Xbox, like many in the realm of entertainment, is no longer just in the business of moving discs and hardware.
Microsoft wants to sell Game Pass subscriptions, and it sounds like gamers could soon have yet another way to access and play Xbox games.
In a new interview with The Verge, Xbox head Phil Spencer hints that the company may sell xCloud bundles or devices that allow for streaming games straight to the TV through Wi-Fi.
“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,” Spencer said.
“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.”
Read more:Microsoft teases cross-chat integration with Discord
Microsoft was showing off cloud streaming with Halo 4 on Windows Phones as far back as 2013, and even came close to shipping 300,000 “Xbox TV” devices, codenamed Project Hobart, in 2016.
Today, you can download the Game Pass app on your phone, log into an Xbox Live account, and be playing your favorite Halo or Forza game in roughly a minute. The tech’s impressive.
It makes sense that Microsoft would consider bundling a TV stick of some kind with a controller and maybe a year of Game Pass — all in one nice, accessible bundle that doesn’t require folks to purchase a Series X to enjoy.