Xbox planning new features for streaming and Game Pass

Ahead of Sunday’s game showcase, Xbox shows new features planned for Game Pass and game streaming

In an Xbox Wire post on June 9th, Xbox laid out some of their plans for some upcoming features. The title of the post suggests that the company is planning to build their platform for “the next 20 years”.

The post starts out with plans to bring Xbox to Samsung Smart TVs. Via streaming, people with Samsung 2022 Smart TVs can play games without a console. Aside from a compatible TV, you’ll also need a Game Pass Ultimate subscription and a compatible bluetooth controller. However, if you don’t have a Game Pass Ultimate subscription, you can play Fortnite for free.

The company is also continuing to expand its cloud gaming, with the service now being available in Argentina and New Zealand. On top of this, there are updates coming to Microsoft Edge and Windows 11 to improve gaming experiences.

Game Pass

Over on Game Pass, Xbox gave some initial details about Project Moorcroft. The project is centred around game demos and letting people with Game Pass subscriptions play them. In an interview with The Verge, Microsoft‘s head of gaming ecosystem, Sarah Bond, describes these demos as an “E3-like experience”.

The goal isn’t only to get demos out to players, but also to allow players to give feedback to devs. Bond also says that Xbox have structured the program “so that developers actually get financial compensation for the game”. This is likely to offset the work that making demos for E3 usually takes, and hopefully encourage devs to take them up on the offer. While still under development, Xbox hopes to roll out this feature later on this year.

The Xbox Wire post ends by talking about more additions to its controller “Design Lab”, with new colours and customisation added as well as being made available in 11 new countries.

Will you be taking advantage of Xbox Cloud Gaming? Or maybe you’re looking forward to the new Game Pass demos? Either way, let us know your thoughts down in the comments below! You can also hop over to our Discord to chat with us about all things gaming and entertainment!