Microsoft Gaming lead Phil Spencer celebrates Xbox Cloud Gaming’s “dramatic growth,” with per-device usage charts. “It’s literally tens ofmillions of hours.”

by

How’s Xbox Cloud Gaming doing? Pretty well, it seems.

In the past few years, Microsoft unveiled Xbox Cloud Gaming following years of speculation and development, leveraging the growth and maturity of their Azure cloud platform. This evolution in technology opened up new opportunities for Microsoft regarding Xbox Cloud Gaming.

It appears that the service has grown significantly, enhanced its quality and speed substantially, added numerous Xbox Cloud Gaming accessories, and now allows streaming of an increasing selection of games from your personal collection. But the question arises: is it being utilized by users? The response appears to be a clear “yes.

In a latest chat with iJustine, the head honcho at Xbox, Phil Spencer, shared insights about the direction of the platform and the impressive progress made by Xbox Cloud Gaming lately.

People naturally gravitate towards activities they observe others participating in. It’s astounding to note the surge in individuals now using Xbox through cloud streaming. To put it into perspective, it’s approximately 40 million hours played each month, with this number continuously increasing rapidly.

Yesterday, Microsoft posted a recap (via @Welfare_JBP) of the latest GDC session about Xbox Cloud Gaming, detailing how users are interacting with this platform. Interestingly, it’s the Xbox One that dominates usage, as developers are increasingly opting for Xbox Series X|S and cloud streaming versions instead of native Xbox One games. Smart TVs come in a close second, especially modern Samsung models which incorporate Xbox Cloud Gaming, making it quite convenient.

It might come as a surprise that smartphone usage isn’t as high as one would expect. I believe the reason lies in the user experience, particularly due to screen size. Many games are optimized for larger screens like TVs, featuring zoomed-out cameras and smaller text, which can make them less enjoyable on phones.

During their GDC presentation, Microsoft detailed numerous innovative methods for Xbox developers to harness the power of cloud gaming. For instance, they discussed implementing cloud-sensitive user interfaces that adjust based on smaller screens, as well as liberating the 16:9 aspect ratio to accommodate a wider range of screen sizes, among many other advancements.

Essentially, the challenges associated with Xbox Cloud Gaming, Xbox Play Anywhere, and similar features primarily stem from time spent in development and refinement. Phil Spencer, in acknowledging some of the difficulties users are encountering when trying to navigate the Xbox environment on PC, emphasized that there’s a lot of work left to be done in this area.

Yesterday, I penned an article expressing my discontent with the way Xbox app on PC manages its library organization, strangely displaying Windows Phone games. A trustworthy source revealed to me that this was indeed a glitch – part of ongoing efforts to unify Xbox’s store offerings across console and PC.

It’s clear that with more people discovering Xbox on PC, we have a significant amount of work to do in that area. We’ve hinted at and discussed handheld devices, and I’m particularly enthusiastic because both of us often travel, and sometimes it’s not feasible to carry our console or entire gaming desktop with us.

However, what truly ignites my passion isn’t focusing on a specific device; instead, it’s about crafting an experience tailored to the individual. It’s not just one game that’s crucial, but ensuring the player has seamless access to all their games, saved progress, and entitlements, regardless of location.

Being an active user of Xbox Play Anywhere, I echo Spence’s enthusiasm about the platform’s future, yet it’s crucial that we focus on the execution to make it a reality.

Read More

2025-04-19 14:09