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With over a decade of writing experience in the field of technology, Chris has written for a variety of publications including The New York Times, Reader's Digest, IDG's PCWorld, Digital Trends, and MakeUseOf. Chris has personally written over 2,000 articles that have been read more than one billion times-and that's just here at How-To Geek. You can use web apps like Gamepad Tester to see if the web version of Cloud Gaming will work with your setup.Ĭhris Hoffman is the former Editor-in-Chief of How-To Geek. Even though some Xbox games support keyboard and mouse input, Cloud Gaming does not. The feature allows you to stream the Xbox versions of games to a phone, tablet, or PC, as long as you have a decent internet connection and a compatible controller. Game Pass Ultimate also includes Cloud Gaming, previously known as xCloud.
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Game Pass Ultimate also includes Xbox Live Gold, which is required for online multiplayer in many games, and EA Play. It's the most expensive option, but it allows you to download and play games on both Xbox and PC. Those tiers are aimed at people who mostly only use one platform or the other.įor anyone who plays on both Xbox and PC, or wants more features, there's Game Pass Ultimate. There's also PC Game Pass, which works the same, except for Windows 10 and Windows 11 PCs instead of Xbox and includes access to EA Play. The first is the simple console version, usually called Xbox Game Pass, which allows you to play anything from the collection on your Xbox consoles. There are three different tiers of Game Pass. No matter which platform you're on, you can download as many games from Game Pass as you want and play them whenever you want - as long as they remain on the Game Pass service. On PC, the games are listed in the Microsoft Store on Windows 10 and Windows 11, and you can browse through them with the Xbox app. The service works on the Xbox Series X and Series S, Xbox One X, Xbox One S, and Xbox One. On Xbox, the games included in Game Pass can be downloaded to your console just like any regular digital game purchase.
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The exact pricing varies by region and which tier you select, but it generally works out to be cheaper than buying 2-3 new major games at launch each year. It's intended as an alternative to buying every single game you want individually - an expensive proposition when many new major titles start at $70.
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Xbox Game Pass gives you unlimited access to a collection of games for one monthly cost. The service has grown substantially since then, with more games, a partnership with publisher EA, a PC option, and experimental cloud gaming support. At the start, it had around 100 games that you could download and install on your Xbox console - there was no PC or cloud support at the time. Microsoft introduced Game Pass back in 2017 as a simple $9.99 per month subscription service.
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