Call it Project xCloud; call it the Xbox Game Pass (Beta) for Android; call it “Xbox cloud gaming.” Whatever you want to call it, Microsoft’s response to technologies like PlayStation Now, Google Stadiums and Nvidia GeForce Now is finally here, at least in open beta form.
All you need is an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription ($ 15 per month) and an Android device from the last five years, and you can stream some of the most beloved Xbox games ever made directly on your phone or tablet.
Better yet: Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is not a streaming-or-breastfeeding platform like Stadia. If you have powerful enough hardware – like an Xbox One or a gaming PC – you can simply download the games and take full advantage of your own device. In theory, Xbox Game Pass with Project xCloud is the best of both worlds, and a blueprint for how game downloads and streaming can work hand-in-hand in the not-so-distant future.
On the other hand, after I first checked the functionality, the future here is not yet simple. The Xbox Game Pass app needs a little more functionality and a lot more polish before it’s ready to unify your game library. Players need to have even more control over when to stream and when to download, as well as what quality to expect at each step along the way. Ideally, every game should be available on every platform – and what kind of functionality for players who prefer individual purchases for subscriptions would also be a good idea.
However, the cohesive Game Pass Ultimate is a blueprint for how gaming companies should handle streaming in the future – and how Microsoft’s own Xbox Series X could evolve from just being a console, to a whole ecosystem.
Xbox Game Pass (Beta): What works
Let me first give a brief description of how Xbox Game Pass (Beta) works. Sign up for an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription, which gives you access to more than 100 downloadable games for Xbox One and PC. As long as your subscription is active, you can play as many of the games as you want; the moment your subscription expires, you lose access to everything, like a streaming video game.
Now, with an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription, you can also stream many of these titles to an Android phone or tablet. When the service launches on September 15th, there will be more than 100 games to choose from; at the moment, in open beta, you get just under 40. For the most part, you just choose the game you want to stream, and choose right where you end up on the Xbox or PC. You need a powerful internet connection (10 Mbps is the minimum, but more is better), as well as an Xbox controller.
When all is running at full capacity, Microsoft feels Game Pass Ultimate with Project xCloud as a huge step forward for cross-platform gaming. During my tests, I had the best results with A Plague Tale: Innocence, in part because it’s not the most graphically demanding game, and in part because it’s available with cross-save functionality on Xbox One and the Game Pass app.
Here’s how a game session went: I started the game on my Android tablet, just to see if it would work. While the app itself is not perfect, I ended up getting A Plague Tale. It streamed directly from a Microsoft server in what turned out to be 720p, no installation required. With an Xbox controller connected via Bluetooth, my experience was almost identical to what I find on a console, just on a smaller screen.
From there, I saved the game, shut down the app, and sat on my couch in front of the Xbox One, where I had the game fully installed and ready to play. The game synced my save data, and I jumped right back into the action, only this time on a big screen with better graphics and no risk of latency.
I tried the same experiment the other way around with Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, starting with a brand new storage file on the Xbox, and then switching back to the tablet after playing through the first chapter. Again, the sync process worked flawlessly, and playing on a tablet was almost as smooth as playing on a powerful Xbox console. If the two games had also supported cross-saves with the PC, the trifecta would have been complete – but more on that shortly.
Simply put, this is what gaming should look like in the 21st century. You choose your screen, and your game follows you, no matter where you want to play. Better yet – with one subscription fee you get access to hundreds of games across three platforms. If Microsoft wanted to prove that the future of gaming does not have to be tied to one console, or even buy new games on launch day (because first-party titles get Day One Game Pass releases), it’s hardly a better performance demonstration.
Xbox Game Pass (Beta): What is not working
While I can see that Xbox Game Pass Ultimate plus xCloud has the potential to be my ideal gaming platform, it’s not quite there yet. In fact, it should provide similar features to those who do not have a subscription to Xbox Game Pass, and I’m not sure that is in line with the company’s strategy. Other issues, such as app design and cross-save compatibility, seem a bit more manageable in the short term.
First there is the Game Pass app itself, which is not great on Android, Xbox or PC. Browsing and searching for games is a bit of a crapshoot, and there is no easy way to tell if the game you want to play is available on any platform other than the one you are currently using. (If you download a game on Xbox One, in other words, it may not be available for PC or streaming.) The Android app is laggy and sometimes unresponsive, even on powerful systems, and there’s always something stuttering when streaming games, no matter how strong your connection may be. The PC app is also a bit cluttered, often disconnecting when downloading games, and then not restarting downloads until prompted – sometimes multiple times.
Cross-play and cross-save functionality are the biggest stumbling blocks of Project xCloud, however. I was excited to play both Gears of War: Ultimate Edition and A Plague Tale on my PC, once I was done with testing on the Xbox and Game Pass app. Neither supports Xbox Play Anywhere (which is a completely different program from Xbox Game Pass Ultimate than Project xCloud – Microsoft really needs to unite all different initiatives one way or another). There are 78 games that currently support cross-saves across each platform, which is a good start. But for games that do not have Play Anywhere certification, it is very difficult to tell which store will sync with which platforms.
Like, as mentioned above, which games are available on which platforms seem rather random. At the moment, since Game Pass is in beta on Android, it does not have that many games. That’s honest. But I can not play The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan on PC. I can not play Faeria on an Xbox. I can neither play on the Android app. While I understand that there are likely to be technical hurdles to overcome, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate would be much easier to understand than the statement “play any game we offer, on any platform.”
There’s also something inherently limited to the fact that you need an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription to stream games. I understand that server space and operations are not free, but I can only imagine how frustrating it would be to buy a game like Gears 5 à la carte, you would also have to pay a subscription fee of $ 15 per month just to stream it can to a tablet. Some cloud streaming options for gamers who play games directly – even when paid for – would go a long way.
Finally, I also wish the Xbox Game Pass app on all three systems gave you a little more control over when to stream and when to download. Right now you need to download games on PC and Xbox, and you need to stream directly from the cloud to a tablet. I would like the option to stream from a local Xbox to a tablet, as you can do on PC. I also want an option to stream games to low-powered PCs – or even to an Xbox, to reduce the lengthy installation process or nothing else. The PS4 can stream games directly from PlayStation Now; There’s no theoretical reason why an Xbox One – or an Xbox Series X – could not do the same.
Outlook Game Pass Outlook
In short, I can see the future of gaming in the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate service combined with Project xCloud functionality – but it’s not quite here yet. However, if this is what Microsoft hopes to build with its push for an Xbox Series X ecosystem, I hope other game developers will follow its lead, and let’s play on the screens that best suit us needs.
