Xbox boss says xCloud could be bundled with TV streaming sticks

Xbox boss Phil Spencer has suggested xCloud could be bundled with TV streaming sticks.

In an interview with Stratechery (via The Verge), Microsoft’s head of gaming discussed lowering the barriers to entry to cloud gaming.

“I think you’re going to see lower priced hardware as part of our ecosystem when you think about streaming sticks and other things that somebody might want to just go plug into their TV and go play via xCloud,” he said.

“You could imagine us even having something that we just included in the Game Pass subscription that gave you an ability to stream xCloud games to your television and buying the controller.”

Microsoft partnered with Samsung to bring xCloud to the electronics company’s products earlier this year, so perhaps we’ll see the game streaming service offered with its smart TVs in the not distant future.

As of mid-September, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members in 22 countries can play over 100 games on Android devices via xCloud using a compatible controller.

Microsoft was forced to delay the launch of Game Pass on iOS this summer after Apple blocked the game streaming service from its platform, citing its requirement that it be able to certify every game that appears on the App Store.

But Microsoft is working on a direct browser-based solution to the problem. “We have a good solution on iOS that I think it’ll be coming kind of early next year, I feel good about the solution that we have,” Spencer told Stratechery.

As of Thursday, 11 Game Pass titles support touch controls on Android devices, removing the need for a controller when using xCloud. Xbox touch controls enable players to do everything with just two digits and even choose where to position the controls on the screen.

Further reading

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Microsoft is working to bring Xbox Game Pass streaming to console and PC

“We want console and PC players to be able to browse as easily as mobile players”