AT&T is not building a cloud gaming business — but it might be angling for a cut

theverge.com:

For many months, AT&T has been dangling a tantalizing possibility: what if its network let you instantly try blockbuster games for free? The company started by generically bundling free six-month subscriptions to Google Stadia and then began letting its customers stream full copies of Batman: Arkham Knight and Control over the internet. Next, it hinted at something even more intriguing: a try-before-you-buy game service where you could try a game directly from a search result, buy and download a full copy once you determine you like it, and pick up right where you left off.

No current cloud gaming service offers anything of the sort.

But, after speaking to the man in charge of these AT&T initiatives, we’ve learned that AT&T isn’t planning to create such a thing itself. In fact, the company’s experiments aren’t pointing toward a cloud gaming business at all.

“We’re not going to turn it into a business,” says Matthew Wallace, AT&T’s assistant vice president of 5G product and innovation. “Our goal in life is not to provide a gaming app or gaming service; it’s to provide the underlying network capability and then make those capabilities available to the gaming companies and customers.”

I ask the question other ways, too, just to be sure I’m understanding correctly. Would AT&T want to provide the missing pieces of that try-before-you-buy vision? “We’re not interested in launching a gaming service for that,” Wallace says. The company has existing relationships with Google and Microsoft, so it’s not investing in building out a cloud network of its own to attract game publishers, nor does it have another free game like Batman or Control lined up; Wallace says AT&T’s looking for its next partner there now.

What does AT&T want