Xbox Cloud Gaming Open Beta Now Available, Upgraded To Series X Hardware

Xbox Cloud Gaming's open beta is officially live now. To mark the occasion, Microsoft has given Xbox Cloud Gaming a big hardware boost: its cloud streaming service will run on Xbox Series X hardware, meaning that the games should be able to achieve higher graphical quality and performance.

The Cloud Gaming beta is now widely available for use across iOS devices, Windows 10 PCs, MacOS computers, and Android devices. It's available to anyone who subscribes to Game Pass Ultimate. On Windows PCs, you can boot up Cloud Gaming through the Edge or Google Chrome browsers (other Chromium-based browsers appear to work too; I ran it through Brave). Users on iOS devices will have to go through their Safari browser as a result of Apple policies. In addition, it works on MacOS through Safari, Edge, and Chromium browsers.

Microsoft has also fully upgraded its behind-the-scenes tech so that Cloud Gaming now runs on Xbox Series X hardware, custom-built for game streaming. The company states that this will allow for faster loads and better performance. However, it is still capping game streams at 1080p and 60fps for the moment "to ensure the lowest latency, highest quality experience across the broadest set of devices," according to its press release.

If you want to check out Xbox Cloud Gaming yourself, you can go to xbox.com/play. If you're not already a member of Game Pass, be sure to take advantage of a limited-time offer that gets you your first three months for $1 USD.

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