With xCloud on PC and iOS, the next big moment for cloud gaming has come

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On Monday, Microsoft finally delivered two long-running updates to its Xbox Cloud (xCloud) gaming service that could represent a major change for the future of cloud gaming.

The first is that xCloud games are now powered by dedicated Xbox Series X consoles, a major upgrade from the Xbox One S consoles that has powered the service since its launch in September. This means xCloud now has faster load times, lower latency, and higher 1080p streaming. But perhaps most importantly, xCloud expands from Android to iOS and PC across the web to anyone in 22 countries with an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription.

Together, the two updates mean that nearly anyone with access to the service can play some of the biggest games on Xbox, including the next-gen games from the Xbox Series X, right within a browser across phones, tablets, laptops, and PCs — and all for just $15. Per month, a $500 console is not required.

I’ve been spending some time with xCloud since the Xbox Series X dedicated server hardware started showing up last week, and I’ve been affected by the changes. Many games load quickly and look great on your MacBook Air or iPhone 12 Mini. There is a small amount of lag, but it’s often not too harmful, especially if I’m playing something that doesn’t require quick reflexes or a flick.

I have to warn you that xCloud doesn’t exactly replicate the experience of playing a game on the X series. There is a small amount of latency when I’m playing on my console, and for a close race in Forza Horizon 4 or a multiplayer match match in Halo, I want the lowest latency possible. xCloud peaks at 1080p, and while that’s as high as your main gaming screen (yes, I’m in the market for a real TV), if you want to play in 4K, you can’t do that with xCloud just yet. xCloud’s selection of over 100 games, while many, don’t offer everything I might want to play. Fortnite is neither the service nor the Microsoft hit game Minecraft.

While xCloud still can’t beat the responsiveness of console gameplay, what’s most impressive to me is the way everything from my Xbox Series X syncs to xCloud because they’re all linked to my Xbox account. Ori and the Blind Forest loads right where it left off near the end of the game. I can jump into Nier: Automata’s overworld just to hear the game’s excellent music. If I wanted to play Psychonauts to jump around the legendary (and annoying) level of milk just for heck, I could.

With xCloud, it’s easy to sample games quickly

I don’t have any of these games installed on my Series X at the moment, but with xCloud I can sample them all within a few minutes from my laptop or phone. And I could easily see myself testing out something I’m interested in on xCloud before going through the process of installing a game on my Series X for full playback later. Browsing xCloud reminds me of navigating the vast amount of experiences in Roblox in that it’s easy to jump into anything that interests me, and if I don’t like it, I can quickly move on to something else.

This ability to immerse yourself in and out of the cloud games isn’t particularly new. It’s also easy to move from one game to another in the collections of titles available on Amazon Luna channels or a Google Stadia Pro subscription. But these platforms want you to invest in always playing through the cloud, which I don’t always want. (And after a certain amount of time, I’ll probably run into a data cap.) On the other hand, xCloud is an add-on to Xbox Game Pass that lets me play games I already own or those included as part of a subscription, and if I don’t want to play them streamed from the cloud, I can run Series X.

I would also argue that xCloud has a big role in Amazon and Google by offering a much more impressive selection of titles. And with the big Xbox games like Halo Infinite and Bethesda’s Starfield, which are supposed to be available on xCloud, the service will only get better value. Stadia’s roadmap is even bleaker, especially since Google closed its in-house development studios in February. I’m not aware of any exclusive games being worked on for Luna, and Amazon actually has a track record of video games to date.

I won’t be migrating full time to xCloud games yet. The latency is enough for a problem I think I’ll usually want to play Xbox games directly on my Series X. But after the upgrades to xCloud announced on Monday, the service is an excellent feature of the already great Xbox Game Pass subscription that makes it even easier to play Xbox games through the cloud without even having to think about it. The updates could be a big step towards bringing cloud gaming to more people after years of unfulfilled promises.

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