Gamescom 2021 is underway and Xbox Cloud Gaming is getting some attention. Coming to consoles this holiday, Xbox's Cloud Gaming service promises to redefine player possibilites, giving them unprecedented control of how they game.
Xbox Cloud Gaming has been gradually rolled out to a variety of platforms over the past year. A service that is still currently in beta, it allows for players to stream Xbox titles to their phone or computer—and soon, their console—if they are subscribed to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and have a strong enough internet connection.The games are streamed from servers around the world that are running Series X hardware, making for high quality gameplay despite being streamed. Only as of June did Xbox Cloud Gaming become available for Game Pass Ultimate subscribers on PC and mobile, so it is still a growing service.
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Early into Gamescom 2021, Microsoft announced that Xbox Cloud Gaming would finally be coming to Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S this holiday. What's more, users playing on the former console will be able to stream the latter console's games despite playing on older hardware, officially narrowing the generational divide. Since this service is locked behind Game Pass Ultimate, it means that subscribers who are still on Xbox One will still be able to access titles that could only be intended for Series X/S and PC users. This follows the announcement earlier this month that Xbox is bringing back its Remote Play feature as well.
A large focus of this segment of Xbox's Gamescom showcase is also about Cloud Gaming's convenience and accessibility. Jake Rosenberg, the Senior Program Manager at Xbox Experiences, states, "Games are large and you want to keep the ones that you know you love on your hard drive. Xbox Cloud Gaming is about being able to discover the new ones right away." As Game Pass has introduced games to millions of players that they may not have played otherwise, Cloud Gaming operates in the same vein, offering players a way to try new games without compromising the limited storage of their console or removing games they know they like. With such a great list of games already available on Game Pass, Cloud Gaming is going to make playing them even easier.
The most important takeaway from this announcement is Xbox, once again, demonstrating its focus on player choice and options. At one time, playing Xbox games required physically owning one of Microsoft's consoles—now, not only do users not need one, those unable to upgrade their console can still participate in the latest games. In a meta way, Microsoft is attoning for the problems of the Xbox One. There are no longer any obstacles preventing Xbox users playing what they want, how they want.
Xbox Cloud Gaming is coming to consoles Holiday 2021.
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