Xbox Cloud Gaming is becoming a major part of Microsoft's games business these days, especially as it continues to expand Xbox as a platform, and some new information from Windows Central hints at how the tech could improve drastically in the near future.
Tucked into a big old predictions piece about Xbox in 2025, reporter Jez Corden dropped some interesting details about what's next for Xbox Cloud Gaming. According to the site, Microsoft is working on "things like 4K streaming, higher bitrates, PC game support, and more buy-to-own Xbox cloud games". Corden went on to say that "Microsoft is also allocating more silicon to meet demand for Xbox Cloud Gaming", suggesting that the program continues to grow in popularity.
Towards the end of last year, Microsoft finally started adding titles outside of the Xbox Game Pass library to its streaming platform, with 50 games initially making the jump. It's no surprise to see reports of this expanding in future, and we welcome as many games as possible to the service.
As for the other little upgrades in here, better quality streaming is always something we're interested in, but PC game support would be a massive one too. These days, Microsoft's PC Game Pass library is very impressive, and we'd love for the opportunity to stream some of those PC exclusives to other devices. Time will tell if and when these upgrades for Xbox Cloud Gaming come to fruition.
Thoughts on these reported upgrades, folks? Talk to us about Xbox Cloud Gaming down below.
[source windowscentral.com]
Comments 23
Don't know how the cloud gaming is on the UK, but the biggest problem here in Brazil is the 40min queue to start a game on the cloud at peak hours. Had friends try and quit game pass because of it. Quality and lag are fine for me.
I tried over Christmas UK 200/mb sec on series x 65inch TV. What a load of crap and mess that picture was it was terrible I would rather die than game like that.
Now just to be honest did the same on PS5, same settings and tv etc.
OK not a bad picture was a lot clearer and it ran ok, I would not play like this by it’s was just about passable.
My big question.
How come yet again Microsoft seem to think they are good and push cloud gaming and Sonys cloud gaming picture and quality is better. That really is piss poor Microsoft.
How they think cloud gaming is any good in the UK anyway I dare to think. And straight away it puts people off cloud gaming and Xbox.
It needs a big improvement for me!
The resolution and fps is atrocious!
A lot of those PC games require mouse and keyboard so not sure how many exclusives there would be to stream. Recently got a better laptop and found most of them are more complex strategy games without controller support.
@redgrave0 queues are virtually non existent, but quality varies wildly depending on time of day, device used, distance from servers etc.
At times xCloud has been excellent for me, but if I try to play later at night, when Americans start logging on, there's loads of lag and artifacting.
I think increasing the bitrate is the most important thing here, geforce now ultimate (and previously stadia) has higher bitrates than xCloud and is generally a lot more stable
@OldGamer999 I run cloud at 500mb and it runs perfectly well, I take it you don't have other people sharing the same connection especially downloading because that's going to make a lot of difference to that 200mb.
Didn't digital Foundry answer that question when they said Sony had a better picture but at the expense of more lag, less lag is far more important than a better picture with cloud gaming.
@Rog-X that's sorta weird though because the official download speed needed is 10mbps on phone/tablet and 20mbps on Xbox/PC, his 200 would have to be taking a substantial hit not to maintain that.
S'why I think that the outside factors play a bigger part
I've had good experiences streaming games on PC, Xbox, and on phones and tablets so the tech is there for sure, but just needs more consistent performance. Unfortunately if the wifi at your house is bad then there's nothing Microsoft can do about that so they'll always have issues.
I think a move to make all games that you own playable in the cloud will be important to drive the growth. Also something for people who own the game on disc and not digitally.
Great news, probably 90% of my Xbox gaming is cloud nowadays. Improvements always welcome!
@Rog-X
No one or device is sharing the line.
I do find it weird and have really tried hard to make it work better.
But it just gets the poor picture it gets.
Removed - unconstructive
@OldGamer999 It's less about network max. bandwidth (like 200mbps) and more about consistency e.g. speed of ping (latency) and how consistently it can keep high speeds and bandwidth. But this is the core problem with cloud gaming there are too many variables that can change this, some of which are in your control, like what router you use, and others you can't like physical location. This is why for some people it's fine and for other's it's not... on top of subjective perception.
I'd also say playing on a 65" 4K TV is going to highlight some of the worst aspects of it, as it's max. 1080p with video artefacts like Youtube. But playing it on a smaller device like a Steam Deck is much more favourable.
I've been enjoying cloud gaming. I am impressed with how well it works. It's good to see it is growing both in popularity and development from xbox.
Streaming in 4K since a year or more on my PS5. Xbox streaming works good but it´s way to low res to be an alternative on anything but my phone.
The infrastructure is terrible at present - that's why they still label it as a beta. I have 700mbps and it's just not good enough to be considered a current technology let alone attract subscribers purely for cloud gaming. I hear Nvidia's offering is significantly better. Hopefully Microsoft really do go all in and leverage whatever AI can offer to give anyone with 50mbps + a smooth cloud gaming experience.
Bt changed our old copper wire system to Fibre broadband last November and now it work great.
@OldGamer999 The implication here is that Microsoft did it first or even louder. People just seem to pay attention more to Microsoft. Sony started cloud gaming on Sony TV's and PC with PS Now in 2014. This was before Xbox Game Pass even existed as a service. Sony advertised it as well and heck, I bought into it. This was their "solution" to the Xbox One/PS4 gen having nuked libraries and no backwards compatibility. It only played games from ps3 and older gens and it was still god awful. I couldn't get it to work for more than fivem minutes without the entire thing crashing. PS Now fumbled so horribly that Sony has since killed the entire brand and hidden it away under PS Plus. It's literally been a decade since Sony has been doing cloud gaming. I'm personally more surprised that Xbox Cloud Gaming is more known than Sony's service.
@16BitHero Nvidia is FAR better but you have to remember they either give you free with ads, no priority queue, a limited play time, and lower quality or you pay up to $20 a month for the best experience. This is also JUST to cloud game. You have to buy and own the games separately on existing store fronts. I got into trying Nvidia on a promotion for half off the ultimate tier for 6 months. With my Fibre internet, it's fantastic. Feels near native (still isn't for FPS) and it looks more gorgeous than I'm even capable of seeing natively on any of my devices. That all said pricing is a b****. I can't justify continuing to pay for it and the free tier doesn't give enough value for me to care. I imagine pricing is also a part of the current "beta" aspect of cloud gaming, because Game Pass isn't just cloud gaming like Nvidia. It's a whole library subscription service on console, cloud, and PC. In fact Nvidia works best when you have PC Game Pass because you can use the library you have access to on PC game pass to cloud game from Nvidia's high end PC servers.
@WildConcept6 Hopefully in time the Microsoft service is of a similar quality to Nvidia's offering and there is an available tier for just cloud gaming utilizing games you own. I'm the meantime I'm tempted to try GeForce now with my Steam library just to get a glimpse of the future!
Just a big heads up to everybody! Microsoft claims that if you own certain games you can stream them on the cloud! I happen to physically have four of those games installed on my system right now and I'm looking at the discs! Guess what, I can't play them on cloud gaming! It's a big cash grab for Microsoft. You could only play games that you buy digitally through the Microsoft store! I will be unsubscribing from game pass, and this will be my last Xbox!
never had any problems game streaming
tip use your console wired internet that solves most issues
I was game streaming perfect fine years ago on 5mbps ADSL because i use wired internet.
wireless is the issue
@trev666
Wireless consoles can be one of the reasons but not the only one, there are many things that affect how good streaming games work for different people.
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...