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Xbox Cloud Gaming is finally coming out of its preview state, more than five years after the streaming service first launched in 2020. “We’re officially removing the beta tag from Xbox Cloud Gaming,” says Dustin Blackwell, director of gaming and platform communications at Microsoft, in a briefing with The Verge.
The beta tag removal coincides with some key changes to Xbox Cloud Gaming today, and a big price increase to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Microsoft is also expanding Xbox Cloud Gaming to more Game Pass tiers, and it’s improving the streaming quality and resolution exclusively for Game Pass Ultimate subscribers.
“We’ll have our highest streaming quality yet for Ultimate subscribers,” Blackwell says. “It’ll go up to 1440p for select games and select devices, and still deliver the shortest wait times for players.”
Some Xbox Cloud Gaming users already spotted the 1440p support in games like Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora last month, with bitrates that can peak at 27Mbps. Most Xbox Cloud Gaming streams average at around 10Mbps right now, with some devices able to access a better 17Mbps stream. An upgrade to 27Mbps should greatly reduce artifacts and improve the visual quality of game streams.
It’s the first major visual quality improvement to Xbox Cloud Gaming since Microsoft upgraded the hardware in the service to Xbox Series X-like blades. The previous Xbox Cloud Gaming upgrade in 2021 allowed games to load faster and have improved frame rates, all because the hardware enabled support for Xbox Series S / X-optimized titles.
It’s not immediately clear whether Microsoft is doing any hardware upgrades to enable 1440p support and higher bitrates this time around. I asked the company to comment on whether PC-like hardware is being used in its Xbox Cloud Gaming configurations to enable these upgrades, but the company didn’t respond in time for publication.
The expansion of Xbox Cloud Gaming to Microsoft’s new Xbox Game Pass Essential and Premium tiers will allow many more Xbox fans to access cloud games they own or titles from the Game Pass library. It’s the first time, beyond the free-to-play Fortnite streaming, that Microsoft has enabled cloud access beyond its top Ultimate plan.
The 1440p upgrade is still limited to select games and select devices, and Microsoft needs to go further to match the impressive quality from Nvidia’s GeForce Now service. I suspect we’ll have to wait until Microsoft is ready with its next-gen console launch to see a bigger upgrade to 4K resolution, higher frame rates, and even better bitrates.