Over the past few years, Microsoft has been working to make the Xbox a state of mind. Due to a plethora of streaming and cloud-based apps, you don’t technically need an Xbox to play their games. You can boot a much Xbox games with your phone or tablet, including many first-party titles from Xbox Game Studios.
The trick is that it’s not free. Xbox cloud gaming is a general perk of subscribing to the Ultimate tier of Xbox Game Pass as of this writing.
Also, not everything on Game Pass is compatible with the cloud on mobile. While most releases seem to be on Game Pass at the time of writing, don’t be surprised if you just can’t run a particular game through Xbox Cloud Gaming.
Playing Xbox games on your phone explained
These are the general steps to play Xbox games on your phone. We’ll go into more detail on them below.
- Get a controller that supports Bluetooth.
- Pair it with your phone.
- Download the Game Pass app.
- Go to Cloud Gaming in the app.
- Choose the game you want to play.
To start you need a controller with Bluetooth compatibility. Pair it with your phone or tablet. While several games like Vampire Survivor And Between us can be played with the Game Pass’s built-in touch controls, others may like loop hero require a controller to be connected to your device before they even start.
Next, Download the Game Pass app to your device (above) and sign in with your Microsoft account. Go through this app to subscribe to Game Pass Ultimate if you haven’t already.
Next, Tap the Cloud tab in the Game Pass main menu. It will show you a list of games that you can play on your device via the cloud.
From there only Run the game of your choiceand after a short startup sequence, you will be connected to the Xbox cloud server.
Photo by GameSkinny
Of course, cloud gaming is always a bandwidth hog. While you may If you’re running Xbox games off your mobile data, you’re likely to hit any ceiling very quickly, especially if you’re playing high-end games that can stream in 4K.
Even in wireless mode, lag spikes and other issues can affect your gaming experience. Xbox cloud gaming is surprisingly smooth most of the time, but when it’s not, so be it Really it isn’t, especially in multiplayer releases.
The real benefit, however, is that you can now play a range of high-end Xbox games from a phone or tablet for the cost of a Game Pass subscription. Enjoy.
