Microsoft is expanding Xbox Cloud Gaming with 50 games that you might already own—if you're an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscriber.
Starting this week (November 21) Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers can stream 50 games that may already be in your Xbox game library. These include major titles like Baldur's Gate 3, the indie hit Balatro, various Final Fantasy games, and the recent Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2. You can find the full list of titles that have been added to the service in Microsoft's announcement post.
This is just the beginning of an expansion of available games to stream on Xbox. “Our library of cloud-playable titles will continue to grow, as we work with our partners around the world to bring you a diverse and expansive selection of great games across devices,” says Ashley McKissick, corporate vice president of Xbox Experiences and platforms engineering.
All 50 games will be available to stream through any device that has access to the Xbox app with Game Pass, including TVs, smartphones, tablets and PCs (via web browser). Microsoft claims it will bring this feature to Xbox consoles and the Xbox Windows app in 2025.
The Verge reported in October, that the expansion of Game Pass to games you already own is part of an effort by Microsoft internally called Project Lapland. The goal is to enable streaming of thousands of games and cover entire libraries. Some of the delay is due to publishers and developers who aren't giving access to licenses and other restrictions. Part of it is the reality of balancing save files, updates and the games themselves on Xbox cloud servers.
As mentioned you will need to be a Game Pass Ultimate subscriber (which costs you $19.99 a month) to take advantage of this new feature. The added games are ready to stream now.
This month, Microsoft was supposed to start allowing purchases in the Xbox mobile app, due to a court ruling that would force Google to stop requiring Google Play for apps in the Play Store. However, Google won a temporary stay on the ruling late in October. For now, it's unclear when that option will be available on Xbox app on Android.
