When engaging players with Xbox Cloud Gaming, Microsoft continues to pursue more initiatives to drive up numbers. The firm does this ensuring the growing count of subscribers for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate since the service is tied to the monthly tier. However, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has mentioned ambitions to make xCloud free inevitably down the road.
What would this entail? Well, the service will be openly accessible and will not require you to pay to play games – similar to how Stadia is structured already. So far, Microsoft is testing this out with Fortnite in its recent push welcoming all users across Android, iOS, and PC at no charge to play the famous battle royale.
Now, the next phase is underway in a new blog post. From Thursday’s Xbox Wire, Microsoft shares that its plans for Xbox Game Pass (Ultimate) subscribers can stream purchased games via xCloud that are not tied to Xbox Game Pass.
We’re excited to share that later this year, it’s our intent to roll out the ability for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members to play, from the cloud, select games they already own or have purchased outside the Xbox Game Pass library.
Will Tuttle, Xbox Wire Editor-in-Chief
The announcement as previously stated was inevitable, and with one purpose specifically: to grow the amount of users playing with xCloud. So far, the service has welcomed more than 10 million players as of this spring. Spanning across mobile devices, PC, and console as well, users can play nearly every game with no hurdle in the way. It was not specified if this will be primarily Xbox One/Xbox Series titles or if backwards compatibility will come into play. Legacy games on xCloud is still in beta since the fall.
Elsewhere today, Microsoft revealed that Xbox Cloud Gaming is to receive a native application for Samsung device. This includes Samsung Smart Devices since it supports the Gaming Hub. So users can enjoy Xbox without being tied to a tangible system sitting in the living room starting June 30th. You can read the full report by heading here.
Are you excited to access you library via xCloud later this year?
Source: Xbox Wire
