Xbox Fires Back At PlayStation With Game Streaming And Gamers Are Stoked

Xbox is following up its heavily memed “This is an Xbox” campaign with the launch of a beta program for Xbox Cloud Gaming. It’s part of the company’s strategy “to bring more games to more people around the world, across devices.” While users have been able to stream games available on Xbox Game Pass for some time now, this will be the first time they will be able to stream games they own regardless of if they’re part of the Game Pass lineup. This comes shortly after Sony announced an upgrade to its own game streaming efforts.

To participate in the beta users will need to be subscribed the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate plan, which is the only tier that includes game streaming. For now, this feature will only be available when using a smartphone, a web browser, supported TV, PCs or tablets. Xbox plans on bringing the feature to console users and in the official Xbox app for Windows sometime next year.

The program will start with 50 games available for players to stream. Notable titles include Baldur’s Gate 3, Cyberpunk 2077, Star Wars Outlaws, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2. These are AAA gaming experiences coming to devices that wouldn’t be able to run them on their own. Even console and PC players will benefit, as they will be able to play a game without having to sacrifice storage space. Xbox says that more games will be added as time goes on.

To access the beta players can use a supported browser, which includes Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, or Apple Safari to visit the official site. Once there, players will need to sign into their account, then choose “Stream your own game,” which will bring up titles that are owned by the user and are available to stream. Controller support includes the Xbox Wireless Controller, PlayStation DualSense, Dualshock 4, and the Xbox Adaptive Controller.

This move brings the promise of cloud streaming games closer to where the company said it would be, but Xbox still has a lot of work left to do to increase game availability.