Walmart’s Secret Cloud Gaming Service Project Storm Leaked By Epic Games Vs Apple ‘Fortnite’ Trial

Gamers and developers might be on the edge of their seats as the battle between Epic Games vs Apple continues in the court over “Fortnite”. But, little did fans know that Walmart was planning to create a cloud gaming service, called Project Storm, not until it was leaked in court.

According to the lawsuit, Walmart and Epic had been sending “confidential emails” with Walmart pitching their game streaming service to have Fortnite on their system.

The case documents also detailed email threads between the two companies back in April 2019. Epic Games co-founder Mark Rein said, “I played Walmart’s demo on an Android phone (with an Xbox controller) and the experience felt like playing on PS4 and superior to playing on Android or iOS.”

Rein also showed a photo of a game clip, demonstrating how Walmart intended to sell this in outlets to enable a phone to connect to a controller. Rein also claimed that Walmart's controller clip would cost as little as $2 and that "it was more comfortable than playing on a Nintendo Switch."

The idea was to operate Project Storm on Windows, with support for various platforms like Blizzard's Battle.net, EA's Origin, and Steam. It would have a "local ecosystem" to enable users to stream or download games to play locally.

The emails were exchanged in 2019 and Walmart had not announced any plans or updates about the service. According to the leaked case files, the retail company planned on holding a beta period in July 2019.

The emails also relayed that Walmart was "planning to aggressively develop and roll this out."

However, the project never seemed to materialize. There has been no news whether Walmart will continue to develop the streaming service. Developers speculate the possibility that it has been delayed due to the pandemic.

Epic Games filed a lawsuit against Apple after discovering alleged violations of antitrust laws. Meanwhile, Apple countered the legal actions by saying that Epic Games violated Apple's developer agreements by adding a direct pay feature on “Fortnite.”

Only time can tell if Project Storm will still launch soon. It will be sizing up to its competitors’ markets such as Facebook, Google and Amazon.