Cloud Gaming with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Launches with More Than 150 Games
Today, I’m pleased to share the initial launch line-up of more than 150 games that Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members can play via the cloud in 22 countries starting September 15 at no additional cost. You will find a fantastic, curated selection of games available in the Xbox Game Pass library, including popular Xbox Game Studios titles such as Tell Me Why, Grounded, Forza Horizon 4, and Battletoads, along with favorites from our content partners like Spiritfarer, Untitled Goose Game, and Destiny 2. Similar to Xbox Game Pass for Console and PC, you can expect the library to evolve over time based on members’ feedback, with new games added all the time.
As Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members, you can discover the freedom and flexibility the cloud brings to your gaming experience. One of the key benefits of cloud gaming is that it gives you more choices in how to play. Because your Xbox profile resides in the cloud, you can easily continue your Wasteland 3 play through that you began on your living-room Xbox console on your Android phone or tablet. It’s perfect for those times when you want to get in a gaming session while away from home or when your shared TV or console is occupied. With the cloud, a game like Sea of Thieves can transform into a great couch co-op experience with multiple people playing across console, PC, and mobile devices in the same room.
Additionally, cloud gaming as part of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate now opens up the world of Xbox to those who may not own a console at all. With an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership, gamers need only an Android phone or tablet and a supported controller to join in on the fun of Xbox gaming while enjoying the full benefits of the Xbox ecosystem. This includes friends, achievements, parties and voice chat, cloud saves and the ability to enjoy multiplayer with other gamers, irrespective of whether they are playing on console or via the cloud. You can also play with PC players in games where cross-play with Xbox One consoles is supported, such as Forza Horizon 4, Gears 5 and more.
Finally, cloud gaming with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate makes it easier than ever before to play games with your friends. Because members have access to a common library, members immediately have dozens of multiplayer games at their disposal that they can play together. And best of all, if you’re all playing together via the cloud, the games are all ready to go, so you and your friends can all jump in and start playing in seconds. Whether you’re playing with friends on an Xbox One, or if you’re playing with someone experiencing Xbox for the first time through cloud gaming on a mobile device, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate brings you together and makes for the best gaming experience.
New members can join Xbox Game Pass Ultimate today for $1 for the first month, then $14.99 per month after that, which is a great way to ensure you’re ready to take advantage of cloud gaming next week. To play games on your phone or tablet, download the Xbox Game Pass app from the Samsung Galaxy Store (which includes a complete, full-featured experience with in-app purchase capabilities), or the Google Play Store. And if you want to enhance your cloud gaming experience, you can order a new Samsung Galaxy device and select the Gaming Bundle at purchase, which includes three months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and the all-new Power A MOGA XP5-X Plus Bluetooth Controller with an attachable phone clip. We’ll launch cloud gaming in beta for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members in 22 countries to ensure stability as we scale the feature to millions of gamers globally. And this holiday, some of the best EA Play games will be available for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members to play on Android devices via the cloud at no additional charge.
This is a pivotal step on our journey to put the player at the center of their experience and empower gamers to play the games they want, with the people they want, anywhere they want. What you’ll see on day one is just the beginning. Over time we’ll continue to innovate and add more games that you want. Stay tuned to Xbox Wire and @XboxGamePass on Twitter for more cloud gaming updates.
https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2020/09/14/ ... -ultimate/Cloud gaming launch titles:
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Beginning September 15, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members can play more than 100 games from the cloud on their Android phone or tablet. Cloud gaming will launch in beta for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members in 22 markets to ensure stability as we scale the feature to millions of gamers.
When cloud gaming launches as part of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, players will have access to more than 100 high-quality games playable from the cloud, including Minecraft Dungeons, Destiny 2, Tell Me Why, Gears 5, Yakuza Kiwami 2, and more. And as we’ve committed to providing day-one access to new titles from Xbox Game Studios as part of Xbox Game Pass, it’s our intent to make those same games available in the cloud from the day they release. We’ll have more to share about the full catalog of games as we approach launch.
As the world around us changes and entertainment is readily available no matter the device, it’s our vision to make games accessible in a variety of scenarios. All the experiences you expect on Xbox and your gaming profile travel with you on mobile, including your friends list, achievements, controller settings, and saved game progress.
https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2020/08/04/ ... tember-15/Sign up for the Project xCloud preview here, started October 2019 -
http://www.xbox.com/xbox-game-streamingHere’s what to expect from the Project xCloud public preview and how you can register to participate:
If you’re in the US and UK, you can sign up to register today here, and if you’re in Korea, you can register here. We’ll begin to send invites in the coming weeks. With a goal of learning and improving quickly, we’re taking a phased approach to our public preview, starting with a small number of participants to get initial feedback, then opening it up to more and more gamers. If you don’t receive an invite right away, there will be other opportunities; we’ll continue to open up more spots over time.
Xbox launched with Halo, and so will the Project xCloud public preview. It will begin with Halo 5: Guardians, the all-new Gears 5, a fantastic fast-twitch fighter Killer Instinct, and the online adventure Sea of Thieves. This is just the beginning as our content library will continue to grow as the preview progresses.
