Xbox Cloud Gaming Now Running on Xbox Series X Consoles, Expands Availability - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 July 2021 / 1,929 Views
Microsoft has improved and expanded its Xbox Cloud Gaming service that is available to all Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members. Starting today the service is now available on Windows 10 PCs, and Apple phones and tablets via browser in 22 countries.
Xbox Cloud Gaming is now running on custom Xbox Series X hardware. This will provide faster load times, higher frame rates, and improved visuals. To ensure the lowest latency for users streaming will run at 1080p and up to 60 frames per second. As time goes forward Microsoft plans to add more features to improve the experience.
"Cloud gaming provides seamless play across your devices," said Xbox Cloud Gaming Vice President & Head of Product Catherine Gluckstein. "When you’re streaming games on a PC or mobile device, your game is playing from Xbox hardware in a Microsoft datacenter.
"This means you can jump into a game, connect with your friends, and play through the Xbox network just as you’ve always done. That’s right, your game saves are just the same wherever and whenever you play, so you can pick right back up from where you left off."
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members can go to xbox.com/play on Microsoft Edge, Chrome, or Safari on their PC or mobile devices to start playing games from the Xbox Game Pass library via Xbox Cloud Gaming.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Any idea where I can find the list of games that cloud players can play? I may set my wife up with a Gamepass account for her Macbook Pro via the cloud if there are enough games we can do multiplayer together on.
I'm wondering the same thing. On the Xbox website, all it says is "Most titles in the Xbox Game Pass library are available to play from the cloud" so at least they confirmed that most games support it.
I first have to select console or PC. I figure a Macbook would be the PC option right? When I click that, the cloud option disappears.
Right now, I believe only the console versions of games are available in the cloud. So I think all 267 games available in console cloud would be available on a Macbook. They all require a controller to play though, no mouse/keyboard support yet from what I can tell (except a few specific games).
Wait, so I have PC Gamepass (not ultimate), but can't play Cloud games, right? For instance, Banjo Kazooie is available on cloud console, but I can't play that on PC? But if I read your comment correctly that means my wife, if playing on Macbook via ios, could have access to that game with Ultimate because her version would be the console version and not the pc version of Gamepass? This is confusing lol.
As of today, a huge majority ofngames are available on cloud
Nice. I just got gamepass ultimate for £1 and now I can finally play halo for the first time.
I've tested out a couple of the games running on Series X hardware and there is a significant improvement with performance.
Dumb question, but when they say Safari, does that mean you can play Xbox games on a freaking iMac and MacBook?!? This is absolutely insane what Microsoft is doing and Game Pass will still be coming to Smart TV's via an app and a streaming stick last I heard. Now the next part......the games! They're coming for sure. Xbox just has to deliver!
Pretty incredible. I'm still wondering if a Netflix like gaming service will ever be viable but MS is about to show us whether or not it is. The only thing I'm worried about right now is how much does the price go up? I'm ok with $15. At $20 it starts to become more of an issue. @$20 is what I usually wait for game prices to drop down to before I buy them.
Microsoft is taking the netflix approach to growth.
That is... Secure as many customers as possible, even if you run at a loss. - Once you reach a certain saturation point you can start to reduce costs or add extra revenue streams.
A-la. Advertising, extra subscription tiers, price rises, partnerships and more.
That's exactly what I was thinking. A year of Game Pass Ultimate that includes Console/Mobile/PC as well as EA Play is $180, which is less than 3 full $70 games that more game companies are selling their games for these days. That is an INSANE bargain! So you also don't have to worry about whether or not a game sucks, and if you feel you just don't have the time to play, cancel the subscription.
Oh yea I definitely know what the strategy is. Unlike Netflix though not everyone games. Everyone watches TV and almost everyone is willing to pay Netflix $17 or whatever a month to avoid paying their monthly cable subscription. The question becomes how many people game enough to where they want to pay monthly for gaming but never own the games either. On top of that you are competing against both Nintendo and Playstation. Every single person who owns either is one more person less likely to want to buy into your gaming service.
Gamers are much more different than TV viewers. A lot of gamers don't even want to go digital. Then you add in those who do go digital but want to actually own their games. I honestly don't know the answer to any of this but I'm very excited to see how it all turns out. Between Nintendo, Sony, PC, and MS gaming is so amazing right now.
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