In a recent interview, Xbox chief Phil Spencer discussed the future of Microsoft’s xCloud game streaming and Xbox Game Pass, offering insight that a TV game streaming stick could be in the cards.
Spencer sat down for an interview with Stratechery recently. Via The Verge, some poignant points were made that clearly hinted at the possibility of a TV streaming stick, used to stream Xbox games that could be folded into the ecosystem.
“I think you’re going to see lower priced hardware as part of our ecosystem when you think about streaming sticks and other things that somebody might want to just go plug into their TV and go play via xCloud,” says Spencer. “You could imagine us even having something that we just included in the Game Pass subscription that gave you an ability to stream xCloud games to your television and buying the controller.”
Spencer went on to discuss the possibility of an “Xbox Game Pass Platinum” tier. This proposed higher tier of the Xbox Game Pass service would potentially include the many perks the service already delivers on top of guaranteeing subscribers access to Xbox hardware. This model would work in a similar fashion to Xbox All Access, which bundles Xbox Games Pass and an Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S console over 24 payments spread across two years.
Microsoft recently bundled its xCloud streaming service into Xbox Game Pass for Android users. However, due to Apple’s App Store policies, xCloud streaming was blocked from expanding out of its TestFlight phase on iOS. Microsoft has been said to be working on a browser-based workaround for xCloud streaming on iOS. During his interview with Statechery, Spencer made his first public comment, saying: “We have a good solution on iOS that I think it’ll be coming kind of early next year, I feel good about the solution that we have.”
