First announced years ago, the ability to start streaming games you own on Xbox but that aren’t part of Game Pass will be tested for Insiders starting in November. It will add another meaningful benefit to the Netflix-like subscription program and allow gamers to stream similar games Baldur’s Gate III And Elden Ring which they own but are not part of existing Game Pass library.
This is according to a new report from The edge It says the expanded Xbox Cloud Gaming feature will go into live testing next month for members of the Xbox Insider program. It’s not clear which games will be part of the first wave, but presumably at some point in the future a majority of players’ digital game libraries will be accessible via their cloud mobile devices, laptops and PC gaming handhelds, at least if you have an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscriber.
This functionality was first teased back in 2020 as part of the Project xCloud beta, but was not part of the final launch release. Microsoft once again teased that cloud streaming would be expanded to games outside of Game Pass towards the end of 2022. “We are excited to announce that later this year we plan to offer Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members the ability to play in the cloud select games they already own or purchased outside of the Xbox Game Pass library “said Xbox Editorial Director Will Tuttle wrote at the time. But that never came about either.
Two years later, it looks like any technical issues or other issues that previously bothered us have finally been resolved and Microsoft is ready to begin expanding Xbox Cloud Gaming in earnest. This initiative would go hand in hand with a recently announced move to begin selling Xbox games directly in the Xbox app on Android devices after a court order against Googleas well as a recent increase in the price of a Game Pass Ultimate subscription from $18 per month to $20.
This new version of Xbox Cloud Gaming would bring it much closer to Nvidia’s GeForce Now, which allows users to stream PC games they already own to other devices, including less powerful PC hardware that doesn’t run those games natively could. The biggest difference is that Nvidia currently offers this benefit as part of a free subscription tier, although with notable limitations like lower resolution and timed sessions.
