Starfield
Last month, Microsoft announced an interesting release “Broadcast Your Own Game” initiative, an update to Cloud Gaming that allowed users to play digitally owned Xbox games over the Internet on supported TVs and smart devices such as phones, tablets, and computers. No download required.
Previously, you could only stream service-specific Game Pass Ultimate titles, but this new feature added select was purchased games that could not be accessed through the paid subscription, necessarily. The list started with 50 solid titles and included AAA stuff like Baldur’s Gate 3, Hogwarts Legacy, Mortal Kombat 1 and Outlaws of Star Warsas well as a number of indie offerings such as Animal well, The Plucky Squireand the praisers Balatro.
Starting today, Xbox Insiders in the Alpha Skip-Ahead and Alpha rings (secret Microsoft clubs you can only join via a glowing green blood pact, I guess) can now try out the “Stream Your Own Game” feature on The right Xbox consolesand with more games added to the previously available 50, such as Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake.
So basically, if you’re in the special preview, you can now stream the (listed) games that belong to Xbox Series X|S or Xbox One. Although, if you’re still playing on an old Xbox One, what in God’s name are you doing, man. Not that it matters in this particular case, as the beauty of streaming transcends the mortal hardware. That’s the whole point.
But why should I care, you ask? Well, Xbox apparently aims to open up streaming beyond select games exclusive to its Game Pass Ultimate subscription and lead to a convenient future in which every game we buy it will be possible to spawn through the ominous cloud.
I’d argue that this is ultimately where we’re headed as an industry anyway – if not the next generation of gaming, then the next, possibly. All streaming, all the time, baby. Microsoft is ahead of the curve in this regard, I’d say, despite the recent misrepresentation of material and apparent lack of clear direction. “This is an Xbox” people were agitated, but perhaps this it is the clear direction after all. The direction is: You can access your game library from any device, anywhere. Consoles as we know them will soon be obsolete.
I actually reposted something former PlayStation developer David Jaffe said on X earlier today in which he was responding to someone bemoaning Sony’s impending acquisition of FromSoftware:
Jaffe has long been a proponent of game streaming technology, and if you watch any of his live streamsyou’ll see that much of its gameplay comes directly from NVIDIA’s GeForce Now service. I tend to agree with his futuristic view, as getting rid of traditional hardware seems like a promising path to not only more games but better games and with access for many more people in various situations.
With any luck, we can finally put all the console war nonsense to rest, because in the end, what you play your games on doesn’t really matter all that much. It’s like arguing about what kind of paper we should print books on. Words are what count. Flow makes hardware as we know it irrelevant. That’s good, I think.
Of course, there are internet speeds to contend with, but that’s about it covering every day. And realistically, you don’t need the fastest internet to enjoy game streaming. 10 Mbps download is the minimum for Cloud Gaming on Xbox, with 5Ghz Wi-Fi recommended for wireless connectivity. Wired ethernet and higher download speed is always better, but in the grand scheme of things, 10 Mbps is nothing.
So if you’re an Xbox Insider and have participated in the green blood pact (unfortunately I haven’t and haven’t), please give this new feature a shot and let me know how it works. It will be nice when “Stream Your Own Game” is released to the masses at some point, because it’s a harbinger of things to come. better stuff, I’d bet. I recently bought a PS5 Pro, and man, what an unnecessary piece of hardware. Abolish it all, I say.
Let’s learn our games online. Real magic.
