Starting with Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, Microsoft will be adding touch control options to games on its Project xCloud game streaming service. The news was officially revealed by Ninja Theory program manager Arik Cohen in the recent Game Stack presentation.
Earlier this year, Project xCloud head Catherine Gluckstein announced that Ninja Theory was working on touch controls for Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice and Cohen announced the release of touch controls in the Game Stack presentation.
"What is the top thing that players using the game streaming preview are asking for? Touch controls...They want to enable touch for games," Cohen stated in the presentation. "They want to be able to play their games not just when they have their controller with them, but also when they just have their phone. They want to be able to play the games that they love and make that available at all points in time."
Personally, I agree with Cohen. It has always been a dream of mine to play AAA games on my phone without needing a controller.
"We're very excited that into the game streaming preview right now, is the first touch aware game: Hellblade," Cohen added. "You can play it with the touch adaptation kit controls...It feels natural, it uses cloud-aware functionality to have the right layout for you depending on where you are in the game, and it really creates an experience where you can continue playing this great game anywhere you are."
However, in a Game Stack stream yesterday, Allan Poore stated that Hellbalde: Senua's Sacrifice will be getting touch controls "shortly." Therefore, it is still unclear when we can expect to see the new control scheme in the game. In the same stream, developer The Coalition also showcased how touch controls are being adapted to work with Gears 5.
Towards the end of the stream, at around the 2:36:00 mark, you can see the touch control layout for Gears 5. The video also shows how the touch controls will fade out as you enter cinematic cutscenes.
Additionally, Poore also stated that besides Hellbalde, several other studios have been working on touch controls and we should expect to see more reveals in the future.
