Let’s Look At: Project xCloud

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Project xCloud is a cloud gaming service created by Microsoft to bring you the Xbox experience without the need to buy a console. It is currently in closed beta and requires three things from a potential user. Those are a smartphone, an Xbox One Bluetooth controller, and an internet signal of at least 10mbps download speed. As it is regulated to smartphones at the moment, that internet connection will have to be wireless and ideally using a 5GHZ Wifi signal, instead of using your cell data as to reduce latency while increasing reliability.

Another thing that is suggested is a phone grip for your Xbox controller. They are cheap and definitely worth a purchase, though you can get by with leaning your phone on a book or something. With that all set up and out of the way, the only thing left to do is download the app and sign in. Once you boot up the Xbox Game Streaming app, you will be greeted with over fifty games to choose from. Going into the options, you can select whether to let it use your cell data or make your account appear offline if you don’t want friends messaging you. There are no streaming options or anything to further fine-tune the experience.

Glancing at the home page, you will see all of the games you’ve previously played, while further below are recommended titles and a list of all they have to offer. All of these titles are completely free and available to play as much as you want. In addition, you can play online matches without the need of buying into their Xbox Live subscription. Every game on xCloud is preloaded, meaning they launch immediately without having to download either them or their updates. Just click on a title and wait a few moments as your stream starts up.

At the moment, everything is streamed at a max of 720p resolution. It doesn’t look too bad on the small screen of a phone, but there is a noticeable downgrade of visual quality nonetheless. Running local hardware at the same resolution results in a noticeably better picture. Project xCloud seems to have the most problems handling fast-paced scenes in particular. You will notice quite a bit of artifacting occurring in the environments as they zoom by in a racing game, for instance. It handles a screen full of multiple relatively slow-moving things much better, such as the insanely large zombie hordes of World War Z.

What it lacks in visual quality, it makes up for in its responsiveness and stability. I was seriously impressed by how fluid the controls where and how it never seemed to stutter, which may result in you missing an input or simply ruining your flow. It handles weak wifi connections much better than the various other cloud gaming services I’ve tested. Walking off outside and straining my 5ghz connection as much as possible saw the graphical quality tank, but it still ran buttery smooth, and I was able to hold my own in Killer Instinct in those conditions.

For those achievement hunters out there, they are fully implemented here. You can pick off where you left off and try to collect them on your phone. Be it far from your actual console, or just chilling on your bed. Or at least try to, it can be all too tempting to start up another game from xCloud. They have an excellent selection of games of all genres from both Indies and AAA studios. They are all capped at 720p, so it isn’t precisely current-gen console quality, yet with the low latency and stability of xCloud, it is all too easy to forget.

Speaking of the hardware, xCloud runs via a ton of overclocked Xbox One S consoles stripped down to the bare components and put into server blades. It isn’t an emulation of console games, they run exactly like they always would, with the addition of overclocking to be able to handle the streaming as well. That leads to some interesting questions. Will Microsoft implement original Xbox and Xbox 360 titles considering the work they already put into making them compatible with this gen’s hardware? Will they include Xbox One X hardware to offer the enhanced versions of some titles? Only time will tell.

As of this point, we do not know much about the direction Microsoft is going with xCloud. Whether it be its price, if the games will remain free despite not owning them, or will it be implemented into Game Pass, etc. With how well it works already and what it offers, one can’t help but be excited at its future prospects. It is currently available for testing if you are in the United States, United Kingdom, South Korea, and Canada. If you are in one of those regions and meet the conditions to use the service, it is well worth trying to gain entry into the closed beta. Being able to turn your smartphone into an Xbox and syncing your game saves with your actual console to retain progress wherever you are or play is something well worth experiencing.

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