Microsoft started publicly testing its Project xCloud game streaming service back in October, and since then, it"s expanded to support well over 50 games. There was one big limitation though, which is that you need to use it with an Android device. Today, the firm announced some good news and some bad news. The good news is that the preview is coming to iOS today, but the bad news is that there are some serious limitations.
First of all, the iOS version is only available in the U.S., UK, and Canada - no surprise there. Also, there"s only support for xCloud, the cloud-streaming service, and not Console Streaming. That means that you won"t be able to stream the games that you have on your home Xbox. That leads right into the third limitation, which is that it only supports one game: Halo: The Master Chief Collection.
Microsoft says that that last issue is due to App Store policy, so it"s unclear how that will change, or what the company will have to do to work around whatever policy Apple has in place blocking the full service.
And then there are issues with eligibility to actually use the beta app. As always, TestFlight apps have a limited audience, so this will be exclusive to 10,000 testers. Invitations will roll out on a first-come, first-serve basis, but you also might just get booted from the program at some point. Since it"s likely that there will be more than 10,000 gamers that want to test it out, Microsoft will start kicking people off of the beta in order to get new testers in.
What"s cool is that Project xCloud on iOS supports both iPhone and iPad, so you get the option of playing on the bigger screen. You"ll just need to be running iOS 13 or higher, and you"ll need an Xbox Wireless Controller that supports Bluetooth.
You can sign up for the iOS preview here. If you"re already using Project xCloud, switch your device from Android to iOS; it won"t affect your Android enrollment. If there are spots available, you"ll get an email from TestFlight to download the app.