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In an uncharacteristic move for a company known for raising prices on its gaming subscription, Microsoft actually just took a feature that used to be exclusive to its highest tier of Game Pass subscribers and gave it to all console Game Pass owners, period. You do need to do some work to actually access it for now, since the expanded access is technically only in preview, but it’s still a pretty sweet deal.
Before now, Xbox Game Pass owners had to subscribe to the service’s Ultimate tier, which is a hefty $20 a month, to get cloud gaming. Now, Core ($10/month) and Standard ($15/month) subscribers can get in on the action, too.
Given that Xbox owners need to have at least a Core subscription to even play their games online, that’s bound to expand the cloud gaming user base to a lot of new players. If you’re not aware, cloud gaming lets you play your games using Microsoft’s servers rather than your own device. If you’re willing to put up with a little input lag and visual compression, it’s useful for streaming demanding games to a secondary device like a phone, or to keep storage space free on your console. But it also puts a pretty heavy load on Microsoft’s own data centers—that the company’s opening it up to so many people probably means its done some serious expanding behind-the-scenes.
According to Xbox, Core and Standard subscribers will be able to play all cloud-compatible games included in their subscription using this feature, across their console, PC, browser, or even certain smart TVs. Not every game included in Game Pass works on the Cloud, but still, the library of games that can run over the cloud is hundreds of titles long and only growing. If your subscription tier includes it, there’s a good chance you can stream it.
As a bonus, the company is also now giving Core and Standard subscribers access to certain downloadable PC games, which previously required owning either the Game Pass Ultimate tier, or the PC-exclusive Game Pass PC tier, which is $12/month but doesn’t give you console games (it’s also not included in this expanding streaming rollout, bummer). Not every game with both PC and console versions will be available this way, but it’s a good sign for playing the same game across multiple platforms, a major Xbox initiative as of late.
With these changes, the difference between Xbox Game Pass subscription tiers is shrinking, but there are still a few Ultimate exclusives, like an included EA Play membership and access to Day One releases. Still, if you’re a bit more selective in what you play, it might be worth considering downgrading your Game Pass subscription.
The only caveat? For now, you need to sign up for the Xbox Insider program to get these updates, as they’re technically currently in testing. Luckily, signing up is free, so you simply need to download the Xbox App to your non-Xbox device, or the Xbox Insider Hub app to your Xbox console. Then, navigate to Settings > Account and toggle on the preview features you want to test out.
