Xbox Games Could Be Playable On TVs Without A Console By Next Year

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The full promise of Project xCloud could be fulfilled sooner rather than later according to Xbox head Phil Spencer. When Xbox's game streaming service launched its initial beta test in November of 2019, players didn't know the full scope of what Microsoft was planning. The final product, which came out of beta this September, served as a way for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers to play their games on Android. Some games even got touch control setups to make them work better with phones, while others required a traditional gamepad hooked up with Bluetooth.

Still, that doesn't seem to be the full plan for Xbox Game Streaming. Phil Spencer has said in numerous interviews that many scenarios are possible and that the Xbox team has tested far more than what's available today. From a version of PlayStation's Remote Play feature using a phone and an Xbox back at home to offering full-fledged demo periods streaming to the console with a push of the button, there are many ways that cloud technology can benefit Xbox owners. Perhaps more excitingly to some, Microsoft's cloud gaming initiative could serve as a first step to bringing the Xbox ecosystem beyond the console to people who would never spend $500 on a dedicated gaming machine.

While guesting on the latest episode of Decoder with Nilay Patel, Phil Spencer said that gamers can expect xCloud-style game streaming in a smart TV app within the next year. It's a logical next step for the service, and Spencer further clarifies that it would bring forward the same games, profiles, and saves as all implementations of Xbox so far. It's seemingly not about dominating a new aspect of the gaming industry, it's about continuing the grow the existing Xbox ecosystem beyond the realms of the traditional console.

That's not to say that Xbox is planning to ditch selling consoles if game streaming takes off in a big way. In fact, Spencer details a future he's hopeful for where games will use a hybrid approach when possible. While playing on something like an Xbox Series X, the local computing power will combine with the scale of what's available in the cloud in order to produce games that wouldn't be possible with either functioning separately. It definitely feels like the promise of Crackdown 3 that was never quite realized in that final product, but at least Xbox is consistent in their goals going forward.

This type of smart TV app experience was inevitable, especially when looking at how Xbox has positioned itself for this generation. Players can currently play a select collection of the same games on their TV, computer, and smartphone, and that collection is growing every month. There were even rumors of Xbox releasing a Roku-sized piece of hardware for Game Pass, with some even saying that the Xbox Series S could have been that style of device. Of course, it makes more sense for Xbox (and those with solutions similar to Game Pass like EA and Ubisoft) to reach beyond the gaming market to the greater entertainment space and offer their software to a much wider audience. The generation has only just begun and it's already about more than the hardware.