Microsoft mulls launching a new streaming service in the next ~3 years

In a recent chat with Bloomberg about how Xbox plans to ramp up its in-house development efforts, frontman Phil Spencer also said that recent tech advances have Microsoft thinking about launching a streaming service in the near future.

It's an admittedly vague statement, and it may have nothing to do with games; while the lion's share of Bloomberg's conversation with Spencer seems to have revolved around Xbox as a game platform, it's not clear what sort of "streaming service" Spencer was referring to.

Nevertheless, his remarks offer some insight into what's been going on inside Microsoft -- and where it may be headed in the years ahead. 

According to Bloomberg, Spencer said that in 2012 Microsoft attempted an internal trial run of a streaming service that (depending on the content streamed) didn't always require the use of an Xbox console.

At the time the service was reportedly too costly to bring to market, but Spencer said that the company's recent progress in improving its Azure platform and other remote data distribution tech has changed the value proposition to the point that it will likely launch a new streaming service in the next three years.