Xbox Teases Streaming Devices That Don’t Require a Console

Xbox teased one of its goals for its cloud gaming services this week by saying that the company is working on building streaming devices that wouldn’t require a console at all. Through these, people who subscribe to Xbox‘s services would theoretically be able to play their favorite Xbox games with only a TV or monitor, the required subscriptions, and whatever Xbox’s streaming device ends up being. We don’t know what that device might look like or when it’d release, however, so today’s tease is simply more of a confirmation that such plans are in the works.

The tease about the no-console streaming device came from a post on the Xbox Wire shared ahead of Xbox’s big E3 2021 event coming up this weekend. Under the broad title of “Bringing the Joy and Community of Gaming to Everyone,” Xbox Wire’s editor-in-chief Will Tuttle sectioned the post off into different categories related to games and Xbox’s overall plans for the future. One of those sub-headers talking about how “Xbox and Xbox Game Pass are Coming to More Screens” included the relevant bit about future streaming devices.

“Xbox is building its own streaming devices for cloud gaming to reach gamers on any TV or monitor without the need for a console at all,” the Xbox post said.

So, if the device doesn’t require you to have a console to play games, all you’d presumably need is the device that Xbox puts out and one of the company’s subscriptions. Assuming no other subscription offer or tier of an existing one is created, it makes the most sense to imagine that someone would need Xbox Game Pass Ultimate to make use of this sort of tech seeing how that’s the subscription most of the attractive Xbox perks are locked behind.

Whatever Xbox’s solution for a streaming device will be, it probably won’t look too dissimilar from what we saw from Google Stadia. The Google Stadia Premiere Edition came with a controller and a Google Chromecast Ultra with that device being the catalyst for streaming games to different devices. That idea itself paired with Xbox’s vast selection of Xbox Game Pass games could prove to be an attractive offer for anyone who wants to play those games but doesn’t want to invest in an entire console.

Xbox’s E3 2021 presentation will take place on Sunday, so perhaps we’ll know more about its streaming plans after this weekend.