Xbox Game Pass streaming is the future of gaming

Xbox Game Pass streaming is the future of gaming — near

(Epitome credit: Stephen Kelly)

Call it Project xCloud; telephone call information technology Xbox Game Pass (Beta) for Android; call it "Xbox cloud gaming." Whatever you lot want to telephone call it, Microsoft'southward respond to applied science like PlayStation Now, Google Stadia and Nvidia GeForce Now is finally here, at least in open beta class.

All you need is an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription ($15 per month) and an Android device from the last five years, and you tin can stream some of the most beloved Xbox games ever made direct to your phone or tablet.

Amend still: Xbox Game Pass Ultimate isn't a streaming-or-bust platform, similar Stadia. If you've got powerful enough hardware — such as an Xbox One or a gaming PC — you can just download the games and take full advantage of your own equipment. In theory, Xbox Game Pass with Project xCloud is the best of both worlds, and a blueprint for how game downloads and streaming tin can work mitt-in-mitt in the non-so-distant future.

On the other manus, having tested the functionality immediate, the futurity isn't here simply yet. The Xbox Game Pass app needs a fiddling more functionality and a lot more smooth before it'southward ready to unify your games library. Players still need more command over when to stream and when to download, as well as what kind of quality they should wait at every step along the way. Ideally, every game should be bachelor on every platform — and some kind of functionality for players who adopt individual purchases to subscriptions would be a adept idea, as well.

Still, the cohesive Game Pass Ultimate is a design for how game companies should handle streaming in the time to come — and how Microsoft's ain Xbox Series Ten could evolve from being only a console, to beingness a whole ecosystem.

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Xbox Game Pass (Beta): What works

First, permit me requite a cursory description of how Xbox Game Pass (Beta) works. You sign up for an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription, which gives you admission to more 100 downloadable games for Xbox One and PC. Every bit long as your subscription is active, you tin can play as many of the games equally you like; the moment your subscription lapses, you lose access to all of them, like a streaming video service.

Now, an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription also lets y'all stream many of these titles to an Android phone or tablet. When the service launches fully on September 15, there will be more 100 games from which to choose; right now, in open beta, yous get but fewer than 40. For the most part, yous just choice the game you want to stream, and selection up correct where you left off on the Xbox or PC. You need a powerful Cyberspace connection (ten Mbps is the minimum, just more is improve), likewise as an Xbox controller.

When everything is running at total capacity, Microsoft Game Pass Ultimate with Project xCloud feels like a huge footstep forrard for cross-platform gaming. During my tests, I had the best results with A Plague Tale: Innocence, partially because it's not the nigh graphically enervating game, and partially considering it's available with cross-save functionality on Xbox One and the Game Pass app.

Here's how a play session went: I started the game on my Android tablet, just to come across if it would piece of work. While the app itself isn't perfect, I was eventually able to become A Plague Tale up and running. It streamed direct from a Microsoft server in what appeared to be 720p, no installation required. With an Xbox controller connected via Bluetooth, my experience was most identical to what I'd detect on a console, simply on a smaller screen.

From there, I saved the game, shut downwards the app, and sat down on my couch in front of the Xbox One, where I had the game fully installed and ready to play. The game synced my save data, and I jumped right back into the action, only this time on a big screen with better graphics and no chance of latency.

I tried the same experiment in reverse with Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, starting a brand-new relieve file on the Xbox, and so transitioning dorsum to the tablet later playing through the first affiliate. One time again, the syncing process worked flawlessly, and playing on a tablet was almost equally smooth equally playing through on a powerful Xbox panel. Had the two games too supported cross-saves with the PC, the trifecta would have been complete — but more than on that shortly.

Simply put, this is what gaming in the 21st century should look like. You choose your screen, and your game follows you, regardless of where you want to play. Better yet — one subscription fee gets you access to hundreds of games across three platforms. If Microsoft wanted to demonstrate that the future of gaming doesn't accept to be tied to a single console, or even buying new games on launch solar day (every bit first-party titles get Day One Game Pass releases), it'southward difficult to imagine a amend demonstration.

