Microsoft tests 1080p xCloud streams for Xbox Game Pass cloud games

Project xCloud is the code name of Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Cloud Gaming Streaming Service ™, which combines Xbox Live Gold, the Xbox Game Pass for console and Xbox Game Pass for PC services into a single, cheaper subscriber model. In addition, you also get access to cloud games, which allow you to stream a series of Xbox console games to an Android device.

Soon, Microsoft will expand Xbox Game Pass cloud streaming to the Internet, bypass Apple’s dumb iOS store rules, and bring xCloud to PCs for the first time. What about some of xCloud’s current limitations?

Reports have suggested that Microsoft plans to upgrade the Xbox cloud streaming servers from Xbox One architecture to Xbox Series X architecture later this year, and we may have begun to see some of the fruits of that labor. Trusted sources recently sent us this screenshot of the Xbox streaming testing aids for developers, which comes with a dev coverage for network connections as well as resolution.

Until now, Hellblade and other Xbox cloud games were limited to a maximum of 720p video streams. Although it helps bandwidth and responsiveness, 720p seems rather vague. If you live near a Microsoft data center and have a display resolution that drives QHD or higher (often the case with mobile devices), you are not really experiencing games as intended.

It looks like Microsoft is already testing 1080p streams for xCloud, which would bring it in line with Google Stadium’s “free” level and other similar streaming services. The latest update of the test stream app also supports direct console streaming, which also streams nicely at 1080p.

Above you can see the comparison in resolution quality compared to the 1080p recording we sent from a reliable source. Our xCloud test program shatters the resolution because I’m probably too far from a Microsoft data center that supports this 1080p test.

Either way, upgrading the cloud power of xCloud, along with the SSDs of the Xbox Series X hardware, would make the Xbox Game Pass cloud stream jump across the board in quality. It takes up to a minute to pick up a server for you, as is currently the case, and it will also not take minutes to load the game.

Google Stadium recently announced that it intends to end its home content efforts and reduce its Stadia efforts. Reports say that Google is paying tens of millions to publishers just to support the platform, which is obviously not too sustainable. Microsoft’s big advantage with xCloud is that they have already done so has all the content since Xbox Game Pass cloud streaming has been literally built on top of the Xbox console platform. As Xbox Game Pass takes up hardware upgrades during 2021 and beyond, the gap between Microsoft and its competitors will widen further.

You can use Xbox Game Pass streaming with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and a device like one of the devices of our best xCloud tablets, or use one of the phone attachments of our best xCloud mobile clips.

Check out our previous hands-on with xCloud for PC in the video below as well.