What do you need to know
- Xbox Cloud Gaming is a $15-a-month service that comes with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate that lets you stream hundreds of games to mobile, desktop, and the web.
- To get Xbox Cloud Gaming on your TV, you either have to use a connected Xbox console (which can run games natively anyway) or own an often-expensive Samsung TV from now on.
- Microsoft and Amazon today announced a partnership to bring the Xbox Cloud Gaming app to Amazon Fire TV devices, significantly expanding the availability of the platform.
Xbox Cloud Gaming is a great option for those who don’t feel like buying an expensive video game console or gaming PC, as it offers hundreds of games for a fee of $15 per 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.
However, Xbox games are still designed for TV screens, and playing many cloud games on your phone can be awkward, even with the best mobile controllers for Xbox cloud games. Even if you don’t have an Xbox console, Xbox Cloud Games are best played on a TV, but until now only Samsung TVs have had that privilege. Samsung TVs with the necessary game center feature can also be quite expensive, but what if there was a cheaper way?
Now you can use the $40 Amazon Fire TV stick and connect it directly to any monitor and instantly access Xbox Cloud Gaming. That’s right, big tech cloud rivals are unexpectedly teaming up with Xbox Cloud Gaming to offer a native solution for the first time.
“Extending Xbox gaming to Fire TV gives gamers another way to enjoy their favorite games with the devices they already own,” said Ashley McKissick, who leads cloud gaming on Xbox as Xbox CVP for Xbox Experience. “For those who don’t own an Xbox console, it’s an affordable and convenient way to get started. There’s something for every type of gamer with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. We look forward to seeing more people join the Xbox gaming community.”
“We’re committed to making it easier 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 that allow them to play amazing titles without the need for a console.”
Initially, Xbox Cloud Gaming will be available on the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K and Amazon Fire Stick 4K Max models, and will potentially expand to the cheaper HD Amazon Fire Stick Lite model later. The slightly more expensive Max model supports Wi-Fi 6E, which should give it a connectivity advantage over the 4K Wi-Fi 6 model if your home network solution supports Wi-Fi 6 and 6E, ie.
It looks like Xbox Cloud Gaming on Amazon Fire TV will be available in every region where Xbox Cloud Gaming is also currently available. Of course, you’ll also need an Xbox Series X|S Bluetooth controller to connect and play through Fire TV.
An unlikely partnership in the cloud
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Amazon and Microsoft are often bitter cloud rivals when it comes to enterprise services applications, going so far as to sue each other to curry favor with lucrative government contracts. However, Amazon Gaming and Xbox seem to be a bit cooler. Microsoft is working extensively with platforms such as Amazon Twitch and Prime Gaming, and Amazon is bringing its MMO New World to Xbox later this year. At the end of the day, it’s all just business and this partnership is a win-win for both of us.
Amazon has its own cloud gaming platform startup called Amazon Luna, and you’d think they’d want to expand their own services on their own hardware. But cloud gaming is tough, and Microsoft already owns all the pieces of the puzzle since scooping up Activision-Blizzard, Bethesda, and various other big global franchises. Microsoft has also already started supporting Amazon Luna with its content and added Fallout titles to the platform. Of course, Amazon helped make the Fallout franchise absolutely explode in popularity thanks to the Amazon Fallout TV show. So I’d say the relationship between the two firms is probably pretty peachy now.
Even more interesting is the fact that Microsoft still intends to grow Xbox Cloud Gaming. For a while, it looked like Microsoft might be backing away from this. Server capacity was still an issue in some regions, although Microsoft gradually worked to fix the delta. NVIDIA GeForce Now has also given Microsoft incredibly strong competition in this space, as its technology is so good that it regularly beats Xbox Cloud Gaming in latency and connection stability. Although I recently discovered that NVIDIA GeForce Now has some queuing issues of its own.
It was already possible to upload Xbox Game Pass to Fire TV, but being able to get it directly from Amazon’s app store will give it a whole new audience. It’s also lucky timing, as my colleague Zac Bowden just yesterday discovered a patent for Microsoft’s own canceled Xbox Keystone-like Fire TV.
Although Microsoft has added a whole new platform to the mix with Amazon Fire TV, I wonder how that might affect server capacities. I also wonder what investment Microsoft is making to make the latency of their experience match their first PC brethren. After all, Xbox Cloud Gaming servers are built using Xbox Series X hardware, which isn’t necessarily specced with regard to video encoding.
In any case, it’s great to see that Microsoft isn’t backing down here. I look forward to hearing more about when exactly we will be able to bring our own games to Xbox Cloud Gaming.