Project xCloud: Android users to have exclusive access to Xbox game streaming

Sorry, iOS users—you won’t be able to use your iPads or iPhones to access Microsoft’s cloud-gaming service just yet. Access to Microsoft’s mobile game streaming service—Project xCloud—will be exclusive to Android devices for now.

Bundled as part of the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription, Microsoft has announced that beta cloud gaming will be available to Android users from the 15th of September 2020. This basically means that you’ll be able to play more than 100 Xbox games on your Android phone or tablet—via the xCloud.

Some of the notable games that will be available include Minecraft Dungeons, Destiny 2, Tell Me Why, Gears 5, and Yakuza Kiwami 2. Microsoft is also promising day-one access to new Xbox Games Studios-developed games, just like regular Xbox Game Pass subscribers.

If you’ve already got an Xbox profile dating back through the years, and you can’t bear to start over (totally understandable), you won’t have to worry. Your saves, controller settings, achievements, and even your friends list will be migrated across the cloud—which means that you can pick up where you left off seamlessly.

What’s rather interesting is the co-op experience that Microsoft is promising with cloud gaming service. When you boot up a game on your mobile device, you’ll be able to play alongside a console gamer—who’ll be using the Xbox, along with a monitor/TV.

The Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is priced at USD14.99 (~RM62), with the first month only costing USD1 (~RM4). Availability extends across 22 countries (Malaysia isn’t included):

Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. 

Microsoft has also been partnering up with various players in the technology/gaming industry, with Razer, PowerA, 8BitDo, and Nacon set to release cloud gaming peripherals in the future.

We’re expecting to see phone clips, travel-friendly controllers, and even controllers that attach to each side of your phone when in landscape mode (just like a certain Nintendo Switch). Plus, you’ll be able to use a PlayStation DualShock 4 controller—a surprising, but welcome move from Microsoft.

In fact, Samsung is also expected to announce a collaboration with Microsoft, one that will see the Galaxy Note 20 become one of the first devices to support xCloud gaming.

So, what do you think? Do you fancy a session or two of Halo on your Android device? To the iPhone users, there hasn’t been any confirmation on when iOS compatibility will arrive—you’ll just have to wait and see. Or, y’know, you could switch to an Android device.

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