Xbox Game Streaming: Microsoft is testing full HD game streaming

Since the middle of September last year, Microsoft has been offering Xbox Game Streaming subscribers of the Xbox Games Pass Ultimate the opportunity to stream games directly to their desired device with Xbox Game Streaming. So far, however, this has only worked with Android-operated tablets and smartphones. According to their own statement, the company also wants to enable the streaming of games on Windows computers by spring 2021. According to the Windowscentral website, the group is also currently testing streaming in full HD.

So far, the streaming service has played the games in a maximum of 720p with 60 FPS on the users' devices. For this, the hardware of the Xbox Series S was used. In the future, the same SoCs will be in the server racks as in the current Xbox Series X, which is known to be significantly more powerful than its sister model. This means that players should be able to stream with 1080p and 60 FPS in the future.

In addition to PC users, iOS users have also been left empty-handed. Microsoft is still working on a version of the game streaming service for the operating system, but the strict regulations in the app store make work more difficult and make a release soon unlikely. Apple requires that every game offered on the streaming service is individually certified and approved by the relevant department in the group. Therefore, Microsoft is working in parallel on a workaround that may allow games to be played via the browser in the future.

Streaming should also be possible on the PC via a browser. However, since the Chromium engine is required to function so far, only Google Chrome and the in-house Edge browser are initially supported. Microsoft has not yet decided whether support for alternative browsers such as Mozilla Firefox is planned.