While there is still plenty of scepticism and concern around the push for cloud-based gaming, major companies are still forging ahead and putting lots of resources into the idea. Ubisoft is partnering with Google on Stadia, Microsoft has Project xCloud, Sony has PlayStation Now and soon, EA will have ‘Project Atlas', which is entering the testing phase.

Project Atlas was announced in October last year, shortly around the time Microsoft began detailing Project xCloud. EA's goal is to turn Frostbite into a cloud-gaming engine with tools for large-scale multiplayer communities and user-generated content amongst other things to make development easier.

Project Atlas likely won't be launching for another couple of years but in the meantime, EA's Chief Technology Officer, Ken Moss, has announced that the publisher is gearing up for an “external trial”.

“Our goal with this exclusive trial is to gather more inputs at scale to test performance and quality of service in a variety of network conditions and on multiple server routing scenarios. While this particular trial will be focused on cloud gaming on PC, we are also working to understand performance across multiple other devices”.

Games streaming on Atlas will include FIFA 19, Need for Speed Rivals, Unravel and Titanfall 2. Cross-play and cross-save functionality will also be present, so progress will carry over once the test comes to an end. To sign up for testing, you'll need to log in to your EA account and opt in to ‘Community Playtesting'.

KitGuru Says: EA has yet to prove that it can really do a ‘live service' based game properly, so it is a bit harder to get behind the idea of Project Atlas. Still, given all the other publishers throwing their hats into the ring, it does make sense for EA to try and nab a piece of the pie early on. 

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