This article was originally published on August 10 and updated on August 11. Please update below.
The timing of the partnership between Samsung and Microsoft may have been better.
The Korean company announced on its unpacking time last Wednesday that it had partnered with Microsoft to bring 3 months of a free subscription to the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate game streaming service, the Project xCloud app, on the phablet.
Update 08/11: Microsoft releases a beta edition of its Android xCloud game streaming service. The Xbox Game Pass app, available on Google Play, will now allow Game Pass Ultimate subscribers to check the cloud gaming service starting August 11.
The official release date of the full cloud gaming service for Android is September 15, which will come with over a hundred games. But, according to The Verge, there will be 30 tracks available for the beta version, which will have to be played from 9 am EDT and 6 pm PDT.
In a message to The Verge, a Microsoft spokesperson explained that “existing users of the Xbox Game Pass (Beta) app will have the opportunity to review a subset of available titles as we prepare for greater availability next month. The limited beta version is essential to provide the most productive fun imaginable for members at launch and does not deserve to be considered as an indication of maximum fun or library.”
With the delivery of Samsung’s Galaxy Note 20 on August 20, this means that buyers will be able to verify the phone’s ability to manage cloud games, and see the cloud game optimizations Samsung made for xCloud on their phones, before the official September. release date. However, presumably, the 3 months of free Game Ultimate subscription begin as soon as you’ve created an account, so you can wait until all titles are available on September 15 before activating it to make sure you get the most out of it. price for money.
A day later, Business Insider reported that the game streaming service would not be available on iOS because Apple says it is violating its app store policy. Apple’s reasoning turns out to be that it cannot separately review each game on the service, and there are express clauses in the App Store guidelines, as Verge points out, which limit access to xCloud.
Because xCloud allows access to content that can be read on an iOS device that has not been reviewed by Apple, it may not meet those guidelines. However, if there is an xCloud edition that simply acted as a portal to access players who are already on their own PC via their iPhone or iPad, necessarily acting as a remote desktop service, then this may also be fine under Apple’s strict rules, as this is the case with Valve’s Steam Link or Sony’s PS4 Remote Play app.
This is bad news for iPhone players. But, by sheer chance, Samsung turns out to have gained enormous credit to its long-term rival, the iPhone 12. Interestingly, the real “association” between Microsoft and Samsung is not very broad.
After the announcement of the Game Pass deal last week, I asked a Samsung representative what exactly this meant outside the doors of the loose testing era and showed me that there wasn’t much else. There are more cloud optimizations and controller latency, as well as battery optimizations through the Game Booster app, but it seems to be primarily the exclusive single trial era and some unique in-app acquisition options.
I suspect the Galaxy manufacturer had anticipated that the flexible subscription agreement would be a small incentive to buy a Galaxy on Apple and other Android rivals that would also have supported xCloud, but is now one of the most notable features of the Note 20 for the iPhone.Array
We’ll have to see if those optimizations that haven’t yet been quantified offer something particularly different to streaming Gears of War on a $200 Android phone, but in the high-end market, there’s now a transparent merit to Samsung’s phone over the likely. iPhone 12 equally expensive.
Despite its old challenges, cloud play will be a big challenge on mobile devices, especially if OEMs allow players to play as smoothly as possible. In 2014, I was baffled why, certainly less impressively, remote playback on PS4 is not used more widely, given that Sony had taken a wonderful time to create a very useful suction cup holder to connect the Dual Shock controller to smartphones.
But everything is a little more fashionable now and with 5G covering very slowly more areas, there are more reasons to take credit for at least Samsung’s loose three-month offer. I think it’s becoming increasingly difficult to justify giant, expensive, overwhelming and unsightly phones, while devices like the Pixel 4a offer excellent value for money. But this giant screen with maximum refresh rate with 5G and an equally giant battery makes a lot of sense for gaming.
Here’s what you’d expect from a phablet: it’s meant to do more. There’s more physically and it gives you more features. In recent years, this additional feature (drawing, annotation, etc.) has never been more convincing to me.
I didn’t see any explanation for why I spent a lot more to buy a telephone that was too big to have compatibility in my wallet and that I wouldn’t have the big screen of a pickup, many of which also come with a keyboard case. But for the games? It’s working. I can take care of the maximum of a telephone like the Note 20 if I can play AAA games on the fly, especially if I don’t have to carry an even bigger pill in a bag.
All of this will only be available on Android, with Samsung’s Note 20 in mind. I don’t know if game streaming features will make many buyers buy a Galaxy on an iPhone, we’ll have to see how popular the service is in general. If Samsung can offer a portable and foldable controller, I’m definitely sold (some games come with a Moga XP5-X driver, but Samsung tells me that lately there are no plans to manufacture yours).
Even without reinventing game controllers, Samsung found itself in an almost unbeatable situation. For Apple, lacking the cloud game of two of the top players, Microsoft and Google, turns out to be a wonderful ball in the foot.
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I am a freelance journalist based in London, specializing in all facets of technology, adding reviews, surveys, observation and news. I’m the editor-in-chief of the
I am a freelance journalist based in London, specializing in all facets of technology, adding reviews, surveys, observation and news. I’m the editor of the YouTube channel for investigative journalism, Point. I also write for The Guardian, Independent, Evening Standard, TechRadar, New Scientist and others.