Xbox Cloud Gaming Will Reportedly Let You Stream Your Own Games Very Soon

It’s been a long time coming but very welcome news.

I was expecting something like this to happen eventually after the release of Fortnite on the XBOX Cloud Gaming site. I can also see Genshin Impact releasing on Cloud Gaming mid-November outside this program.

The fact publishers can opt out is something that worries me, since that was what almost killed Geforce Now and did kill several previous attempts.

One major change I would like this to do is end that a game leaving Game Pass means it also leaves XBOX Cloud Gaming. With this in play, it doesn't have to leave if you bought it at the time.

Square Enix won't be there that's for sure. Com they're finally getting to this. Not cool it's literally days after I cancelled GPU and switched to PCGP 😂

This is huge news. I am very impressed with how well cloud streaming works and find myself using it more and more.

Good news,Cloud streaming works great on my setup.

This is great news. Microsoft's vision of Xbox being accessible via any device with the app downloaded is quickly coming to fruition.

Good news. Hopefully comes with a boost to bitrate

I can see this as a nice add, but as someone who does his gaming in the comfort of home from a plush armchair in front of a console connected to a glorious OLED, I personally struggle to find any meaning in this announcement.

One step closer to Microsoft abandoning consoles.

@Balaam_ You're not the target audience for this service. Microsoft is thinking beyond the console and want to attract users who don't want to, or can't afford to, buy a console but want to play games. This is a very smart move by Microsoft to go after more gamers and keep on their path to reach the 2 billion gamers they said they wanted to reach.

@MrMagic This is NOT going to happen. The console will always remain a PIECE of the pie, but not the whole pie, and by limiting yourself to just focus on the console means you're placing a ceiling on the height of success you can reach. I get it, there are a lot of console gamers out there, and Microsoft realizes this too, hence why they wouldn't want to risk losing their 50-70M console users in hopes they they're just going to move to PC, Firestick, mobile, or whatever. They'd be stupid to do that so they're going to keep the console around as part of their strategy.

But make no mistake, the strategy is to attract users beyond the console and to let gamers access content on they devices they see fit to do so. Console included.

The joke part of me - “I pretty much already do this with Remote Play on my Steam Deck with XbPlay and my Series X…..”

Cool news tho, I’ve messed around with XCloud a bit and it works surprisingly well considering I’ve only got a 25mb/1.5mb DSL service. Remote was jank on my phone, but I works great with the Steam Deck / XbPlay app.

Now if MS could just rush along a proper Xbox Handheld with Native game support….

@Dm9982 I've read a million "I can already do this with remote play" comments on the web, but these people need to realize that this is mainly meant for people who don't have a console or PC. This is a move designed to attract customers who aren't necessarily in the Xbox ecosystem.

@TheEstablishment nah I knew that’s why I joked with it. This is a super smart move on MS part. I know from a consumer POV a lot of MS’s moves this year and last have been questionable, but as I was telling my friend they’re being super savvy going the direction they are. It ensures a nice stable future for them. You can only sell so many games on one console, so hitting “as many screens as possible” increases the possible target audience way further than just Xbox consoles or even including PC.

I was honestly thinking MS and Nintendo would end up working out a deal where there’s a limited selection of Game Pass titles on Switch…. Like MS studios titles like Gears, Ori, Fable, and maybe Fallout. Paying a royalty to Nintendo for the presence on the store, but also increasing possible GPU subs. Heck anything is possible anymore, the gaming world is a VASTLY different landscape than it was 30 years ago.

@Dm9982 Anything is possible when it comes to the gaming industry is so spot on. If you would've told me 12 years ago that digital games would become the norm, owning a console or PC was optional, and I'd be paying $20/mo to play games I'd have called you crazy. My, how times have changed.

@TheEstablishment it truly is insane, but mostly in a good way. I can handle the move to digital and stuff, mostly prefer it due to no moving parts to break like disc drives and cart trays/ports.

Honestly my biggest gripe is how it’s become such the norm to release games in an unfinished state and just expect the consumer to deal with and wait for patches to bring it up to par. So annoying. I’m thankful for the ability TO patch, but NEEDING to patch is blah. I’ve gotten use to buying a game then needing to wait a year to play it properly - Bethesda game me this “patience” lol.

Good news and glad it's finally here.

