And it doesn’t need you to always have your Xbox connected, either, skipping the direct line to your home that some NAS drives might need for a direct line to your media. Could this idea let us play games without being in front of the TV? What is Xbox Cloud Gaming?įormerly “xCloud”, Xbox Cloud Gaming is Microsoft’s attempt to make its Xbox playable anywhere, or more specifically, make your Xbox playable anywhere. Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming concept on the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription could just make the physical console obsolete, and more importantly, it means gaming from anywhere is now entirely possible. You can find plenty of games on your phone, through Apple Arcade and Google’s equivalent and such, but they’re not the same thing as what can be found on the Xbox or PlayStation, and even though the graphics can be similar, you pretty much still need a console if you’re to play “console-quality games”.

I could play them on my phone if they existed there, but they don’t, a frustration gamers would have felt time and time again. I don’t have the time to sit in front of a TV and dedicate the hours needed to churn through Mass Effect, Mirror’s Edge, Forza 5, and so on and so on. Yet there are games I want to play, but don’t have the time for them. The Xbox gathers dust, and the only time it feels like I get to hear the beep of the power sound is when the four year wants to connect with Disney characters in Disneyland Adventures, because Covid has clearly put the kibosh on a Disneyland visit for some time. It feels like it’s been so long since I played a game. It’s been so long since we had the time to play through a full game, but Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming makes it possible to play and finish games at home and to go.

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