According to some reports, Microsoft appears to be testing 1080p streaming for Xbox Game Pass, which would be a major update. The news originally came from Windows Central, which have received test reports that take place behind the scenes, as the company appears to be taking the next steps to improve the image and streaming quality of games in its library. Here are some excerpts from the article.
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. […] 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.
It would be a great relief to see the Xbox Game Pass being updated in this way, as we can currently only broadcast in 720p, and the difference is quite noticeable. Especially when you’re playing new titles that you know were tailored to be accessible in HDR and should shine in 4K, but it looks like they’re playing on a TV with some kind of oily film. We hope to get an official announcement about this soon.