What you need to know
- Xbox Cloud Gaming is a $15-a-month service bundled with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate that lets you stream hundreds of games to mobile, PC, and the web.
- As of now, to get Xbox Cloud Gaming on a TV, you have to use an attached Xbox console (which can still run games natively), or own a very expensive Samsung TV.
- Today, Microsoft and Amazon announced a partnership to bring the Xbox Cloud Gaming app to Amazon Fire TV devices, greatly expanding the reach of the platform.
Xbox Cloud Gaming is a great option for those who don’t want to buy an expensive video game console or gaming PC, offering hundreds of games for $15 a month along with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Playable on Android devices, iOS via the web at xbox.com/play, Xbox consoles and Samsung TVs, Xbox Cloud Gaming streams Xbox games over the Internet, bypassing the need for powerful local hardware.
Xbox games are still designed for TV screens, though, and playing multiple cloud games on a phone can be a bit of a chore, even with the best mobile Xbox cloud game controllers. Even if you don’t have an Xbox console, Xbox Cloud Games are best played on a TV, but until now, only Samsung TVs had the privilege. Samsung TVs with the requisite Game Center feature can also be quite pricey, but what if there was a cheaper way?
Now, you can use a $40 Amazon Fire TV stick and connect it directly to any monitor and instantly gain access to Xbox Cloud Gaming. That’s right, the arch-rivals of cloud computing are suddenly collaborating on Xbox Cloud Gaming, offering a native solution for the first time.
“Extending Xbox games to Fire TV devices gives gamers another opportunity to enjoy their favorite games using the devices they already own.” said Ashley McKissick, who leads Xbox cloud gaming as Xbox’s CVP of Xbox experiences. “For those who don’t own an Xbox console, this offers an affordable and convenient way to get started. With Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, there’s something for every type of gamer. We look forward to more people joining the Xbox gaming community “.
“We’re committed to making it easy for customers to access their favorite entertainment experiences with Fire TV.” said Daniel Rausch, vice president of Fire TV and Alexa. “We’re excited to work with Microsoft to bring the Xbox app to select Fire TV devices so customers can enjoy an extensive library of high-quality games, allowing them to play great titles without need a keyboard.”
Xbox Cloud Gaming will initially be available on the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K and Amazon Fire Stick 4K Max models, before potentially expanding to the cheaper HD Amazon Fire Stick Lite model later. The slightly more expensive Max model supports Wi-Fi 6E, which should give it an advantage over the 4K Wi-Fi 6 model, if your home network solution supports both Wi-Fi 6 and 6E, that is.
It looks like Xbox Cloud Gaming on Amazon Fire TV will be available in every region where Xbox Cloud Gaming is currently available as well. Of course, you’ll also need an Xbox Series X|S Bluetooth controller to connect and play through your Fire TV as well.
An unlikely partnership in the cloud
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Amazon and Microsoft are often bitter cloud rivals when it comes to business services applications, going so far as to sue each other to win favors for lucrative government contracts. However, Amazon Gaming and Xbox seem a bit quieter. Microsoft partners extensively with Amazon’s Twitch and Prime Gaming platforms, for example, and Amazon is bringing its MMO New World to Xbox later this year. After all, it’s all just business, and this partnership will be mutually beneficial for both.
Amazon has its own nascent cloud gaming platform, called Amazon Luna, and you’d think they’d want to roll out their service to their own hardware. But cloud gaming is difficult, and Microsoft already owns all the pieces of this puzzle since its acquisition of Activision-Blizzard, Bethesda and other big global franchises. Microsoft has already started supporting Amazon Luna with its own content anyway, adding Fallout titles to the platform. Of course, Amazon has been instrumental in causing the Fallout franchise to completely explode in popularity thanks to the Amazon Fallout TV show. So, I’d say the relationship between the two firms is probably pretty steep right now.
What’s more interesting is the fact that Microsoft is still aiming to grow Xbox Cloud Gaming. For a while, it looked like Microsoft might have gotten away with it. Server capacity has still been an issue in some regions, although Microsoft has been gradually working to repair the delta. NVIDIA GeForce Now has also given Microsoft incredibly strong competition in this space, given that its technology is so good that it regularly beats Xbox Cloud Gaming for latency and connection stability. Lately though, I’ve found that NVIDIA GeForce Now has had some queuing issues of its own.
It was already somewhat possible to sideload Xbox Game Pass onto a Fire TV, but being able to get it directly from the Amazon app store will deliver it to a whole new audience. It’s also fortuitous timing, as my colleague Zac Bowden uncovered a patent for Microsoft’s canceled Xbox Keystone as a Fire TV just yesterday.
Although, with Microsoft adding a brand new platform to the mix with Amazon Fire TV, I wonder how server capacities might be affected. I also wonder what investments Microsoft is making to bring their latency experiences up to par with their first PC brethren. Xbox Cloud Gaming servers are built using Xbox Series X hardware, after all, which aren’t necessarily specified with video encoding in mind.
In any case, it’s good to see that Microsoft isn’t backing down here. However, I am eager for more information on when we will be able to bring our games to Xbox Cloud Gaming.