Microsoft Hacks Hardware Upgrade for Xbox Cloud Gaming

While gaming streaming services are still not widely accepted among consumers, there really is no shortage of them. For example, search engine giant Google launched Stadia in 2019 and it was also joined by Amazon Luna and graphics card maker Nvidia’s Geforce Now service. Another company investing heavily in game streaming is Microsoft, whose Project Xcloud has now led to Xbox Cloud Gaming as an integral part of the company’s Xbox Game Pass subscription service.

Until now, Xbox Cloud Gaming was running on fairly old hardware in the form of blade servers based on the previous generation Microsoft Xbox One gaming console. However, the company previously reported that a move to more high-performance servers is on the agenda, with the latest generation Xbox Series X gaming consoles going to be the basis for the service. This upgrade has now been leaked, as reported before Ars Technica.

When editors start the service via a web browser on a Windows PC, the upgraded hardware is immediately noticed in the games. On the other hand, there are now graphical setup options that were previously exclusive to Xbox Series consoles in enhanced game titles, while charging times have been significantly reduced. However, not all games currently appear to be running in an optimized version for Xbox Series consoles, so that could be a step-by-step.

However, resolution and video streaming bandwidth are still too low for Xbox Cloud Gaming, which means that the graphical improvements the Xbox Series X is making are largely lost. Previous data suggests that these parameters will be improved in the future, something we hope to launch in an upgrade later in the year.

Xbox Cloud Gaming is currently available to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers via the Android 6.0 app, as well as specially invited beta users via browser on PC via This gate.

Are you currently using Xbox Cloud games? Share your experiences in the comment thread!