Xbox Game Pass is teaming up with Microsoft’s xCloud streaming tech.
Starting this September, a Game Pass Ultimate subscription will come with Project xCloud support, too. We’ll be able to play the Game pass library on our devices, with controller support and online play via Xbox Live servers. The best part is that we’ll be able to pick up the progress right where we left off through cloud saves. Here is everything you need to know.
xCloud Streaming Joins Xbox Game Pass Ultimate
In a recent statement about Xbox Series X, Phil Spencer, a business executive at Microsoft, confirmed that Xbox Game Pass would feature Microsoft’s xCloud streaming tech.
Even if Spencer’s statement was generally about the next-gen console and its release, the Game Pass xCloud support wasn’t posed as a Series X-exclusive feature. Previously, he declared that it’s natural to let people try new games because it helps promote Series X games. And since the xCloud streaming tech is included in Game Pass Ultimate, many users who already got subscriptions will receive access to the new feature in September.
“[Customers] view this world of selling one piece of hardware that’s a closed ecosystem as a kind of relic of the past,” explained Spencer.
Xbox Game Pass is a subscription-based service that allows users to access a library of about 100 games. The PC and console subscriptions are separate, $10/month. However, the combined Ultimate subscription gives users Xbox Live Gold for $15/month and access to xCloud soon. The game libraries vary slightly between the PC and console variants of the service. The xCloud access will include both libraries.
Project xCloud has been undergoing closed testing stages for almost a year. Like Google Stadia, it offloads the actual hardware processing power to an established server rack and streams your game’s video as you play it. Microsoft announced that it’d upgrade some of its existing xCloud servers. Get ready for exciting stuff soon!
