The day has finally arrived. Xbox Cloud Gaming has arrived out of preview in Australia. You can access it right and here’s exactly what you need.
- You need to have Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. You can get your first month for $1 right here. You do NOT need to own an Xbox to access the service
- Android devices: You need to get the Xbox Game Pass app and start playing (over 100 games without owing them)
- iPhone/iPad/PC: You can head to the Xbox Play website and start playing (over 100 games without owing them)
That’s literally it. That’s all you need to do. From there on, you will be able to load straight into over 100 games and if you’ve got a save on your Xbox, it’ll pull in from the cloud, and then the same will happen the next time you go to play the game locally on your Xbox or PC.
Quite a lot of games have touch controls (and they’re quite good) or you can pair your Xbox controller, PlayStation controller or many bluetooth controllers depending on the device you’re playing on.
Xbox has confirmed that Australia is finally getting the real deal Xbox Cloud Gaming (xCloud) on October 1st. That means that as of tomorrow, we’ll be able to access over 100 games in the cloud on Android devices (using the app) or in browser on iPhone/iPad or PC.
All you need to do starting tomorrow (Friday) is be an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate member. If you’re on Android, you can get the xCloud app. For those on iPhone, iPad or PC, you can head to Xbox.com/play to play in your browser. This is expected to go live tomorrow morning.
With the proper release of xCloud, this means that we can now also play games with touch controls, which means that you don’t need another controller to play most games. If you are wanting to use a controller, you can pair an Xbox controller, a DualShock/DualSense controller or get a mobile controller like the backbone.
Alongside this announcement, Xbox has also now confirmed that games from the cloud are now running from Xbox Series X units which makes for faster loading times and improve frame rates.
Whilst Australia has had a taste of xCloud for a while, this means that we’ll get Xbox Game Pass games that hit xCloud on day one, and games such as Halo Infinite, Forza Horizon 5 and Back 4 Blood will all be playable from the cloud at launch. xCloud syncs your saves from your local console so that you can keep gaming on the go.
With Xbox Cloud Gaming set to come to smart TVs later this year, and Xbox having confirmed that it is working on a standalone streaming stick, there’s no doubt that the service is set to be a big part of Xbox’s future. It’s super exciting that Australia now gets to be apart of that roll out.
