Microsoft's Project xCloud, a service that promises to stream Xbox games for play on mobile devices, is moving towards public trials.

Head of Xbox Phil Spencer made the announcement through Twitter last week.

Trials will begin later in 2019 after an internal "takehome" test phase has been completed, according to Spencer.

Google has also announced its own game streaming service, Stadia (formerly known as Project Stream) at the Game Developers Conference in March. Operating through the Google Chrome web browser it offers a degree of device agnosticism and is targeting public availabilty in 2019.

Xbox has been preparing its console line for an internet-centric future, introducing the Xbox One S All-Digital edition for a May 7 debut, a model which does away with the standard Xbox Ones' disc drive and is intended for use with the digital Xbox Marketplace store, Xbox Game Pass subscription and, it would appear, Project xCloud.

Sony's PlayStation has game-streaming subscription PlayStation Now, which added a full download feature towards the end of 2018.