The Xbox Game Streaming app is now active on Windows – via a sneaky download

Surprise: Xbox Game Streaming, the service similar to Stadia that offers more than 200 games for a flat fee of $ 15 / month, now works on Windows 10 PCs. The problem, for now, is that it has not yet been officially launched.

An alternative solution that leaked quietly in late 2020 is finally circulating thanks to recent shares from Reddit and YouTube. In the meantime, Microsoft has not yet connected this method to obtain the game streaming service, currently an Android exclusive, installed and running on your PC. You need to access and download an application that is otherwise buried in an official Microsoft database and then use a unique unlock phrase to make it work.

But the steps are simple and safe enough, as I tested, to recommend it to anyone eager to test the Xbox streaming option on their favorite Win10 laptop or desktop – and finally see how the Xbox Game Streaming (formerly known as Project xCloud) works over wired Ethernet connections.

Xtreme Tactics

After seeing public testing at exhibitions in 2019, Xbox Game Streaming became a formal part of the $ 15 / month Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription service in September 2020. So far, it is arguably the streaming option content-richest games in the world – offering more at this price than the combination of subscription and a la carte options on Google Stadia – and currently offers 225 games in streaming as part of its fee. (At the end of 2020, this selection includes the substantial EA Play library.)

Unless you have a smart TV device with Android and experience with side loading, however, your options for larger screens and Ethernet connections have been limited, thanks to the initial launch of the app exclusively on Android smartphones and tablets. (Even the Xbox console’s biggest rival has an advantage here, thanks to PlayStation Now’s game streaming compatibility with Windows PCs.) According to internal Microsoft meetings, the Xbox division cemented its aspirations to land on more devices in 2021, using a web-based protocol system that would circumvent the current limitations of iOS in game streaming applications.

Today’s leaked option seems to depend on a custom executable backend, as opposed to a solution that runs on web browsers. The method, as originally shared by Reddit user pejamas1986 in November 2020, has been described as an application intended to be moved to Xbox Series X / S “developer mode”, but a more recent share from the YouTube Cloud Gaming channel Xtreme confirmed the application in question was also developed with Windows 10 compatibility in mind.

The application in question can be exposed by visiting RG-Adguard, a website that analyzes links from the Microsoft Store and finds its official downloads, whose URLs can be viewed before downloading. In the case of Xbox Game Streaming, a public URL for the Spanish version of the application can be analyzed to expose several files. Take the URL from the MS Store, place it in the RG-Adguard interface and you will get a series of links. What you want ends with the extension “.appxbundle.” Download and manually add this extension to the download when it’s done, and you’re done: you have a 220 MB file that will launch, check your current paid XGPU subscription and allow you to start streaming any of your more than 200 games – like this to enter an “offer ID” code, which in this case is just the phrase “XGPUBeta”, without quotes.

A matter of frames and mice

You have been warned: The app in question is clearly labeled “Trial app”, so your mileage will likely vary, as it is not a publicly supported app. Ars will not be held responsible for anything strange that happens if you use it. That said, I tested the app on several retail Win10 machines (that is, not in the beta pools of the operating system) and I can report that it seems to work well enough. Wired playback on a Win10 desktop machine resulted in a superior button touch latency response than on a laptop via 5 GHz WiFi; I could play fighting games like Killer Instinct through a wired cloud streaming configuration and tolerating the extra latency frames, but I didn’t feel so comfortable playing the same things on my wireless laptop.

Still, it’s nice to have a larger screen option for both use cases, if I want to tolerate a little delay when playing the new Square Enix shooter. Outriders or go completely wireless at a slower, more portable rate, like Kill the Pinnacle. And if you like to peek behind the Xbox development veil, this app lets you do just that with “developer” options built right into each menu. They expose interesting statistics from moment to moment, such as bandwidth and jitter measurements – and confirm a 1080p working resolution for many games, which is a boost compared to the Android app. (However, so far, these games are all rendered on a server farm tuned to Xbox One S specifications, not the next generation, so don’t expect the power and graphic flourish found in the console generation 2020.)

The biggest problem so far is that you’ll need a gamepad to play most of the games available, unless the game in question has formal keyboard and mouse support for Xbox versions – and yet, I haven’t conclusively tested the application to see if these controls can be exposed by this test application. However, you will need to simultaneously keep the mouse close at hand (or use the touch screen of a laptop) to access the top menu structure of the application to end and switch between games. This is the life of using unofficial test apps. And although this is a “test” application, it is still verifying the customer’s legitimate credentials, so your Windows 10 machine will have to include Xbox credentials with an ongoing Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription, otherwise it won’t work.

And it remains to be seen whether a fully developed version of Xbox Game Streaming for the browser will be better than this Win10 executable, although, obviously, that version will open up access to even more devices, including those that may be more convenient to connect to your television.

List image by Sam Machkovech