Later this year, LG's new line of Smart TVs will come pre-packaged with an Xbox app, allowing Game Pass Ultimate subscribers who to access Xbox's Cloud Gaming service directly through the TV.
Ultimate members could first play their games on Smart TVs via cloud back in 2022. At the time, this was relegated to Samsung TVs, and this marks its latest expansion since the feature was rolled out.
Last November, Xbox unveiled a feature for Ultimate members to cloud stream select non-Game Pass titles they own. That will also be part of Xbox's LG collaboration, allowing players to stream “over 50 games.” The publisher plans to reveal more specific details in the coming months.
Prior to its teamup with LG, Xbox focused on expanding its Cloud Gaming service to different game platforms and hardware, including iOS, Meta Quest, and Google Chromebooks. It's also brought its own internal products, like Microsoft Edge and Bing, into the Cloud Gaming fold.
Despite the headway made, Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty previously dismissed the cloud game market as “very, very, small” during the company's pursuit to acquire Activision Blizzard in 2023.
Despite Booty's comments, leaked documents from its trial against the FTC ahead of that completed acquisition showed Xbox very much sees potential in cloud streaming games. At the time, one of its long-term plans mentioned was a hybrid game platform that could “leverage the combined power of the client and cloud to deliver deeper immersion and entirely new classes of game experiences.”
This next-gen device was considered a “new innovation” for the Xbox hardware line, and according to those documents, is expected to release in 2028.
Contributing Editor, GameDeveloper.com
A Kansas City, MO native, Justin Carter has written for numerous sites including IGN, Polygon, and SyFy Wire. In addition to Game Developer, his writing can be found at io9 over on Gizmodo. Don't ask him about how much gum he's had, because the answer will be more than he's willing to admit.
