With the quiet addition of PUBG, Xbox's Project Cloud library of free games now totals in the triple digits at precisely 100 games. Project xCloud is Microsoft's Stadia-like program that lets players stream games directly to their devices from the cloud.
As the program remains in preview mode for now, it also remains completely free. Players are encouraged to sign up on xbox.com provided they meet a few necessary criteria. For one, the preview is only open to Android users at this time. A limited testflight of the service was briefly made available on iOS at the start of 2020, but it was open to only 10,000 participants and closed almost instantly.
Android users running version 6.0 or higher, however, can sign up by downloading the Project xCloud Streaming App on the Google Play store. Then all you need is a compatible controller, which is actually a pretty lengthy list that includes not just Xbox One controllers, but third-party and even rival controllers too, like the DualShock 4 and Stadia's proprietary controller.
Along with PUBG, the service currently offers many first-party games from Xbox, like Sea of Thieves, Gears 5, and Halo: The Master Chief Collection, as well as third-party games such as A Plague Tale: Innocence, Borderlands 2, and The Sims 4. The game library grows without much fanfare these days, with PUBG not even getting an announcement and others before it usually just getting a tweet from Major Nelson.
In the months ahead, though, Xbox will unveil its full plans for xCloud, which the company has said will tie into Xbox Game Pass in some way. It seems as though access to xCloud will be included in subscription, though it's not yet clear if Microsoft will introduce a new tier for subscribers to pay for that access or if it will come to existing plans.
Xbox is centering itself as the consumer-first brand for the next generation after suffering the opposite reputation for the better part of the last decade (at least before Game Pass), so don't be surprised if they make xCloud a new benefit of existing memberships to Game Pass.
It sounds like the Xbox Games Showcase on July 23 will largely be about games, both first- and third-party, but given the brand's "20|20" plans, which include new major reveals every month leading up to the launch of Xbox Series X, it's safe to expect some major xCloud news sometime before November.
