Jaromir Miko The presentation of the new Samsung Galaxy S20 series also brought with it the announcement of a new deeper collaboration between Samsung and Microsoft, more precisely with the Xbox division, especially in connection with the streaming service Project xCloud and 5G, which is part of the new phones. Shortly after that, Xbox marketing director Larry Hryb, who also goes by the nickname Major Nelson in the community, announced the start of testing the Project xCloud service on iPhones.
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This comes approximately four months after the service began testing on Android in the US, UK, South Korea, and later Canada. Restrictions for these countries remain in place, with the expansion of the service to other European countries planned for 2020. But what does this service actually offer?
A key feature of the Project xCloud streaming service is that it is based directly on the hardware of the Xbox One S consoles and has native support for thousands of games available for this console. Developers don't need to program anything additionally, at least not at the moment, because the only thing that will make the Project xCloud system different from the home console is touch control support, which is not a priority yet. Currently, the key task is to tune the service so that it has the lowest possible data consumption and at the same time offers a quality gaming experience.
In addition, there is a close tie-in with user accounts and Xbox Game Pass, which is actually a prepaid game rental service for Xbox game consoles and Windows 10 PCs. The service currently offers over 200 games / 100 depending on the platform - including exclusives and games from Microsoft-owned studios - from the date of release. Thanks to the service, subscribers could thus play the relatively expensive titles Gears 5, Forza Horizon 4 or The Outer Worlds from start to finish without having to buy them. Other popular titles such as Final Fantasy XV or Grand Theft Auto V are also available on the service, but they are only available here temporarily.
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As for the Project xCloud service itself, it now offers a selection of more than 50 games, including the aforementioned Microsoft titles, but there are also titles such as the medieval Czech RPG Kingdom Come: Deliverance by Dan Vávra, Ace Combat 7, DayZ, Destiny 2, F1 2019 or Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, which won BAFTA awards in five categories.
Game streaming takes place in 720p resolution regardless of the device, and in terms of consumption, it is now at a low 5 Mbps (Upload/Download) and works over WiFi and mobile internet. The service therefore consumes 2,25GB of data for an hour of continuous play, which is significantly less than how much some games really take up on the disk. For example, Destiny 2 takes up 120GB, and F1 2019 roughly 45GB.
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Amaya Toman The service is currently set up so that when you want to test it, you must have an IP address from countries that are officially supported, i.e. the US, UK, South Korea or Canada. However, the limitation can be bypassed by connecting via a proxy, which is available on Android with applications such as TunnelBear (500MB free per month). The condition is also that you have a game controller paired with your phone, ideally an Xbox Wireless Controller, but you can also use a DualShock 4 from the PlayStation. In short, the important thing is that you have a controller connected via Bluetooth.
Testing the service on an iPhone now has many limitations. It's running through TestFlight and is designed for 10 players so far. The only game available so far is Halo: The Master Chief Collection. Also missing is support for Xbox Console Streaming, which lets you stream all installed games from your home Xbox to your phone. The operating system iOS 000 is required. If you want to try your luck, you can test it register here.
