Microsoft is testing xCloud 1080p streams for Xbox Game Pass cloud games

Project xCloud is the code name for Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Cloud Gaming Streaming Service ™, which brings together Xbox Live Gold, Xbox Game Pass for console and Xbox Game Pass for PC services in a single, much cheaper subscription model. In addition, you also get access to cloud games, which allow you to stream a variety of Xbox console games to an Android device.

Soon, Microsoft is ready to expand Xbox Game Pass cloud streaming to the web, bypassing the stupid rules of Apple’s iOS store and bringing xCloud to PCs for the first time. However, what about some of the current limitations of xCloud?

Reports suggest that Microsoft is planning to upgrade Xbox cloud streaming servers from the Xbox One architecture to the Xbox Series X architecture over the course of this year, and we may have begun to see some of the fruits of that work. Trusted sources recently sent us this screencap of the Xbox streaming testing tools for developers, which comes with a dev overlay for comparing network connectivity as well as resolution.

Until now, Hellblade and other Xbox cloud games were restricted to a maximum of 720p video streams. While this helps with bandwidth and responsiveness, 720p looks a little blurry. If you live near a Microsoft data center and have a screen resolution that exceeds QHD or higher (usually the case with high-end mobile devices), you are not really experiencing the games as they should.

It appears that Microsoft is already testing 1080p streams for xCloud, which would put it in line with the basic “free” level of Google Stadia and other similar streaming services. The latest update to the trial streaming app also supports direct console streaming, which also streams well at 1080p.

Above, you can see the comparison in resolution quality compared to the 1080p photo sent to us from a reliable source. Our xCloud test app is smashing resolution because I’m a far cry from a Microsoft data center that presumably supports this 1080p test.

In any case, upgrading the streaming capability of xCloud, along with Xbox Series X hardware SSDs, should make Xbox Game Pass cloud streaming a quality leap across the board. It won’t take even a minute to activate a server for you, as is the case today, nor will it take minutes to actually load the game.

Google Stadia recently announced that it was slowing down its domestic content efforts and seeking to reduce its Stadia efforts. Reports claimed that Google was paying tens of millions of publishers just to support the platform, which, of course, doesn’t look very sustainable. The great advantage of Microsoft with xCloud is that they already to have all content from the Xbox Game Pass cloud streaming is literally built on the Xbox console platform. As the Xbox Game Pass improves hardware upgrades throughout 2021 and beyond, the gap between Microsoft and its competitors will widen further.

You can get streaming from the Xbox Game Pass using the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and a device as one of the devices on our best set of xCloud tablets, or using one of the phone accessories from our best set of xCloud mobile clips.

Be sure to check out our previous xCloud PC hands-on also in the video below.