Microsoft has started testing its cloud gaming service on consoles on Tuesday. The service could help Xbox owners who are contending with limited storage for all the games available to them. Xbox Cloud Gaming aimed to let players have the Xbox experience whether they’re on a smartphone, laptop, or PC if they’re subscribed to Xbox Game Pass. The Xbox Cloud Gaming beta is available to select members of the Xbox Insiders program. It offers console owners a chance to try out new features before they’re officially released. Players can jump right into certain games tagged with “cloud gaming” without having to download them first, in the beta version. This option can save on valuable storage space, as Xbox Game Pass already includes more than 100 games, with some requiring up to 100GB.
However, there are some issues in the beta version, such as being unable to launch base games that are part of a bundle, in-game purchases not being supported, and certain games available only in English while playing in the cloud. Microsoft didn’t provide a date for when this Xbox Cloud Gaming on consoles will be made widely available. Some features can take weeks of testing, while others can take several months. Microsoft released its latest edition of the Edge browser for Xbox, last week. That had been in testing since March. Moreover, Cloud gaming may be the future, but the future isn’t quite here yet. It is one step closer now that many Xbox Game Pass games can be streamed to iPhones, iPads, and Windows PCs. Xbox Cloud Gaming arrived earlier this summer to all Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers.
Microsoft also announced that Xbox Cloud gaming was coming to Xbox Series X and Series S consoles, as well as the last-gen Xbox One after this hands-on was originally published. Xbox One owners could play newer Xbox Series X|S games without getting a hard-to-find new console. Cloud streaming also means you don’t have to set aside 40GB or more for each game to download and store locally. Game streaming or Cloud gaming is similar to watching a Netflix movie. The content lives on a remote server somewhere and is beamed to your screen in real-time. It makes cloud gaming harder to pull off than video streaming is the added complication of sending controller input up to the cloud. The game actions playing out on that remote server, then beaming the resulting video output back to your screen.
