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Microsoft plans to make its Xbox Game Pass Ultimate service available for iOS devices, as well as PCs, offering cloud-based access via a web browser in spring 2021.
A blog post published Wednesday by Microsoft’s Jerret West describes the initiative’s first official announcement.
In October, word spread that Microsoft was looking for alternative methods to bring Game Pass to iOS, after Apple made it logistically impossible for Game Pass to be offered through the Apple App Store. Microsoft’s Project xCloud game service, offered as part of Game Pass, allows users to play compatible games through the cloud on their mobile devices, without the need for a local installation.
Apple released a new set of rules for its App Store in September. It would have allowed Microsoft to officially bring an xCloud app to iOS, but only if each game on the service was shipped to Apple as a separate playable app. As there are dozens of games on Game Pass at any given time and they rotate in and out of service on a monthly basis, this was essentially a case where Apple set up a series of unworkable hoops for Microsoft to jump into. Naturally, Microsoft chose to decline.
This was the cause of much controversy earlier this year, as it was one of several cases in which Apple appeared to be using inconsistent rules as a tool against its competitors. The new App Store rules established in September appeared to outside observers as a way to make it difficult, at best, for other game subscription services to have a presence on iOS, thereby protecting their own service, Apple Arcade. Since then, both Microsoft and Google Stadia have announced plans to turn their cloud-based gaming services into web applications.
Game Pass Ultimate, unlike Game Pass, is a complete package of current Microsoft gaming-related services, combining access to a monthly library of modern games, Xbox Live Gold online play, the option to play compatible games on Microsoft’s cloud servers via Project xCloud and, as of November 10, an attached membership to EA Play, the Game Pass-esque service offered by third-party mega-publisher Electronic Arts. This adds a number of big hits to the overall package, including the value of the last four years FIFA, Madden, Y NHL Sport games.
In short, it offers most of the best of the modern Xbox, without the need for a physical Xbox. You would simply dial the Game Pass service through your iPhone or iPad browser and head to town, playing modern Xbox games via a Bluetooth controller.
“Expanding Xbox to new players is central to our ambition to help games and developers find an easy path for the world’s 3 billion gamers,” West writes in the blog post. “We are doing this by adopting multiple devices and providing a consistent Xbox experience wherever you log in, whether it’s on your Xbox Series X | S, PC, Xbox One, Android device or, as of spring 2021, on your Windows PC and iOS device from the cloud. “
This also comes hand in hand with the expansion of Microsoft’s Project xCloud gaming initiative to new international markets, including Australia, Brazil, Japan and Mexico.
The real benefit for any cloud gaming service is likely to be found in those international markets. The United States has notoriously lousy internet access for its size and relative wealth, and playing a modern video game over the cloud is a bandwidth-intensive process that tends to quickly hit whatever data limits it may have. an user. Smaller countries with less restrictive or at least more explicit data limits are more likely to adopt xCloud, particularly in markets with low Xbox hardware penetration like Japan. (On the other hand, Japan now has a nearly 20-year history of disrespecting the Xbox, and it’s not likely to abandon it because of the forbidden appeal of Infinite Halo on a smartphone.)
West’s blog post also includes a number of stats on how the Series X launch went, a huge increase in customer engagement for Xbox Game Pass, and a promise that Microsoft will restock their system supplies as quickly as possible. .
While the publication did not disclose any details on the exact numbers moved for Series X | So far we know it was the biggest Xbox launch to date, but not by how much, West threw in some other interesting tidbits.
For example, the S Series, the smallest all-digital version of the new Xbox, has proven popular with first-time adopters, with more than 40% of new Xbox owners playing one. The X Series | S appears to have been a particular hit in Europe, with the UK, France and Germany reporting selling their shares in record time compared to other markets.
The launch of the new console doubled the share of Xbox users with the Game Pass service in November, with more than 3,800 different video games played by users in that first month of the new Xbox’s time on the market.
The blog also confirms that Infinite halo Recently confirmed that it is targeting a fall 2021 release date, it will hit Xbox Game Pass, presumably at launch. Other future games heading to the Pass include the long-awaited platformer. Psychonauts 2; the exclusive Windows / Xbox horror game Dead static unit, that its developers describe as “Grand Theft Cthulhu”; and indie developed in Seattle Skatebird a Kickstarter-funded skating game featuring a little bird on a board at equally small skate parks. It is as adorable as it sounds.
Games coming to Xbox in 2021 include Infinite halo naturally. Other titles to see include the League of Legends cleave Ruined King; the last entry in the popular Demonic resident franchise, Town (It is the eighth game, so the subtitle works like a visual pun for “VII”); a new cooperative shooter for three players in the Rainbow six series, call Quarantine, which pits anti-terrorist operatives against an invasion of alien parasites; Y Bright memory: infinite, a remake and expansion of the early access hit hack-and-slasher from a solo Chinese developer.
However, what stands out most in the blog post is that Microsoft remains in uncharted territory here. You’re not selling your game library at this point as much as inexpensive access to it, putting a surprising emphasis on your services over your new hardware. Hardware isn’t an afterthought, but it definitely looks like it’s playing a minor role in Game Pass and its future. This may not end up being as disruptive to the broader industry as Microsoft hopes it will, as Sony and Nintendo are doing quite well with previous sales models, but it is interesting to speculate on the potential results here.
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