At a press conference held at SK Telecom headquarters, senior executives of both Microsoft and SK Telecom explained in detail a business cooperation and introduced Project xCloud.

Project xCloud is Microsoft’s game streaming technology that allows gamers to play games on mobile devices while connected to the internet.

Korea has the fourth largest gaming market in the world with mobile gaming enjoying high popularity. According to the 2018 White Paper on Korean Games published by the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) early this year, the domestic game market in 2017 was calculated to be worth KRW 13.14 trillion and the mobile game market took up 47.3 percent of the total game market.

SK Telecom will be an exclusive operating partner of Microsoft’s cloud gaming service in Korea. Based on this relationship, SK Telecom is expected to help Microsoft strengthen its position in the mobile gaming market by leveraging its mobile infrastructure including 5G and LTE; the largest mobile subscriber base in Korea including over 1 million 5G subscribers; ICT such as augmented reality, virtual reality and artificial intelligence; and experience in diverse streaming services.

SK Telecom and Microsoft will start public preview for Project xCloud in Korea in October 2019 for selected SK Telecom’s 5G/LTE subscribers.