Just in time for Prime Day, Amazon has begun selling a very curious Xbox bundle. The bundle comes with Amazon’s popular Fire TV Stick, an Xbox controller, and a month of Xbox Game Pass, and no actual Xbox for the affordable price of $78.
Xbox has been pushing towards the day it can sell as many digital subscriptions as it does hardware. When Game Pass came to Samsung televisions, Xbox discussed these plans and openly voiced a desire to see the service on other consoles. But even as a frequent user of the streaming option, I don’t think the service is anywhere near where it needs to be for this all-streaming option to be viable.
Since 2020, Xbox Cloud Streaming has been a great bonus for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers. The service’s streaming option allows you to play any game that’s part of the service within seconds pretty seamlessly with a controller or touch screen. In the last year, Xbox expanded its functionality, allowing players to use mouse and keyboard options.
It’s a great addition to an already great subscription service, with plenty of practical uses. In the day of gargantuan download sizes, the ability to try a new game quickly before deciding to make room for it on my hard drive is a godsend. It’s a feature Microsoft’s competition should implement right away.
The choice to play on a smaller screen is also nice for those sharing TVs with a partner or family. My preferred method has been streaming Xbox games through my Steam Deck. While I set up cloud streaming using the handheld’s desktop mode, these days the process has been made pretty simple thanks to the XBPlay app available on the Steam Store, so long as you’re willing to pay $7 for the convenience (as a nice bonus, you’ll also be able to Remote Play from your household Xbox or PC).
While I don’t have raw numbers to back me up, it’s safe to say I use cloud streaming more than the average Game Pass subscriber. I’m about 30 hours into my very first Fallout: New Vegas playthrough, which I play almost exclusively in bed via Cloud Streaming. I replayed 2023’s Venba on Steam Deck, the entirety of Batman: Arkham Knight via an iPad and controller back in 2021, and occasionally clear more zones on my seven-year-old save of Assassin’s Creed: Origins.
But even as a frequent user, I have a hard time recommending Xbox Cloud streaming as anything but a supplement for the real deal. The obvious disadvantage is internet bandwidth. From the early days of streaming services like OnLive through to Google Stadia, the lack of reliable internet infrastructure in the U.S. has been a persistent hurdle for the technology.
And while it's improved over the last 15 years, issues like input lag mean it still doesn’t hold a candle to playing on hardware. While streaming works well enough for exploration-focused games and slower-paced RPGs like the ones I mentioned above. But playing competitive twitch-based games like Fortnite, the upcoming Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6, or Doom: The Dark Ages will always feel a little off.
The unreliability of internet is also to blame for other shortcomings. Sudden service and resolution drops are common, particularly around the launch of big games or busy holiday weekends. It’s never fun when Xbox Cloud Streaming gives notice that there’s a 5 to 10-minute wait to start up a game. In some cases, the service won’t let you play at all. And when you do get going, no one wants to put up with the occasion dip into sub-optimal picture quality or stutters, particularly when playing something cinematic future releases like Indiana Jones And The Great Circle.
Streaming also means accepting even murkier circumstances regarding digital ownership as you’re entirely at the mercy of what’s available on Xbox Game Pass. The is still as strong as ever. But the service still can’t stream games after they leave the service, even if you pony up the cash to add it to your digital library permanently. It’s an oversight that Microsoft should rectify soon if it’s going to encourage more people into the ecosystem via streaming.
I’m not opposed to people buying into game streaming in 2024. Play games however you can, on whatever device you prefer. But as someone who used Xbox Cloud streaming quite a lot both for convenience and to free up screens in the household, I don’t know if it’ll ever overtake playing games on traditional hardware.
With the Series S still being as cheap as it is, I recommend the Xbox’s diminutive console over Amazon’s Game Pass bundle any day of the week. It provides all the same advantages of Amazon’s offering, including streaming and a compact physical footprint, without tying you exclusively to the very present downsides of the all-streaming alternative.
