Earlier this week Microsoft revealed that Game Pass Ultimate is heading to Android devices on September 15. This is an absolutely massive change for the subscription model, because it suddenly opens up all of those incredible games on Game Pass to anyone with an Android phone. Better yet, it also opens up the service to anyone with a device that runs Android, or can download apps from the Google Play Store.
The video is basically saying just one thing, now you can play your games directly on your phone, no need for a PC or an Xbox console. Whilst the quality of your experience is definitely going to vary depending on the device you have, this is still some pretty fantastic news. Android phones in particular are getting more and more powerful every year, and now I think they’re easily at the point at which they could run Gears 5 or any Halo game.
Currently I think the best place to access Game Pass is on PC. You have incredibly powerful machines that can run these games, and most of them don’t even have high specification requirements. With that said, the Xbox One family of consoles is also pretty robust for running these games. The visuals aren’t quite as good, but the gameplay is solid. There’s really no faulting the experience on Microsoft’s consoles.
With Android devices joining the Game Pass family, it’s very easy to see why Microsoft has dropped the Xbox from the service’s branding. If you can get it on PC and on Android, then it’s a much broader service than just Xbox. This will prevent anyone who might think that the service is just for the console from missing out on it. It’s a great marketing move from Microsoft, and should see the service flourish when it finally launches.
Needless to say, this will also be the evolution of Game Pass that sees it finally get game streaming. Now you’ll be able to stream games to your console, PC, or phone, and it’s going to be like nothing else we’ve ever experienced before. We will be doing a fair amount of testing for this service as it comes up to launching, so keep an eye out for our reports.
