Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming (xCloud) will officially arrive on iOS and PC tomorrow, April 20th. The service will reach devices via browsers, allowing Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers to play Xbox games on their iPhone, iPad and PC. However, Microsoft maintains this rather limited beta and requires players to be invited to participate in the testing phase.
The service will be available at www.xbox.com/play, where Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers who have been invited to the beta will be able to play Xbox games through Edge, Chrome or Safari browsers. More than 100 games will be available, and testers will be able to use a compatible Bluetooth or USB controller or simply use custom touch controls.
“Limited beta is our testing and learning time; We will continuously send more invitations to players in all 22 accepted countries, evaluate feedback, continue to improve the experience, and add support for multiple devices, ”said Catherine Gluckstein, head of Microsoft’s xCloud. “Our plan is to iterate quickly and open up to all Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members in the coming months, so that more people have the opportunity to play Xbox in new ways.”
This is the first time Xbox Game Streaming is available on iOS devices after the service was launched exclusively on Android phones and tablets last year. Microsoft failed to offer xCloud on its iPhone or iPad in the initial phase of launching the service in September, due to Apple’s restrictions on cloud gaming applications.
Both Apple and Microsoft have entered a public war of words on xCloud, and Apple initially insisted that Microsoft will have to submit individual games for review. Apple eventually offered a compromise to allow cloud gaming apps to run on iOS with individually reviewed games, but Microsoft considered it a “bad consumer experience.”