Back in February, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer stated that the company was planning to open up its Xbox Cloud Gaming service later in 2024 so that anyone could stream Xbox games that they already owned on their devices. Today, there"s a report that says that could start happening in just a few weeks for some Xbox games.
According to The Verge, via unnamed sources, Microsoft will begin testing this new feature with members of the Xbox Insider Program sometime in November. The plan is to expand the testing to more Xbox gamers later. The report says that this is part of an overall gaming effort called Project Lapland.
Microsoft has been working on this cloud Xbox game library feature for some time. Indeed, it was previously stated that it would happen way back in 2022. Today, The Verge reports that the delay was due to the sheer amount of new cloud server infrastructure needed to stream the thousands of Xbox games available rather than just the few hundred games that the company has picked to be a part of Xbox Cloud Gaming.
Today"s report also says that not all Xbox games will be available for this effort. That"s reportedly because some game publishers have exclusive licenses or deals for certain games that will keep them off Microsoft"s cloud servers.
It sounds like Microsoft is finally trying to expand cloud gaming beyond what"s available for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate users. In July, there were unconfirmed reports that the company was considering launching a new Game Pass plan that would only be for cloud-based titles.
Late on Thursday, Microsoft Xbox President Sarah Bond posted on her X account that "starting in November players will be able to play and purchase Xbox games directly from the Xbox App on Android." The specific details of these new features for the Xbox Android app have not been revealed.