such as Steam, Uplay, Origin, Epic Games Store, Battle.net, and Bethesda Launcher. It’s unclear from the presentation when the company planned to do this, but the beta testing period was originally set for July 2019.
Walmart planned to create an “open ecosystem” to stream from the cloud and download and play on-premises. The technology behind the company’s cloud gaming service is LiquidSky, which Walmart previously acquired.
Epic Games was one of the many publishers the chain has worked with. Sources familiar with the latter’s plans told The Verge that some publishers and developers have signed up to create or host games on Walmart, but the launch has been suspended since the outbreak of the pandemic last year.
It is currently unknown if Walmart has continued to work on the cloud service.
