We tried Microsoft Cloud Gaming on the Galaxy Note20 Ultra - can you replace your Xbox?

Like Google, Amazon, Nvidia and many others, Microsoft did not hesitate to enter the world of streaming games. And she obviously has leveraging hers Xbox ecosystem and the millions of players who support him around the world.

Microsoft Cloud Gaming is the gaming service that the company aspires to compete with Stadia, Amazon Luna and other platforms similar. And since Apple isn't entirely in favor of these services, Microsoft has found it in Android the its particular oasis to try and make the platform call someday xCloud the future of gaming, through an alliance with the company which, again in 2020, is still the one who sells the largest number of smartphones globally: Samsung.




Now, after a first in-depth analysis of the Galaxy Note20 Ultra, we wanted to test the capabilities of the device in its gamer aspect, and what better way to do it than with i titoli Microsoft Cloud Gaming.

We tried Microsoft Cloud Gaming on the Galaxy Note20 Ultra - can you replace your Xbox?

Microsoft Game Streaming, Xbox's cloud gaming service.

Microsoft Cloud Gaming, what do you need to play?

In order to enjoy the Microsoft Cloud Gaming games on any Android mobile or tablet, it is necessary to meet a number of requirements that the company explains on its official website. Are the following:

  • Have an active Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership. Game Pass Ultimate is priced at € 12,99 per month, with the first month at € 1.
  • Have an Xbox controller with Bluetooth or another compatible controller.
  • Having an Android device with a version starting with 6.0 Marshmallow
  • Have an Internet connection –Wi-Fi or LTE / 5G– with a minimum download of 10 Mbps.
  • The Xbox Game Pass app for Android installed on your mobile.

Application: interface and operation

Since one of the requirements to be able to play is have the Game Pass app installed on your mobile, you need to pause for a moment on experience that said app offers.




When let's begin, we have to log into our Microsoft account within the Game Pass app. Obviously it must be the same associated with ours Game Pass Ultimate subscription.

Next, within the app we will find different sections a depending on whether we want to play in the cloud, on the PC or on our console. In this case, the first option is the one that really interests us.

We tried Microsoft Cloud Gaming on the Galaxy Note20 Ultra - can you replace your Xbox?

By selecting this section, we will see i games available in a horizontal carousel located at the top of the screen, where some of the most important titles will appear. Just below, another carousel allows us to riprendere instantly previous games, and if we keep going down it will be possible explore the complete catalog of available games.

Having tried Stadia, I must say that although the experience with the Xbox Cloud Gaming app is good, does not reach the level of Google in terms of intuitive interface, performance and number of configuration options available. In favor of Microsoft it must be said that, today, there is still talk of a beta application.

Performance and gaming experience

It is when you select a game that the good starts. First I have to say that I have tested through a connection symmetrical at 600 Mbps, by connecting the mobile phone to the 5 GHz Wi-Fi network and at different distances from the router.


Obviously, the best experience comes when you are there located in an area with good network coverage. If so, the gaming experience it is fluid and apart from the occasional dropped frames or artifacts appear on the screen, we didn't encounter many other problems.


The same happens when you do uses the 4G network, although Wi-Fi is still the most recommended option, especially if our idea is to stay on the move, such as while traveling, and mobile network coverage won't be the right thing to do stable enough.


We tried Microsoft Cloud Gaming on the Galaxy Note20 Ultra - can you replace your Xbox?

So are the loading times in Microsoft Game Streaming.

Worthy of mention are the loading times, a little shorter than those of Stadia, although still much higher than what we could get by playing directly locally using a console. Depending on the game, the loading times can reach almost two minutes - this is the case with The Outer Worlds -, or be only 20 or 30 seconds - Untitled Goose Game is one of the fastest loading games of the ones we tested -.

Good also the graphic section, even if the excellent screen quality of the Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra it helps a lot. The resolution of the games is more than enough to play games on a relatively modern mobile phone screen.

Titles like Forza Motorsport 7 or Forza Horizon 4 are, perhaps, two of the titles in which the greater graphic difference in this version than the one that would run directly on a current generation console. The level of detail is not the same, even if to be able to enjoy games like The Witcher III everywhere and anytime, I have to sacrifice some detail and resolution, I'll do it without hesitation for a moment.


As for controls, since we use the controller Xbox One, we will find no differences from console gaming in this regard. Only a significantly higher response time it can affect the gaming experience to some extent, although I fear that little by little both Microsoft and the rest of the companies will continue to improve this.


We find however also titles compatible with touch controls like Minecraft Dungeons. To date, this is the only game with this particularity, albeit of course experience with a controller, both the Xbox one and compatible models such as the Razer Kishi.


Games catalog

With more than 100 different games available, the Microsoft Cloud Gaming catalog is undoubtedly one of its strengths.

We will find titles of all kinds and for all tastes, and it will be difficult not to find something interesting for us in its catalog. And if not, we can always play some of the most popular and well-known Xbox One titles.

Next, we leave the list with over 100 games available in Microsoft Cloud Gaming a starting from October 2020.

