Xbox Cloud Gaming Will Let You 'Bring Your Own Games' With Xbox Game Pass Ultimate This Year

Xbox Cloud Gaming is also expanding to two more countries — Argentina and New Zealand.

By David Delima | Updated: 9 June 2022 17:30 IST

Xbox Cloud Gaming Will Let You 'Bring Your Own Games' With Xbox Game Pass Ultimate This Year

Photo Credit: Microsoft/ Xbox

Xbox Cloud Gaming will soon add support for streaming games on Samsung smart TVs

Highlights

Xbox Cloud Gaming is now officially supported in 28 countries
Users in Argentina and New Zealand can now stream Fortnite for free
Xbox Cloud Gaming is supported on phones, tablets, PCs, and consoles

Xbox Cloud Gaming will soon support the ability to stream games purchased outside the Xbox Game Pass library, the Microsoft-owned gaming giant announced on Thursday. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members will be able to play select titles that they own, from the cloud, in countries where the feature is supported. Microsoft has also announced that a beta version of Xbox Cloud Gaming is coming to Argentina and New Zealand, starting today, along with the ability to play Fortnite for free on the game streaming service — bringing the total number of supported Xbox Cloud Gaming countries to 28.

Microsoft says it intends to allow Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members to bring select games that they already own or have purchased outside the Xbox Game Pass library. The American company says it will add support later this year, but is yet to reveal details about which games will be supported. Xbox Cloud Gaming is currently supported on phones, tablets, PCs, and consoles, while support for streaming games on Samsung smart TVs is coming soon.

Meanwhile, Xbox Cloud Gaming is also expanding to the two aforementioned countries, Microsoft announced on Thursday. Starting today, gamers with an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription in Argentina and New Zealand can stream titles like Halo Infinite, Forza Horizon 5, and Tunic directly from the cloud with an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription. Supported platforms include Android, iOS, Windows, and Xbox Series S/X consoles. As is the case with other regions where Xbox Cloud Gaming is supported, gamers will be able to play Fortnite free of cost and without a subscription.

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Microsoft recently revealed that over 10 million players have played a game on its Xbox Cloud Gaming service. The service has also partnered with Epic Games to provide free access to popular free-to-play battle royale game Fortnite — Microsoft says millions of gamers have been playing the title on Android, iOS, and PC, while 20 percent of these users are new to the Xbox platform. The service is also adding thousands of new custom Xbox Series X server racks globally to increase its cloud gaming capacity by 125 percent due to global demand.

“[Xbox Cloud Gaming] should be part of you playing any game on any device, whether it's a game that you own, whether it's a free-to-play game: it is really about delivering great game content to any customer on any device through multiple business models,” Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said in a prepared statement.

Microsoft's cloud-based game streaming service, which was launched in 2020, was previously available in 26 countries. These are Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, and the US. Microsoft says it now supports 350 cloud enabled games — with Xbox touch controls for over 100 games. The wait continues for gamers in India, as Microsoft has not revealed any plans to bring the service to the country.

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Microsoft Xbox Series X

REVIEW
KEY SPECS
NEWS

Good
Really powerful
Delivers constant 4K 60fps
Reduced loading times
Great backward compatibility
Support for Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos
Capable of 8K / 120fps
Network transfer feature

Bad
Expensive
Lack of truly next-gen exclusives
Not a generation leap over Xbox One X at launch
Proprietary storage expansion
No rechargeable battery with controller
Implementation of Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos

Read detailed Microsoft Xbox Series X review

HDD 1TB PCie Gen 4 NVME SSD

Processor Custom 8-core AMD Zen 2 CPU @ 3.8GHz

Graphics Custom AMD RDNA 2 GPU 52 CUs @ 1.825GHz

RAM 16GB GDDR6

USB 3

Weight 4.45kg

Ethernet Gigabit

More Microsoft Gaming Consoles

Microsoft Xbox Series S

KEY SPECS
NEWS

HDD 512GB PCie Gen 4 NVME SSD

Processor Custom 8-core AMD Zen 2 CPU @ 3.8GHz

Graphics Custom AMD RDNA 2 GPU 20 CUs @ 1.565GHz

RAM 10GB GDDR6 RAM

More Microsoft Gaming Consoles

Microsoft Xbox One

KEY SPECS
NEWS

HDD 500GB, 1TB

Processor AMD Jaguar 1.8GHz 8-core

Graphics AMD GCN Radeon 853MHz

RAM 8GB

AV S/PDIF out, IR-out, Kinect port

USB 3 USB 3.0 ports

Weight 3.5kg

Ethernet Yes

More Microsoft Gaming Consoles

Microsoft Xbox One S

REVIEW
KEY SPECS
NEWS

Good
Gorgeous industrial design
Sweet form factor
No power brick!
Whisper quiet

Bad
Robot white is easy to smudge
OS concerns still persist

Read detailed Microsoft Xbox One S review

HDD 500GB, 1TB, 2TB

Processor AMD Jaguar 1.75GHz 8-core

Graphics AMD Durango 2 GCN 1.0

RAM 8GB

AV HDMI-out, Optical Out

USB 3 USB 3.0 ports

Weight 2.9kg

Ethernet Yes

More Microsoft Gaming Consoles

Microsoft Xbox One X

REVIEW
KEY SPECS
NEWS

Good
Worthy upgrade over the Xbox One S
Improves a lot of games
Excellent build quality

Bad
Not available officially yet
Microsoft’s download system needs work

HDD 1TB

Processor AMD Jaguar 2.3GHz 8-core

Graphics AMD Radeon GCN 4.0

RAM 12GB

AV HDMI-out, Optical Out

USB 3 USB 3.0 ports

Weight 3.81kg

Ethernet Yes

More Microsoft Gaming Consoles

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Further reading: Xbox Cloud Gaming, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, Cloud Gaming, Xbox Cloud Gaming Countries, Fortnite, Epic Games, Halo Infinite, Forza Horizon 5, Tunic, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC, Microsoft, Xbox

David Delima

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As a writer on technology with Gadgets 360, David Delima is interested in open-source technology, cybersecurity, consumer privacy, and loves to read and write about how the Internet works. David can be contacted via email at DavidD@ndtv.com, on Twitter at @DxDavey, and Mastodon at mstdn.social/@delima. More