It took until the last minute, but nothing can stop the future: from today the AppStore, the digital store for Apple devices, allows applications to play in the cloud. Which brings us to the natural question: couldn’t you play Game Pass titles from iPhone? The truth is that yes, but with great nuances.
Let’s start from the most essential: with immediate effect, and through an official statement, Apple is rethinking the policy of its digital store worldwide, enabling access to mini-applications and games from cloud services such as Xbox Cloud Gaming or GeForce Now. Of course, it opens the door but leaves the lock on: it has created a new guide for developers that outlines what can be done in the AppStore after this change and what will not be allowed.
This will allow, for example, the official Xbox app for iOS to add the tab for playing from the cloud to Game Pass games, as could already be done from Android devices since the Xbox Cloud Gaming beta. And the same applies to any initiative to be able to play through gaming platforms and streaming services. Technically, this benefits everything from Amazon’s newcomer Luna to Europe to the classics in the AntStream catalog.
Apple has been against offering this type of services and options for years, and the reason given was not very clear: by not being able to review the content published from other platforms one by one, it did not enable this possibility. Now, this movement not only opens new doors, but will allow services like Netflix or Crunchyroll, with their own game catalogs, to enable an alternative to redirecting their exclusive video games to the AppStore and having to download them from there.
A before and after for the game on iPhone and iOS devices
All in all, we return to the original question: how was it done before to play Game Pass from iPhone? The way in which Xbox came forward was more of a solution than anything else, since it took advantage of the fact that Xbox Cloud Gaming works in browsers to offer a web experience adapted to Apple screens, promoting the creation of shortcuts to simulate an App Something that Stadia also did in its day and Luna has also been doing.
The move by Apple is more than a gesture of good will: the European commission is analyzing the case of the AppStore and the company’s policies and this initiative to offer cloud gaming is part of the battery of measures to adapt to the market of the old continent, including the possibility of enabling more digital stores on your devices in addition to the AppStore itself.
In any case, all companies and services with interests in expanding into cloud gaming have apps to update starting today. Above all, taking into account that mobile phones are the largest, most widespread and most profitable gaming platform.
For its part, Apple is redirecting its policy and taking the opportunity to give a new push to the idea that its latest batch devices are also considered on video game platforms with titles such as Resident Evil 4 or Death Stranding, rounding off the initiative for everyone. Especially for the players.
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