Being an iOS and Microsoft’s xCloud gaming service fan together has always been a tough thing to deal with for the users. Apple really doesn’t allow any third party to run their own gaming platform on the company’s devices and therefore Microsoft too could never really get the ideal breakthrough.
However, that is just about to change as according to BI, Microsoft has come up with a “direct browser-based solution” which will expectedly bring xCloud to iOS devices at the start of the upcoming year. While this itself is great news, Microsoft is also working on an app alongside which will finally put an end to all the trouble by running on Apple’s platform.
Microsoft’s gaming chief, Phil Spencer, has been the first person to reveal to xCloud’s browser-based work for Apple during an internal meeting of the company and he is pretty much hopeful about the solution working well for iPhones, and iPads with Game Pass.
Prior to these developments, Apple had blocked xCloud and Stadia on the app store to stop it from running on the iOS devices. The company, in fact, offered an alternate option in the form of an “olive branch” which of course included a lot of limitations for the gaming platforms.
Apple took this move to save its app store’s monopoly and as a result, they now ask every developer to submit games individually, irrespective of whether they want to use the streaming tech or not. On the contrary, Microsoft and Google have always allowed users to build “catalog” style apps which then links out to all of the connected apps from one place.
Nevertheless, as Microsoft was never really impressed with Apple’s take on the whole issue, so now is really the chance when we can actually expect an early 2021 release of a web-based version of xCloud for Apple’s devices. But it is important to note here that this browser version of xCloud would actually bypass the App Store - pretty much like how Amazon did with its new Luna gaming service.
Spencer is also planning to bring xCloud to PC as well along in the next year. There is a preview version already out with employees to test how great the opportunity can be for Game Pass and game streaming.
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However, that is just about to change as according to BI, Microsoft has come up with a “direct browser-based solution” which will expectedly bring xCloud to iOS devices at the start of the upcoming year. While this itself is great news, Microsoft is also working on an app alongside which will finally put an end to all the trouble by running on Apple’s platform.
Microsoft’s gaming chief, Phil Spencer, has been the first person to reveal to xCloud’s browser-based work for Apple during an internal meeting of the company and he is pretty much hopeful about the solution working well for iPhones, and iPads with Game Pass.
Prior to these developments, Apple had blocked xCloud and Stadia on the app store to stop it from running on the iOS devices. The company, in fact, offered an alternate option in the form of an “olive branch” which of course included a lot of limitations for the gaming platforms.
Apple took this move to save its app store’s monopoly and as a result, they now ask every developer to submit games individually, irrespective of whether they want to use the streaming tech or not. On the contrary, Microsoft and Google have always allowed users to build “catalog” style apps which then links out to all of the connected apps from one place.
Nevertheless, as Microsoft was never really impressed with Apple’s take on the whole issue, so now is really the chance when we can actually expect an early 2021 release of a web-based version of xCloud for Apple’s devices. But it is important to note here that this browser version of xCloud would actually bypass the App Store - pretty much like how Amazon did with its new Luna gaming service.
Spencer is also planning to bring xCloud to PC as well along in the next year. There is a preview version already out with employees to test how great the opportunity can be for Game Pass and game streaming.
Photo: Christian Petersen / Getty Images
