After years of waiting, Xbox Cloud Gaming’s “Stream Your Own Game” feature is going live today. Here’s the list of 50 games available to buy and stream in the initial first wave.

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After years of waiting, Xbox Cloud Gaming's "Stream Your Own Game" feature is going live today. Here's the list of 50 games available to buy and stream in the initial first wave.

What you need to know

  • Xbox Cloud Gaming finally gets buy-to-own games.
  • A few years ago, Microsoft announced its intent to add games to Xbox Cloud Gaming that you would be able to purchase and play at any time.
  • The feature took a long, long time to materialize, but we’re finally here.
  • Xbox Cloud Gaming “Bring Your Own Game” feature goes live today on Xbox.com/play and the TV web app, with Xbox app for PC and Xbox consoles coming early next year.
  • The initial selection adds 50 games to purchase for cloud, including titles like Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters, Balatro, Space Marine 2, Baldur’s Gate 3, and Cyberpunk 2077.

As a long-time gaming enthusiast with a penchant for exploring new horizons in the world of digital entertainment, I must say that this latest development in Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming is nothing short of exhilarating! Growing up, I remember the days when owning an expensive gaming console was the only way to enjoy high-quality games. But times have changed, and now we can play top-tier titles on a variety of devices with just an internet connection.

Xbox Cloud Gaming finally gets its most highly anticipated feature.

They say late is better than never, and nothing exemplifies that in the Xbox universe than Microsoft’s long-promised “bring your own games” feature for Xbox Cloud Gaming. All the way back in 2012, we reported that Microsoft had shown off an internal demo showcasing the future of Xbox gaming, which was Halo 5 running on a Windows Phone. Sadly, Windows Phone is no longer with us (RIP), but Xbox Cloud Gaming sure is.

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Microsoft’s response to NVIDIA GeForce Now, Xbox Cloud Gaming, provides users access to hundreds of games through their Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription on Xbox.com/play. Many games from the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate library are accessible via Xbox Cloud Gaming, allowing you to play numerous titles on various devices equipped with a web browser such as Apple’s iPad, smartphones, Amazon Fire Stick, and certain Samsung TVs. Moreover, some games offer touch controls, enabling gameplay without the need for an Xbox controller or any of the available Xbox Cloud Gaming mobile controllers.

Earlier, you could only play Xbox Cloud Gaming games that were part of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. However, starting today, Microsoft has expanded the options! In a recent post on Xbox Wire, they announced that over 50 games from their own back catalog will now be available for play through cloud gaming.

The full list of buy-to-own Xbox Cloud Games (so far) is as follows:

  1. Animal Well
  2. Assassin’s Creed Mirage
  3. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
  4. Balatro
  5. Baldur’s Gate 3
  6. Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden
  7. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
  8. The Casting of Frank Stone
  9. Cyberpunk 2077
  10. Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake
  11. DREDGE
  12. Dying Light 2 Stay Human
  13. Farming Simulator 25
  14. Fear the Spotlight
  15. FINAL FANTASY XIV Online
  16. FINAL FANTASY
  17. FINAL FANTASY II
  18. FINAL FANTASY III
  19. FINAL FANTASY IV
  20. FINAL FANTASY V
  21. FINAL FANTASY VI
  22. Hades
  23. Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions
  24. High On Life
  25. HITMAN World of Assassination
  26. Hogwarts Legacy
  27. House Flipper 2
  28. Kena: Bridge of Spirits
  29. Lego(R) Harry Potter (TM) Collection
  30. Life is Strange: Double Exposure
  31. Metro Exodus
  32. Mortal Kombat 1
  33. NBA 2K25
  34. PGA TOUR 2K23
  35. Phasmaphobia
  36. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
  37. Rust Console Edition
  38. 7 Days to Die
  39. Star Wars Outlaws ™
  40. Stray
  41. The Crew ™ Motorfest
  42. The Outlast Trials
  43. The Plucky Squire
  44. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
  45. Tom Clancy’s The Division 2
  46. TopSpin 2K25
  47. UNDERTALE
  48. Visions of Mana
  49. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2
  50. WWE 2K24

Starting out, games can be played on Xbox.com/play and web-based apps on Meta Quest VR headsets, Amazon Fire Sticks, and Samsung smart TVs at first. Later on, around early 2025, the option to own cloud gaming for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and the PC version of the Xbox app will be introduced.

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As a tech enthusiast, I’ve found myself in a bit of a pickle with the Xbox Cloud Gaming situation on Android. Microsoft announced that they won’t be updating the apps due to a clash with Google’s store rules regarding users buying their own content. This is because Google’s current store model is under anti-trust investigation in the U.S., and potentially, it could lead to opening up its Android platform for third-party stores. However, until then, Microsoft can only provide the app through the web at Xbox.com/play, which you can pin as a web app on various browsers.

The “buy-to-own” games offered with Xbox Cloud Gaming will be accessible in all regions where the service is currently operational. This includes countries such as Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and United States.

More Xbox “buy to own” cloud games will come later

After years of waiting, Xbox Cloud Gaming's "Stream Your Own Game" feature is going live today. Here's the list of 50 games available to buy and stream in the initial first wave.

The initial rollout boasts some fantastic games, both old and new. It’s astonishing to find iconic Xbox titles such as The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 on this list, alongside newer ones like Space Marine 2 and Visions of Mana. Additionally, strategic games like the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters will be perfect for cloud gaming when top speeds aren’t accessible.

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The elephant in the room with all this is that Xbox Cloud Gaming is still not quite on par with NVIDIA GeForce Now, at least when it comes to bitrate. That crown firmly goes to NVIDIA, owing to their purpose-built servers designed specifically for video encoding. Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming delivery is based on AMD chips designed for Xbox Series X|S consoles, which was never built with video encoding in mind. Given that fact, it’s incredibly impressive that they’ve been able to pull off what they have, and Xbox, of course, has the home-field advantage of thousands of games potentially ready-baked for the service. NVIDIA relies on connecting to other services like Steam and PC Game Pass for its library, which can feel a bit clunky in some situations.

In summary, as Microsoft expands its cloud game service, we can expect frequent releases of new buy-to-own games coming out nearly every month. This could lead to a surge of new users, possibly causing wait times or queues. For instance, NVIDIA has set a 100-hour monthly limit on its GeForce Now service due to scalability concerns. With giants like Apple and Google controlling visibility, it may take some time for cloud gaming to become financially successful at scale. However, much like Netflix, they won’t be able to halt the growth indefinitely, given that Google itself abandoned the market with its shuttered Stadia service.

Regardless of the specifics, this thrilling advancement represents a significant leap forward for Microsoft’s vision that “Everything becomes Xbox.” Watching its progress unfold promises to be intriguing.

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2024-11-20 20:09