Microsoft announced today its acquisition of PlayFab, a backend cloud-based service that hosts live games designed to be used by developers across all platforms (PC, mobile, and console). 

Although the terms of the acquisition are not public, it seems Microsoft plans to use PlayFab’s technology to encourage game developers to build their games on Azure, which is the company’s own cloud computing platform.

Microsoft's corporate vice president of gaming Kareem Choudhry referenced its annual shareholders meeting in a blog post about the acquisition. “We’re mobilizing to pursue our extensive opportunity in a 100-plus-billion gaming market," he writes. 

"This means broadening our approach to how we think about gaming end to end, about starting with games and how they’re creating and distributed, and how they’re played and viewed.”