Microsoft Adds Over 50 Games To xCloud Preview, Plans Launch For 2020

Microsoft has added more than 50 new games to the preview of its Project xCloud game streaming service, including Devil May Cry 5, Tekken 7 and Madden 2020. Engadget reports: In a blog post today, Microsoft said it'll send out a new wave of xCloud preview invites to gamers in the US, UK and South Korea. Starting next year, it also plans to expand the preview to Canada, India, Japan and Western Europe. If you live in one of those countries, you can sign up for the preview here and hope you get selected.

For now, the xCloud preview is only available for Android phones and tablets, but Microsoft says next year it'll also be headed to Windows PCs and other devices. I'm sure Roku owners would be pleased, but it'd be even more intriguing if Microsoft could eventually bring the xCloud preview to smart TVs and Apple devices. While testers need to use Xbox controllers with the service now, Microsoft also says it'll work with other bluetooth controllers next year, including Sony's Dual Shock 4 and Razer's entries. Yes, you'll soon live in a world where you can play Halo with a PlayStation branded gamepad. Among other tidbits, the xCloud preview will also let gamers stream titles they already own next year, as well those made available through Xbox GamePass for subscribers.

Is there a content Mafia equivalent?

[BAReFO0t]

Can I request "50 EAstikas" spam for future troll art performances?

MAGA (Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Apple) *stikas are OK too.

Oh boy do I look forward ...

[BAReFO0t]

... to a world, where I never even get a copy of a game anymore, and all I can do, is stream it from some organized crime crook holding his monopoly in his artificial scarcity prison to steal money from us loong after the develpment costs (loke developers that actually did the work) are paid off, for ALL eternity.

And historians will find nothing but old server drives with encrypted data, and every trace of what games people played in the past forever eradicated. (Aka the digital dark ages that we are in.)

I

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[WolfgangVL]

Or there's the 30 years of gaming history you can lean on. Great games, some modern, some not so much, all locally installed. Seriously, every new game is competing with decades of actual original content.

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[blahplusplus]

Or there's the 30 years of gaming history you can lean on. Great games, some modern, some not so much, all locally installed. Seriously, every new game is competing with decades of actual original content.

That's why they are pushing "services", they want a "captive" market, where you never see the game files. Where irdeto (home of denuvo drm) is movign us to encrypted file and exe future.

https://irdeto.com/ [irdeto.com]

To watch as dev's and pubs stole the world out from under us 90's nerds because the public is too gullible and tech illiterate to realize they are being robbed.

Well, it literally is a crime!

[BAReFO0t]

Both artificial scarcity and monopolies are major crimes. And for good reasons.

Somehow the organized crime got people to believe, that "intellectual property" is not.

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[tlhIngan]

... to a world, where I never even get a copy of a game anymore, and all I can do, is stream it from some organized crime crook holding his monopoly in his artificial scarcity prison to steal money from us loong after the develpment costs (loke developers that actually did the work) are paid off, for ALL eternity.

The simple solution is to not participate. Video games are not an essential good, they're a luxury item so vote with your dollars.

If a game is only available streaming, the simple solution is to no

Awesome!

[Gravis Zero]

I can't wait to read about the release and subsequent shuttering of Microsoft's new game platform!

MS goes Android first

[sad_]

it's interesting that MS is targetting Android before their own Windows OS.

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[tlhIngan]

it's interesting that MS is targetting Android before their own Windows OS.

Well, the games are available on Windows or Xbox, so why offer them to people who can get it through better methods?

If you don't have Windows or an Xbox, this is an alternative way to play those games, without needing to buy a decent Windows PC or Xbox.

And maybe that's the niche that they want to sell to developers - the hard core gamers will play it on Windows or Xbox. But if you don't want to invest in those platforms, why should y

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[Ranbot]

Agreed.
I also wonder if this and other game streaming services will spur new tablet sales. It's very well-documented that people don't buy new tablets often (and why would they?) But people might feel like upgrading their 5+ year old tablet if it gets them access to platform-exclusive AAA games without investing in the platform's typical hardware (e.g. xBox and Playstation consoles, PC).

Just like music

[AxisOfPleasure]

Having played games since around 1981 I've seen my fair share. Each year I choose and play fewer, not because of time constraints indeed I have more time now than ever before with my kids grown up, it's that very few games these days have gameplay that genuinely excites me, gets me to consider the story, allows full character growth and allows me to use my life experience to fathom out a game's storyline twists and turns. Sadly I'm not 14 with a mental age of 6, so you won't find me playing COD online, list

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[Ranbot]

Having played games since around 1981 I've seen my fair share. Each year I choose and play fewer... it's that very few games these days have gameplay that genuinely excites me, gets me to consider the story, allows full character growth and allows me to use my life experience to fathom out a game's storyline twists and turns...

Hate to break your rose-colored glasses, but very few games in the 80's and 90's had any of those features either (I played them when I was younger too). There were rare exceptions like System Shock, Fallout, Earthbound, Chronotrigger, Elder Scrolls, etc., but vast majority of classic games considered "great" had little to no story or character development (e.g. Mario, Sonic, Mega Man, Contra, Doom/Quake, Street Fighter II, Pac-Man, and on and on...). Your example of COD is just the modern evolution of Con

What a circlejerk

[sirpwn4g3]

Came here looking for intelligent discussion, instead I see some alarmist bullshit. If this is news for nerds, where are the nerds?