SUMMARY
- Phil Spencer, Microsoft Gaming CEO, confirmed that Xbox Cloud Gaming will introduce a streaming feature in 2024.
- Microsoft is adopting a multiplatform strategy, expressing its willingness to offer exclusive titles on competitor platforms.
Xbox fans could be soon getting something that they’ve been long demanding. And this isn’t just another rumor or report, it has been confirmed by the man, Phil Spencer, Microsoft Gaming CEO, himself.
Although Xbox may not be currently leading the console market, the company surely has some solid plans to bounce back to dominate the market. Recently, the company expressed its willingness to offer exclusive titles on competitor platforms by implementing a multiplatform strategy.
Xbox Cloud Gaming to allow streaming
According to Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer, Xbox Cloud Gaming will start allowing users to stream their games on the service sometime in 2024. The streaming community has been eagerly requesting and waiting for the feature to be included in the Xbox service ever since its earliest days, back when the service was called xCloud.
Phil Spencer says Owned Games to be playable on Xcloud in 2024
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— HazzadorGamin, Dragon of Dojima (@HazzadorGamin) February 18, 2024
The latest episode of the Official Xbox Podcast aired on February 15, was particularly focused on Microsoft’s future gaming strategy, given the recently concluded Microsoft business update. The episode and the theme rolled out the perfect opportunity for the tech giant to announce this long-standing streaming service feature.
While Phil was having a chat with an inquisitive fan, the Microsoft CEO was asked for an update on the feature to stream purchased games, to which Phil replied, “should be this year,” meaning it could launch sometime in 2024. Although Phil did not talk much about the upcoming feature, users can expect to stream their own library via Xbox Cloud Gaming to need an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership.
Why was the feature delayed?
Microsoft had promised the introduction of the streaming feature back in November 2019, during X019 in London. Notably, this was just one month post Project xCloud started its public beta in the US, UK, and South Korea.
At the event, Microsoft announced that users will be able to stream both, titles on its Game Pass as well as the “Xbox games that they already own or will purchase” beginning in 2020. However, the project did not take off in the promised time, presumably because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Later on February 12, 2020, Microsoft launched xCloud for the Game Pass library. Post the 2019 announcement, the company maintained radio silence on the feature, until Phil finally spoke during the podcast.
It seems like the global pandemic in 2020 slowed down the process of adding this highly anticipated feature to the service in Microsoft’s factory. However, the pandemic isn’t the only reason for the four-year delay. Microsoft’s cloud gaming ambitions were subjected to a lot of regulatory scrutiny after the company expressed its interest in acquiring Activision Blizzard in February 2022.
It was one of the biggest factors impacting the company’s ability to take aggressive moves in any direction. However, now that the deal was closed for a whopping $69 billion in October 2023, Microsoft is now set to go all guns blazing.