Streaming Celeste through Safari on a MacBook Pro via xCloud and GAMEPASS Ultimate. Xbox chief Phil Spencer reportedly told employees that Microsoft will bring xCloud to iPhones and iPads via a “direct browser-based solution.' Apple’s latest M1 MacBook Air, MacBook Pro.
© Illustration by Alex Castro / The VergeOn Monday, Microsoft finally delivered two long-in-the-works updates for its Xbox Cloud Gaming Service (xCloud) that could mark a sea change for the future of cloud gaming.
One is that xCloud games are now powered by custom Xbox Series X hardware, a major upgrade from the Xbox One S consoles that have powered the service since its launch in September. This means xCloud now has faster load times, less latency, and higher-resolution 1080p streaming. But perhaps more importantly, xCloud is expanding from Android to iOS and PC via the web for anyone in 22 countries with an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription.
Taken together, the two updates mean that nearly anyone who has access to the service can play some of the biggest games on Xbox, including next-generation Xbox Series X games, right inside a browser across phones, tablets, laptops, PCs — and all for just $15 bucks a month, no $500 console required.
Xcloud Macbook Pro Case
I’ve spent some more time with xCloud since the custom Xbox Series X server hardware started rolling out last week, and I’ve been impressed with the changes. Many games load quickly and look great on my MacBook Air or my iPhone 12 Mini. There is a small amount of latency, but it often isn’t too detrimental, especially if I’m playing something that doesn’t require fast reflexes or twitch aiming.
I should warn you that xCloud doesn’t exactly replicate the experience of playing a game on a Series X. There’s only a tiny amount of latency when I’m playing on my console, and for a close race in Forza Horizon 4 or a multiplayer match in Halo, I want as little latency as possible. xCloud peaks at 1080p resolution, and while that’s as high as my main gaming monitor goes (yes, I am in the market for a Real TV), if you want to play in 4K, you can’t do that with xCloud just yet. xCloud’s selection of more than 100 games, while a lot, doesn’t offer everything I might want to play. Fortnite isn’t on the service and neither is Microsoft’s own massive hit Minecraft.
While xCloud’s technology still can’t beat the responsiveness of playing on a console, what’s been more impressive to me is the way everything syncs from my Xbox Series X to xCloud because it’s all tied to my Xbox account. Ori and the Blind Forest loads right where I left off near the end of the game. I can hop into Nier: Automata’s overworld just to hear the game’s excellent music. If I want to play Psychonauts to bounce around the legendary (and unsettling) milkman level just for the heck of it, I can.
I don’t have any of those games installed on my Series X right now, but with xCloud I can sample them all in the span of a few minutes right from my laptop or phone. And I could easily see myself testing something I’m interested in on xCloud before going through the process of installing a game onto my Series X for a full playthrough later. Browsing xCloud reminds me of cruising the vast amount of experiences in Roblox in that it’s easy to jump into anything that piques my interest, and if I don’t like it, I can quickly move on to something else.
This ability to dip in and out of games from the cloud isn’t particularly novel. It’s also easy to move from game to game on the collections of titles available on Amazon Luna’s channels or Google’s Stadia Pro subscription. But those platforms want you to invest in always playing via the cloud, which I don’t always want to do. (And after a certain amount of time, I’d probably hit a data cap.) xCloud, on the other hand, is more of an add-on to Xbox Game Pass that lets me play games that I already own or ones that are included as part of the subscription, and if I don’t want to play them streamed from the cloud, I can boot up my Series X.
I’d also argue that xCloud has a major leg up on Amazon and Google by offering a far more impressive selection of titles. And with big Xbox games like Halo Infinite and Bethesda’s Starfield, which will both presumably be available on xCloud, the service will only become a better value. Stadia’s roadmap is more bleak, especially since Google shut down its in-house development studios in February. I’m not aware of any exclusive games in the works for Luna, and Amazon already has a ratherdismal track record with video games so far.
Xcloud Macbook Pro 13
I won’t be moving full time to xCloud gaming quite yet. The latency is enough of an issue that I think I’ll usually want to play Xbox games directly on my Series X. But after the upgrades to xCloud announced Monday, the service is an excellent perk to the already great Xbox Game Pass subscription that makes it easier to play Xbox games over the cloud without having to think about it. The updates could be a big step toward bringing cloud gaming to more people after years of unfulfilled promise.
The saga of cloud-based game streaming services on Apple’s iOS platform hasn’t been a smooth one. After claiming that services like Microsoft’s xCloud and Google’s Stadia violate App Store policies, Apple finally extended an olive branch with a few caveats that have been the bone of contention all along. While xCloud went live for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers last month with a library of over 150 games, it is only available on Andriod devices, and not iPhones or iPads. However, Microsoft reportedly has a workaround via a web-based approach to bringing xCloud on the Apple hardware.
As per a Business Insider report, Xbox chief Phil Spencer told employees during an all-hands meeting that Microsoft plans to bring xCloud to iPhones and iPads via a “direct browser-based solution.” And the company has reportedly set a target of 2021 to accomplish that goal.
“We’ll end up on iPhones, and iPads with Game Pass,” Spencer was quotes as saying by The Verge. Microsoft has reportedly been working on this web-based solution for iOS and iPadOS, as it developed the dedicated app that was supposed to appear on the App Store. While both companies have engaged in some back and forth over the situation in the past weeks, Spencer clearly said in a CNBC interview that the company is determined to offer xCloud on all mobile platforms, and that includes iOS as well.
Another major news is that after bringing xCloud to mobile devices, the company also plans to bring it to PCs as well. As per The Verge, the company has started testing a preview version of xCloud for Windows 10 and has already made it available to all Microsoft employees. The service will work via a new Xbox Game Streaming app for Windows 10 that will be made available via the Microsoft Store, and the requirements to enjoy it will be the same as its mobile version viz. a Bluetooth Xbox One controller, a Microsoft account, and a sufficiently fast internet connection.