There are a few requirements to participate in the Project xCloud preview. You’ll need a phone or tablet running Android 6.0 or higher with Bluetooth 4.0; a Microsoft account; a Bluetooth-enabled Xbox One Wireless Controller; and while not required, we recommend a phone mount for your controller. Project xCloud runs on Wi-Fi and mobile networks in your area.
You will be able to access content through our all-new Microsoft Game Streaming app, available in the coming weeks for Android devices. It’ll be available for all to download, but you’ll only be able to sign in once you’ve received an official invite into the preview.
https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2019/09/24/ ... c-preview/You can measure your latency to your local Azure date centre here -
http://www.azurespeed.com/
Bringing Xbox to the Cloud
In addition to delivering players the games they want, with the people they want, across console and PC, Xbox is also empowering people to play wherever they want by bringing Xbox to the cloud.
First, Xbox announced the ability to stream games from your Xbox One console, starting in preview this October. With console streaming, gamers will have access to their Xbox One game library and Xbox Game Pass titles on the go, streamed directly from an Xbox One console to a mobile device.
The Xbox E3 Briefing also marked a new milestone for Project xCloud, with E3 2019 attendees being among the first in the world to play Xbox One games like Halo 5: Guardians and Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice streaming on smartphones and tablets. With Project xCloud, Xbox is investing to ensure players have the choice and freedom to play the games they want, with the friends they want, how and where they want.
Project xCloud: Gaming with you at the centerThe future of gaming is a world where you are empowered to play the games you want, with the people you want, whenever you want, wherever you are, and on any device of your choosing. Our vision for the evolution of gaming is similar to music and movies — entertainment should be available on demand and accessible from any screen. Today, I’m excited to share with you one of our key projects that will take us on an accelerated journey to that future world: Project xCloud.
Today, the games you play are very much dictated by the device you are using. Project xCloud’s state-of-the-art global game-streaming technology will offer you the freedom to play on the device you want without being locked to a particular device, empowering YOU, the gamers, to be at the center of your gaming experience.
Content and communityUltimately, Project xCloud is about providing gamers — whether they prefer console or PC — new choices in when and where they play, while giving mobile-only players access to worlds, characters and immersive stories they haven’t been able to experience before.
To realize this vision, we know we must make it easy for developers to bring their content to Project xCloud.
Developers of the more than 3,000 games available on Xbox One today, and those building the thousands that are coming in the future, will be able to deploy and dramatically scale access to their games across all devices on Project xCloud with no additional work.About Project xCloudScaling and building out Project xCloud is a multi-year journey for us. We’ll begin public trials in 2019 so we can learn and scale with different volumes and locations. Our focus is on delivering an amazing added experience to existing Xbox players and on empowering developers to scale to hundreds of millions of new players across devices. Our goal with Project xCloud is to deliver a quality experience for all gamers on all devices that’s consistent with the speed and high-fidelity gamers experience and expect on their PCs and consoles.We’ve enabled compatibility with existing and future Xbox games by building out custom hardware for our datacenters that leverages our years of console and platform experience. We’ve architected a new customizable blade that can host the component parts of multiple Xbox One consoles, as well as the associated infrastructure supporting it. We will scale those custom blades in datacenters across Azure regions over time.We are testing Project xCloud today. The test runs on devices (mobile phones, tablets) paired with an Xbox Wireless Controller through Bluetooth, and it is also playable using touch input. The immersive nature of console and PC games often requires controls that are mapped to multiple keys, buttons, sticks and triggers. We are developing a new, game-specific touch input overlay that provides maximum response in a minimal footprint for players who choose to play without a controller.
Cloud game-streaming is a multi-faceted, complex challenge. Unlike other forms of digital entertainment, games are interactive experiences that dynamically change based on player input. Delivering a high-quality experience across a variety of devices must account for different obstacles, such as low-latency video streamed remotely, and support a large, multi-user network. In addition to solving latency, other important considerations are supporting the graphical fidelity and framerates that preserve the artist’s original intentions, and the type of input a player has available.
Microsoft — with our nearly 40 years of gaming experience starting with PC, as well as our breadth and depth of capabilities from software to hardware and deep experience of being a platform company — is well equipped to address the complex challenge of cloud game-streaming. With datacenters in 54 Azure regions and services available in 140 countries, Azure has the scale to deliver a great gaming experience for players worldwide, regardless of their location.
Developers and researchers at Microsoft Research are creating ways to combat latency through advances in networking topology, and video encoding and decoding. Project xCloud will have the capability to make game streaming possible on 4G networks and will dynamically scale to push against the outer limits of what’s possible on 5G networks as they roll out globally. Currently, the test experience is running at 10 megabits per second. Our goal is to deliver high-quality experiences at the lowest possible bitrate that work across the widest possible networks, taking into consideration the uniqueness of every device and network.
We are looking forward to learning with you during our public trials next year and sharing more details as we continue on this journey to the future of gaming with you at the center. Stay tuned!
Thanx,
Kareem