Microsoft Surprisedly Partners with Amazon to Deliver Xbox Cloud Gaming Service

What you need to know

Xbox Cloud Gaming is a $15/month service bundled with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate that lets you stream hundreds of games to mobile devices, computers, and the web.
Currently, to use Xbox Cloud Gaming on your TV, you need to connect an Xbox console (which can support games anyway) or own an often pricey Samsung TV.
Today, Microsoft and Amazon announced a partnership to bring the Xbox Cloud Gaming app to Amazon Fire TV devices, significantly expanding the platform’s availability.

Xbox Cloud Gaming is a great option for those who don’t feel like spending money on an expensive video game console or gaming PC, offering hundreds of games for $15 per month bundled with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Playable on Android and iOS devices over the internet at xbox.com/play, Xbox consoles and Samsung TVs, Xbox Cloud Gaming lets you stream Xbox games over the internet without the need for powerful local hardware.

Xbox games are still designed for TV screens, and playing multiple cloud games on your phone can be a pain, even with the best Xbox cloud gaming controllers. Even if you don’t have an Xbox, Xbox cloud gaming works best on your TV, but until now only Samsung TVs had this privilege. Samsung TVs with the essential game hub feature can also be quite expensive, but what if there was a cheaper way?

Now you can use the $40 Amazon Fire TV Adapter and connect it directly to any monitor to instantly access Xbox cloud gaming. That’s right, the biggest cloud tech rivals are unexpectedly partnering with Xbox Cloud Gaming to offer a native solution for the first time.

“Extending Xbox gaming capabilities to Fire TV devices gives gamers another way to enjoy their favorite games on the devices they already own.” said Ashley McKissick, who leads Xbox Cloud Gaming as Xbox CVP for Xbox Experiences. “For those who don’t own an Xbox console, this is an affordable and convenient way to get started. With Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, there’s something for everyone. We can’t wait to see more people join the Xbox gaming community. “

“Our goal is to make it easier for customers to access their favorite entertainment with Fire TV.” said Daniel Rausch, vice president of Fire TV and Alexa. “We’re excited to work with Microsoft to bring the Xbox app to select Fire TV devices, so customers can enjoy a huge library of high-quality games so they can play amazing titles without the need for a console.”

Initially, Xbox Cloud Gaming will be available on Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K and Amazon Fire Stick 4K Max models, before potentially expanding to the cheaper Amazon Fire Stick Lite HD model. The slightly more expensive Max model supports Wi-Fi 6E, which should give it a connectivity advantage over the 4K Wi-Fi 6 model if your home networking solution supports Wi-Fi 6 and 6E.

It appears that Xbox Cloud Gaming on Amazon Fire TV will be available in every region where Xbox Cloud Gaming is currently available. Of course, you’ll need an Xbox Series X|S Bluetooth controller to connect and play via Fire TV.

An unexpected cloud partnership

Xbox Cloud Gaming Controllers

Cloud gaming gets another boost with this latest partnership. (Photo: Jennifer Young – Windows Central)

Top gaming recommendations

Amazon and Microsoft are often fierce cloud rivals when it comes to business services applications, going so far as to sue to curry favor for lucrative government contracts. Amazon Gaming and Xbox, however, seem a bit more laid back. Microsoft works extensively with Amazon’s Twitch and Prime Gaming platforms, for example, and Amazon is bringing its MMO New World to Xbox later this year. At the end of the day, it’s all just business, and this partnership can be mutually beneficial.

Amazon has its own nascent cloud gaming platform called Amazon Luna, and you’d think they’d want to push their own service to their own hardware. But cloud gaming is tough, and Microsoft already has all the pieces of the puzzle since acquiring Activision-Blizzard, Bethesda, and various other major global franchises. Microsoft has already begun supporting Amazon Luna with its own content, adding Fallout titles to the platform. Of course, Amazon played a key role in making the Fallout franchise a household name thanks to the Amazon Fallout TV show. So I’d say the relationship between the two companies is probably pretty good right now.

More interesting is the fact that Microsoft still intends to develop Xbox Cloud Gaming. For some time, it seemed that Microsoft might be backing away from this. Server capacity continues to be an issue in some regions, although Microsoft has been gradually working to fix the delta. NVIDIA GeForce Now has also given Microsoft some incredibly stiff competition in this space, considering its technology is simply so good that it regularly beats Xbox Cloud Gaming in terms of latency and connection stability. Although I recently discovered that NVIDIA GeForce Now has its own queue issues.

It was already possible to somehow pre-load Xbox Game Pass onto Fire TV, but the ability to download it directly from Amazon’s app store will provide access to a whole new audience. It’s also a happy coincidence, as my colleague Zac Bowden discovered the patent for Microsoft’s canceled Fire TV-like Xbox Keystone just yesterday.

Although, with Microsoft adding a brand new platform to the mix with Amazon Fire TV, I wonder how this might impact server capacity. I also wonder what investments Microsoft is making to bring the latency of its experiences to the level of its PC-first brethren. After all, Xbox Cloud Gaming servers are built using Xbox Series X hardware, which isn’t necessarily designed with video encoding in mind.

Anyway, it’s great that Microsoft isn’t backing down. I can’t wait to hear more about when exactly we’ll be able to migrate our games to Xbox Cloud Gaming.