Microsoft is adding even more value to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate with the free inclusion of Project xCloud, which launches free for subscribers in supported countries this September. Xbox head Phil Spencer announced the plans in an Xbox Wire post today. If you’re unfamiliar, Project xCloud is the publisher’s long-in-development streaming service that allows players to enjoy games on non-Xbox devices, so you can look forward to playing titles, such as Halo Infinite, on your phone or tablet later this year.
Project xCloud supports cross-save, too, so you’ll be able to start one of the more than 100 Xbox Game Pass titles on your Xbox console and then pick them back up right where you left off on another device via streaming.
Spencer shared the big picture of what this means in the post:
And because Xbox Live connects across devices, you can play along with the nearly 100 million Xbox Live players around the world. So when Halo Infinite launches, you and your friends can play together and immerse yourselves in the Halo universe as Master Chief—anywhere you go and across devices.
Spencer also sat down with The Verge to expand on Project xCloud and what it means for the Xbox brand and Xbox Series X. He reiterated that the service will eventually be renamed from its Project xCloud title, though no official name has been chosen yet. Additionally, more methods of streaming with it beyond Xbox Game Pass Ultimate are scheduled to arrive in the future: “For launch we’re putting it in Ultimate for no additional cost. We think it’s a good audience for us to start with, and it’s an audience that plays a lot of games.”
The plan is to bring Project xCloud “to every screen that someone can stream games to,” though the service will be restricted to mobile at launch. A list of supported mobile devices will be discussed between August and September.
Xbox Series X launches later this year, and with Microsoft gearing up for the next few months with a free-with-subscription streaming service, the publisher seems primed for a bombastic second half of 2020.