Hooray. About time. I do all my gaming on my phone with a backbone these days. Emulators for all my games up to the switch. Cloud/Remote for all my Xbox/PC. It's my one stop shop. But my Xbox collection has surpassed my hard drive space. So I have been waiting for this since they announced it at the end of 2019!!!!

What about make cloud gaming available ti more regions? We still don't have it here...

This is great! I've utilized xCloud a ton. Great perk. The latency in single player games has been shockingly good for me. Big multiplayer titles seem to feel significantly worse. BUT still enjoyable if you're not a ranked kinda player. As someone who never played indie games, xCloud changed that. Glad the catalog is growing.

@MrMagic Microsoft does not hide its desire to have the Xbox ecosystem everywhere; they literally repeat this message at every PR conference. There is no logic abandoning 30 years of hardware development, millions consumers and Game Pass subscribers just because they are expanding to reach another market.

Why would they abandon one market to pursue another, if they literally want it's ecosystem everywhere?

@Wisegamer
I do agree with your comment as things sit today. But I also believe at some point there is an end to consoles as we know them today. Frankly, consoles are getting too expensive and their advantage in the market is disappearing.

If I could buy a PC and run it in "XB UI" mode I would not bother buying a console anymore.

Finally, I think streaming will eventually become a primary way to distribute games because of their growing size and fast storage hardware not keeping up with that size. Also, streaming will continue to improve, probably to the point you will not be able to distinguish it from a locally running game.

But this is all a ways off. Lucky to get here in the next 7-10 years.

Seriously who gets excited about this rubbish

From a personal point of view I am keen to see if my digital rights for FIFA 15 will work
I bought the game digitally & have the MS receipt email but after working for a few years, it no longer starts on any of my XBoxes as it says I don't have the rights to it & according to MS support when questioned, everybodys rights to the game have been revoked !!

@NeoRatt unfortunately I believe you’re 100% correct that eventually the industry will migrate fully to cloud streaming of games. It’s only a downside on our, the consumer end, of things. From a developer standpoint it makes things much easier to not have to build a game for different design specs of PCs and consoles. Just one version aimed at a computer with massive processing power. Not to mention it basically completely negates any worries of piracy.

Between exponentially expanding game sizes, limited storage, and such…. Yeah I think the push will end up to cloud streaming. But I do believe it’ll be a different cloud streaming than what’s currently in place. I think we’ll get a consumer protection act or something that guarantees Xx amount of years access to said game, or the distributors will offer us cloud storage packages to keep our licensed games in - much like digital games operate now, just without the drive being in our own houses. (Much like it seems MS is doing)

I apologize if I missed it when reading. But would this still require a subscription, or no?
Like will make entry to the xbox ecosystem as easy as buying a controller, loading a free app, and purchasing a game?
I've long been a part of the Xbox family, but haven't used gamepass a whole lot as I've gotten busier. But playing my own games (without the console stream thing) remotely would be a welcome feature that might command more of my gaming time — currently mainly goes to NS.

While US only for now is it only digital games? Or does physical count (as in not just Xbox One/Series but I mean back compat titles too does this allow streaming for or is it like cloud titles are but applies to broader Xbox One/Series titles I assume that's more likely for sure)?

Like I can play any Vita game or I can remote play any PS4 game even if incompatible, or on a phone and so on. But I can't remote play a Xbox OG/360 title which is eh....

Like Gamepass or digital titles make sense for cloud and streaming but the physical license does it need the disk in it still or is it just added to the profile/library so it's ok?

I assume this all applies to digital and should be common sense but just asking out of curiosity just encase. I'm a physical only on Xbox but I know those with digital/Xbox Live Gold and so on games so they can easily use this, but I can't and am just curious. I'm happy with physical on Xbox anyway.

Like I can't remote play unless the disk is in there (not tested with Xbox but have PlayStation).

I can't quick resume disk games they only work on digital releases.

I can't convert a disk game to a digital one in a purchase/conversion process on a platform at all by giving Microsoft the game if I wanted to. No platform holder offers that kind of serve, Sony may refurbishing consoles but not game conversion. So......

Pointless but curiosity questions that's all.

That's great to hear - I travel a lot, so being able to play my library whenever I land at a hotel or family location is fantastic news for my downtime!

I can sense this relating to Xbox handheld news soon...

Should have from the start