Xbox Game Pass (Beta): What doesn't work

While I tin can come across that Xbox Game Pass Ultimate plus xCloud has the potential to exist my ideal gaming platform, information technology's not quite in that location withal. In fact, it would take to make similar functionalities bachelor to those who don't take an Xbox Game Laissez passer subscription, and I'thou not sure whether that's in line with the company's strategy. Other issues, such equally app design and cross-save compatibility, seem a little more than treatable in the curt term.

First, there's the Game Pass app itself, which is not slap-up on Android, Xbox or PC. Browsing and searching for games is a bit of a crapshoot, and in that location'south no easy way to tell whether the game you want to play is bachelor on whatsoever platform other than the 1 you're currently using. (If you download a game on Xbox One, in other words, information technology may non be available for PC or streaming.) The Android app is laggy and sometimes unresponsive, even on powerful systems, and there's ever a footling stuttering while streaming games, regardless of how strong your connection may be. The PC app is also a bit of a mess, dropping connection often while downloading games, and so not restarting the downloads until prompted — sometimes multiple times.

Cantankerous-play and cross-save functionality are Project xCloud's biggest stumbling blocks, notwithstanding. I was excited to play both Gears of State of war: Ultimate Edition and A Plague Tale on my PC once I was done testing them on the Xbox and Game Pass app. However, neither game supports Xbox Play Anywhere (which is a totally different program from Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or Project xCloud — Microsoft really needs to unify all of its various initiatives somehow). There are 78 games that practice currently support cross-saves across any platform, which is a skilful commencement. Only for games that don't have Play Anywhere certification, it's extremely hard to tell which saves will sync with which platforms.

Also, as stated above, which games are bachelor on which platforms seems rather arbitrary. Right now, since Game Pass on Android is in beta, information technology doesn't take that many games. That's fair. Simply I can't play The Nighttime Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan on PC. I can't play Faeria on an Xbox. I tin't play either 1 on the Android app. While I understand there are probably technical hurdles to overcome, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate would be much easier to understand if the proffer were "play any game that we offer, on whatsoever platform."

There's too something inherently limiting almost the fact that you lot demand an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription to stream games. I sympathise that server space and operations aren't free, but I tin can only imagine how frustrating it would be to buy a game like Gears 5 à la carte, then also have to pay a $xv-per-month subscription fee on top of that merely so that you lot can stream it to a tablet. Some deject streaming options for gamers who own games outright — fifty-fifty if it's paid — would become a long style.

Finally, I as well wish that the Xbox Game Pass app on all three systems gave you a little more control over when to stream and when to download. At present, you need to download games on PC and Xbox, and y'all demand to stream directly from the cloud on a tablet. I'd like to have the selection to stream from a local Xbox to a tablet, equally y'all tin do on PC. I'd likewise like an choice to stream games to low-powered PCs — or even to an Xbox, to help ease the long installation process if nothing else. The PS4 can stream games straight from PlayStation At present; there'south no theoretical reason why an Xbox One — or an Xbox Serial X — couldn't do the same.

Xbox Game Laissez passer outlook

In short, I can see the hereafter of gaming in the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate service coupled with Project xCloud functionality — but it's not quite here yet. Either style, if this is what Microsoft is hoping to build upward with its push for an Xbox Series X ecosystem, I hope that other game developers will follow its lead, and let us play on the screens that best arrange our needs.

Marshall Honorof is a senior editor for Tom's Guide, overseeing the site'southward coverage of gaming hardware and software. He comes from a scientific discipline writing background, having studied paleomammalogy, biological anthropology, and the history of science and applied science. Subsequently hours, y'all tin find him practicing taekwondo or doing deep dives on classic sci-fi.