  • A Plague Story: Innocence
  • To acquit
  • After the party
  • Age of Wonders: Planetfall
  • ARK: Survival Evolved
  • astronaut
  • Batman: Arkham Knight
  • Battletoads
  • Battle Hunters: Nightwar
  • black desert
  • Blair witch
  • Bloody edge
  • Bloody: Ritual of the Night
  • Bridge builder portal
  • carogne
  • Children of Morta
  • cluster Truck
  • Crackdown 3: campaign
  • Cross code
  • The genesis of Darksiders
  • Darksiders III
  • dayZ
  • by Blob
  • Dead in the light of day
  • dead cells
  • Definitive edition of Dead Island
  • Death squared
  • Give us the moon
  • Inclination of the demon
  • descenders
  • Destiny 2: Shadowkeep and Forsaken
  • DiRT 4
  • do not starve
  • Heroes of double football
  • Empty Drake
  • Dungeon dell'Infinito
  • Enter the Gungeon
  • F1 2019
  • Fallout 76
  • Agricultural simulator 17
  • Felix the reaper
  • Fishing Sim World: Pro Tour
  • For the king
  • Forager
  • Strength Horizon 4
  • fractured minds
  • Frostpunk: Console Edition
  • Robot cat
  • Gears of War 1: Ultimate Edition
  • Gears of War 4
  • Gears of War 5
  • Goat simulator
  • Golf with your friends
  • to the ground
  • Guacamelee! Due
  • Halo 5: Guardians
  • Halo Wars 1: Final Edition
  • Halo Wars 2
  • Halo: The Master Chief Collection
  • Halo: Spartan Assault
  • Hellblade: Senua's sacrifice
  • Hi neighbor
  • Hollow knight
  • Hot Shot Racing
  • Human fall plate
  • hyperpoint
  • Hypnospatial Outlaw
  • Indivisible
  • Journey to the wild planet
  • ZERO Katana
  • Killer Instinct DE
  • Kona
  • levelhead
  • Lonely mountains: downhill
  • Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinity
  • Metro 2033 Redux
  • Middle-earth: Shadow of War
  • Minecraft: Dungeon
  • MINITA
  • Momodora: Reverie in the moonlight
  • chiaroluna
  • Mortal combat
  • Mount and blade: Warband
  • move
  • Mudrunner
  • Munchkin: Quacked Quest
  • Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden
  • My time in Portia
  • Neon abyss
  • New Super Lucky Tale
  • Never: Automata
  • Night call
  • Night in the woods
  • Nobody's heaven
  • Prophet nowhere
  • Observation
  • Ori and the Blind Forest: Final Edition
  • Ori and the will of the will-o'-the-wisps
  • overcooked! Two
  • without oxen
  • pathological 2
  • Pikuniku
  • Pillars of Eternity: Complete Edition
  • Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid
  • ReCore: definitive editionDefini
  • Rest: from the ashes
  • Resident evil 7 biohazard
  • Rise and shine
  • River City Girls (coming soon)
  • Sea of ​​Thieves: Anniversary Edition
  • Sea salt
  • close secret
  • Shadow Warrior 2
  • Kill the spire
  • Elite sniper 4
  • spiritualist
  • State of Decay 2: Juggernaut Edition
  • Stellaris
  • Stranger Things 3: The Game
  • Streets of anger 4
  • Streets of Rogue
  • Subnautica
  • Survive Mars
  • Tacoma
  • Tell me why Episode 1 - 3
  • terrariums
  • The Bard's Tale IV: Directors Cut
  • The Bard’s Tale Remastered e Resnarkled
  • The Bard's Tale Trilogy
  • The Dark Crystal: Resistance Age Tactics
  • The Elder Scrolls Online
  • The gardens in between
  • Jackbox Party Pack 4
  • The long dark
  • The Lord of the Rings: Adventure Card Game
  • The messenger
  • The outer worlds
  • Wave 2
  • The tourist
  • The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
  • The Dodgers 2
  • The Talos principle
  • The Turing test
  • The Walking Dead: A New Frontier – Episodio da 1 a 5
  • The Walking Dead: Michonne – Episodio 1 – 3
  • The Walking Dead: second season
  • theHunter: The Call of the Forest
  • Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales
  • Absolutely accurate battle simulator
  • Totally reliable delivery service
  • Touhou luna nights
  • Tracks - The train game
  • Trailmaker
  • Train sim world 2020
  • Two-point hospital
  • undermine
  • Untitled Goose Game
  • Bastards of emptiness
  • wandering song
  • Warhammer Vermintide 2 (coming soon)
  • Remastered Wasteland
  • Wasteland 2: Director's Cut
  • Wasteland 3
  • We Few Happy
  • West of the dead
  • Wizard of legend
  • world war z
  • WMD worms
  • Xenon crisis
  • Yakuza 0
  • Yakuza Kiwami
  • Yakuza Kiwami 2

Conclusions

We tried Microsoft Cloud Gaming on the Galaxy Note20 Ultra - can you replace your Xbox?

Forza Horizon on a Galaxy Note20 Ultra with xCloud-.

Neither its performance nor its catalog are the aspects that can make Microsoft Cloud Gaming the success that those in Redmond are looking for. At least not currently. What could make a difference is something that no other streaming gaming platform offers today: an ecosystem that works in harmony around the player.

And is that, in the end, xCloud will allow you to start playing a new Microsoft title on Xbox Series X and then continue playing the same title on your PC, to finally resume the game anywhere on an Android mobile, with all of our progress automatically synced to the cloud.

The problem is that this advantage will be such only for those who are already immersed in the Microsoft ecosystem, and has no plans to abandon it in the medium or long term. Otherwise it may be a stimulus that adds points to the Redmond ecosystem in its decision to opt for one ecosystem or the other, but I fear it will not be a decisive factor.

In its current state, what we could to test, xCloud is a good addition which, while not at the level of replacing a console, it can be the perfect complement for all those looking to enjoy a gaming experience as similar as possible to this type of platform, anytime, anywhere.

Be that as it may, we must not forget that Microsoft Cloud Gaming is just one more perk than Game Pass Ultimate, to which must be added the ability to access launch titles from day 1, exclusive offers, Xbox Live Gold - including multiplayer and monthly free games and permanent access to more than 100 free games. All a just 3 euros more than the monthly price of Stadia Pro: 12,99 euro.


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