Xbox Cloud Gaming makes more and more sense. What are our impressions?

Cloud gaming is growing every year and we basically have three big players in this field – Nvidia and its GeForce NOW, Google Stadium and also Xbox Cloud Gaming from Microsoft. We have already tested the first mentioned service, the second also (but its approach simply does not make sense to us) and the third we test for about two weeks. So we can say at least some first feelings.

Co to je Xbox Cloud Gaming?

Xbox Cloud Gaming works on devices with Android, iPhones, iPads and, of course, also computers with Windows or macOS via a browser. It is a streaming platform that is part of the highest Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription and throughout connection with Xbox (or Windows 10 computer) makes the most sense in our opinion. In our opinion, buying streamed games purely because you play on the phone doesn’t make much sense.

You just never play so well on a small screen. But what if you play the game at home, there is an important race in the evening and you go to the cottage with your wife? This is then a big problem. But with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and Xbox Cloud Gaming, you can play virtually anywhere and your progress is stored across your cloud game and at the same time playing on your Xbox or PC. So you can play on the way home on the bus, and once you get home, you can continue exactly where you left off in the cloud on your device.

What about image quality?

Unfortunately, we recently replaced our Xbox Series X with a Playstation 5, so we can’t take full advantage of this connection, so we tried it at least in conjunction with a computer where it actually works similarly. It happened to us several times that we wanted to play on a desktop PC, but at the same time we wanted to lie down. So we just took the bed to bed and spent a few hours in Forze Horizon 4. Of course, Microsoft also thought about fluency in this regard. Xbox Cloud Gaming is currently running in 720p resolution and at 30 FPS, although it is said to be working on Full HD. On phones it’s quite sufficient, on tablets and laptops as well, but if you need a bigger monitor / TV, 720p is not enough.

We tried to play both 5G and LTE, as well as Wi-Fi, and the service ran smoothly on all networks most of the time. Occasionally there are tears or minor jams, but all games work fine. Of course, if you don’t play some competitive titles, where every millisecond decides. If you are interested in data consumption, it is moving about 2.3 GB per hour. So it depends purely on your tariff.

But what made us happy is the fact that the library of games that you don’t need a driver for is constantly growing and they are full adapted for touch control. And that these are not just any titles, but AAA games such as Gears 5, Sea of ​​Thieves or The Walking Dead series. Of course, the last named title is the most suitable for such playing, but with a little practice and dexterity you will get used to shooting. As we mentioned at the beginning of the article, at Xbox Cloud Gaming we enjoy the symbiosis between the cloud and your gaming device the most, when you can basically take your gaming anywhere, but then continue nicely on a large TV / monitor from the comfort of your home.

The Xbox Game Pass Ultimate pays off in several ways

In addition, if you pay for the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, you will receive not only this service, but also all the games from the Game Pass + EA Play library. You can go through the complete offer on the official website, but we can mention titles such as Battlefield V, Control, DIRT 5, DOOM, Gears 5, Halo 5, Fallout 4 or Prey. For the price CZK 339 per month (you can try the first month for CZK 26) so you get a huge game library on your Xbox, a Windows 10 computer, and get Xbox Cloud Gaming. We will continue to test the service and in the meantime you can ask anything you are interested in about the service.

What is your experience with streaming games?