Today, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers in 25 countries will have the option of cloud streaming games on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. The Xbox Cloud Gaming beta has officially launched, which allows players to jump right into games without having to wait for them to download. Xbox considers installing games “still the flagship experience for Xbox consoles,” but cloud streaming will let players try these games before devoting the hard drive space. Xbox sees cloud gaming as a major part of the industry’s future, and it will be interesting to see how the service works for most users!
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There are some nice perks beyond download times and saved hard drive space. Notably, cloud streaming will allow Xbox One users to check out games that wouldn’t otherwise be compatible with their hardware. Next-gen exclusives such as The Medium, Recompile, and The Riftbreaker can now be enjoyed on the earlier Xbox hardware. Xbox promises that it will continue to expand its next-gen offerings to Xbox One through cloud gaming next year, with Microsoft Flight Simulator listed as one specific example.
Cloud Gaming will release to “a subset of Xbox gamers and scale to all gamers in supported markets over the coming weeks.” The company also plans to add Brazil to its list of supported countries in the near future. Xbox has devoted a lot of resources to making Cloud Gaming a big part of the company’s culture, and that’s likely to continue in the coming years.
It even seems possible we could see Xbox Cloud Gaming come to other platforms in the future. There have been rumors for years that Xbox Game Pass might come to Nintendo Switch, but the platform wouldn’t be able to handle a number of games on the service. Cloud Gaming would make that a possibility, and Nintendo Switch has already offered cloud versions of titles in the past, with Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy being one recent example. Of course, with Xbox Cloud Gaming still being in beta on Xbox platforms, it could be a long while before it launches elsewhere!
Are you excited to check out Xbox Cloud Gaming? Do you think you’ll take advantage of the feature? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!
