Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members now have a fantastic new perk at their fingertips: the ability to stream a selection of games directly to their consoles without the need for downloads. This exciting development was revealed in a recent Xbox Wire news post, where Xbox announced that Ultimate members can now stream games from the Game Pass catalog, as well as "select games they own," on their Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and Xbox One consoles via cloud streaming.
Previously, this streaming feature was available on smart TVs, PCs, smartphones, and Meta Quest headsets, but this marks the first time it's been extended to consoles. This advancement not only saves users time that would otherwise be spent downloading games but also helps conserve valuable hard drive space.
To take advantage of this feature, Xbox provides the following instructions:
- To start streaming from an Xbox console, go to My games & apps > Full library > Owned Games.
- Cloud playable games will display a cloud badge on the game page. Use filters to find games more quickly by selecting Filter > Ready to play > Cloud gaming. To start playing, select the game and then choose Play with Cloud Gaming. You can also start streaming directly from the Store app after buying select cloud playable games.
On the flip side, users can play any game installed on their Xbox consoles via streaming on devices with supported web browsers through this link. According to Xbox's post, this feature is no longer supported on the Xbox mobile app but remains available on phones via the browser link. Xbox is also working to extend this feature to Samsung and Amazon Fire smart TVs, as well as Meta Quest headsets.
In another exciting update, Xbox announced that starting this month, Xbox and Xbox 360 backward compatible games will also support remote play.
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Xbox emphasizes that these updates are part of a broader effort to free up storage space on Xbox consoles. A new feature in the console's settings, accessible through My Games & Apps > Manage, offers recommendations for cleaning up hard drive space.
This move comes as Xbox continues to tackle the challenge of expanding storage capacity, especially in light of the ever-increasing install sizes of modern games like Call of Duty and Baldur's Gate 3. For those needing even more storage, we've highlighted some of the best storage options for the Xbox Series X and S, particularly if you're not ready to invest in one of the newer Xbox models that come with increased built-in storage.
