Hands-On With Microsoft's Browser-Based Xbox Cloud Gaming Service on an iPhone

[MacRumors]

Microsoft earlier this week made its Xbox Cloud Gaming service available on iOS devices, which means iPhone and iPad users can play Xbox games using the Safari browser.

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We decided to test out Xbox Cloud Gaming to see how it works at launch, and whether it's worth the $14.99 subscription price for the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription, which is how you can get access to Xbox Cloud Gaming.

In a nutshell, whether it's worth trying out depends on what you want to play. In our experience, and based on other accounts from people who have tested the service, there's latency, sometimes bad and sometimes just sporadic. The lag doesn't make most games unplayable, but it does affect competitive online shooters.

Latency can depend on connection, so it's possible Xbox Cloud Gaming is fine if you have stellar internet speeds, but most reports so far suggest that it needs to be further refined for games where latency is a dealbreaker. We found we could adjust to the very slight delays for sports games and other titles, but with shooters, gameplay was hampered.

Given the latency issues, we wouldn't recommend the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription strictly for Xbox Cloud Gaming, but if it's something that you already have, it's a great bonus feature. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate provides access to more than 100 games on Xbox, PCs, and mobile devices, plus same day release access to Xbox Game Studios titles.

If you want to try out Xbox Cloud Gaming, you can pay $1 to get three months of access to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. After that three-month period, the subscription is priced at $14.99 per month.

Article Link: Hands-On With Microsoft's Browser-Based Xbox Cloud Gaming Service on an iPhone

 

[Think|Different]

It works impressively well on iOS and my iPad. I'm just salty there's NO way this solution works on Apple TV and I have a great use case for just that.

 

[Techwatcher]

Xbox Cloud Gaming is fantastic. Yes the sole issue is you need a real good connection, so if you have that then you're set. To take full advantage of Ultimate tho you should buy an Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S. S is suitable for most people and is taking off in Japan right now due to their love for minimalism.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

Apple desperately needs to release an Apple Gaming Controller.

Impressive! Makes me want to return my XBOX series X

 

[Realityck]

Cool to see a Youtube of this bowser based xbox cloud gaming service.

 

[rjp1]

It would probably be better to review this outside of the week it launches. Servers get overloaded by all the new people. Things will be back to normal soon.

 

[willyx]

It works impressively well on iOS and my iPad. I'm just salty there's NO way this solution works on Apple TV and I have a great use case for just that.

Apple has to "protect you" against this service as much as they can ;D

 

[jaymc]

How is this different than remote play?

 

[Zaft]

Tried it on the Mac, ridiculously laggy. Not sure how much this will improve. I have a 200+MB connection, that should be enough.

 

[fncd]

How is this different than remote play?

Remote play connects to your Xbox, whereas cloud gaming connects to the data centers.

 

[Pakaku]

Apple desperately needs to release an Apple Gaming Controller.

Impressive! Makes me want to return my XBOX series X

I'd like to see them partner with a company like Microsoft or Valve to make a controller, but I wouldn't trust Apple themselves to design good videogaming hardware...

 

[fncd]

Tried it on the Mac, ridiculously laggy. Not sure how much this will improve. I have a 200+MB connection, that should be enough.

You likely have a 200Mb connection, which is 20MB. That's also essentially a bare minimum depending on how far away you are from the data center.

 

[travis64]

Have 1gb wifi and still feels laggy

 

[Rychiar]

Have 1gb wifi and still feels laggy

gotta go hardwired with these things. I learned that with geforce now

 

[B4rbelith]

gotta go hardwired with these things. I learned that with geforce now

Stadia has no lag even over wifi.

 

[4jasontv]

Stadia has no lag even over wifi.

Googles data mining actually predicts what button you were going to press and serves it up to create the appearance of no lag. /s

 

[LeadingHeat]

Tried it on the Mac, ridiculously laggy. Not sure how much this will improve. I have a 200+MB connection, that should be enough.

It’s not only about speed, it’s about latency as well.

 

[LeadingHeat]

I’ve tested it out on a few games. Seems to be pretty good for me! Honestly no real complains. I’m definitely more of a casual gamer though, and don’t play those shooter games so I can see why the latency issue could be a dealbreaker for some! Hope they can optimize this before it gets out of beta. But for a beta program? It’s superb.

 

[Eminemme]

This site won’t miss the opportunity to underrate apple competitors. They’re like frontline warriors to defend apple. Sucks!

 

[Zaft]

You likely have a 200Mb connection, which is 20MB. That's also essentially a bare minimum depending on how far away you are from the data center.

200mbps is that I meant.

 

[BuffaloTF]

Stadia has no lag even over wifi.

Yes it does. It has the freeze-then-warp-speed lag, and the I-just-turned-on-a-strobe-light lag.

 

[ScottishDuck]

Just a reminder that it doesn’t matter how fast your internet is, if it’s not stable and/or low latency - Signed a comms engineer

 

[BuffaloTF]

You likely have a 200Mb connection, which is 20MB. That's also essentially a bare minimum depending on how far away you are from the data center.

10 Mbps is the minimum connection speed. 200 Mbps is well in excess. And internet speeds are never given as MB.

 

[BornAgainMac]

I find this appealing considering scalpers grab up all the physical units in stores.

 

[apparatchik]

If you have a 1000 Mbps or 60 Mbps internet connection is completely meaningless, what you want is sub 20ms latency measured to the service. For this you need fiber + ethernet. For game streaming services is all about latency MacRumors, WiFi can be a hit & miss experience depending on a myriad of factors. Please re-shoot this video while connecting the iPad via ethernet.

I currently game on GeForce Now from a city in central Mexico connected to Central US with great performance and minimum lag, but I have fiber and connect via gigabit ethernet to the modem. Im 1k+ miles away from the servers and still get sub 40ms latency because of cat 8 gigabit ethernet & fiber.

I wouldnt even dare to game on WiFi.