Microsoft is looking at streaming apps and games through a new service codenamed 'Arcadia', which is currently being built by a team in the company's Operating Systems Group.

As discovered by ZDNet, Arcadia is being built using Microsoft's existing cloud platform, Azure, and will be able to stream games as well as a select group of apps. Details are a little scarce at this early stage, but there could be multiple use cases for Arcadia.

Arcadia's primary use could be streaming games and apps to Windows devices that couldn't normally run them, with all the processing being done on the server side. For example, Arcadia could allow Windows or Xbox One users to play Xbox 360 games like Halo 3, which aren't currently available on either platform.

There's also a possibility that Arcadia will be available on other platforms like iOS and Android, with job listings for the streaming team requiring experience on non-Microsoft OSes. This could allow Microsoft's games and other Windows services to run on other platforms through cloud streaming.

At one point the team was exploring streaming Android apps to Windows devices, but ZDNet says that this idea has been shelved. However, the idea of streaming apps from other platforms to close the app gap is not dead at Microsoft.

Whatever Arcadia turns out to be, it likely won't be ready for launch alongside Windows 10. Microsoft's next operating system is set to launch in mid 2015, and Arcadia doesn't appear to be deep enough into development at this stage to see it meet that launch window. That said, Microsoft could easily deliver it post-launch to improve their strong service ecosystem.