Microsoft announced its Xbox Game Pass Ultimate will feature more than 150 games when it launches on September 15 on Android phones and tablets. Formerly called xCloud, the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate will stream hundreds of games in the coming months and gamers will experience the subscription service like they had never known, The Verge reports.
With the bundling of xCloud into Xbox Game Pass Ultimate as a streaming game service, the new update will launch on Android simultaneously in 22 countries. These include the US, UK, Belgium, Denmark, Hungary, Norway, Spain, Austria, Switzerland, France, Ireland, South Korea, Czech Republic, Germany, Finland, Poland, Slovakia, Italy, Sweden, Netherlands, Portugal, and Canada.
Although Microsoft has not included EA’s Play titles in the current list of 150 games, the company revealed that EA Play will be added to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate in the next few months.
Another important thing to note is that Microsoft has gone far and beyond to make xCloud better with touch controls for gaming. To this extent, Minecraft Dungeons launched with touch control, and this included features on managing them on-screen. Gears 5 had also been demonstrated with touch controls, and this is also the case with Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. In the next few months, more games will be updated with touch controls according to Microsoft.
But given the fact that Apple blocked xCloud and other game streaming services on its App Store platform, xCloud may not be available on iPads and iPhones initially when it launches on September 15. However, considering that Apple reconsidered its stance with some providers such as Microsoft, xCloud or Stadia may later feature on iOS and iPadOS devices.
The only problem is that Apple no longer wants developers to bundle their games together, it must be separated as different apps on its streaming service. Microsoft has however made it clear that the new arrangement will hurt businesses and customer experience, adding that it makes little sense to package games that should have been bundled for streaming into many different apps. It remains unclear whether Microsoft will be willing to do this with the way things are going.
Source: theverge.com
