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Xbox Game Pass Update Hints at Possible Android TV Support

Lunatic_Gamer

Gold Member
A big pitch of cloud gaming is cross-device compatibility. All cloud gaming services promise that you can play all your games on multiple devices, including a phone, PC, tablet, laptop, and even in a web browser. However, smart TVs haven’t been on the radar of cloud gaming providers up until recently. Google finally expanded Stadia to Android TVs last month, and now Microsoft is on course to follow suit.

xbox_game_pass_android_tv_1.jpg


As discovered by Reddit user /el_gonz87, the latest APK of Xbox Game Pass is laying the groundwork for Android TV support. When the Redditor decompiled the APK, he found a banner image for Android TV, suggesting that the app will soon officially arrive on the platform. Android TV apps are required to have a banner image of a specific size in order to show up on the launcher, and that’s what the latest version of the Xbox Game Pass has added.

Separately, 9to5Google found that when they sideloaded the latest Xbox Game Pass APK on a Chromecast, it showed up on the homescreen. However, the app is still not listed on the Google Play Store for Android TV.

Xbox-Game-Pass-icon-on-Android-TV-homescreen.jpg

 

reksveks

Member
They should really improve their streaming quality and latency before releasing this service on everything.
When you say quality? What do you mean? Resolution or bitrate? Resolution is now 1080p

Latency is alot harder and an ever moving goal technically. As long as the general consumers are fine with it, that's what matters to them.
 

elliot5

Member
I don't have a need for this personally as my XSX is hooked up to the x900e in my living room, but I'm excited nonetheless for if I go to a family members house for the holidays and such. Stadia ran like shit on my TV though so idk how game pass would fare. I might test it out for fun tho.
 

yurinka

Member
Doesn't Android TV run normal Android apps? I'd bet that since Xcloud is already on Android it could run on Android TV.

They should really improve their streaming quality and latency before releasing this service on everything.
Gaf told me xcloud was going to be better than the other streaming services because of Azure. And guess what, it wasn't the case.
 
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Fahdis

Member
Imagine playing Xbox GamePass on your Sony TV.
GIF by Ghostbusters

Imagine using the Switch Pro Controller, while using your Xbox Gamepass on your Sony TV being streamed from your Nvidia Gamestream while using your Samsung Android Phone Mirror Service from the TV. Shiiiieeeetttttt!!!
 

Markio128

Member
I have no reason to disbelieve this news, however, why does the gamepass icon look bigger than all of the others?
 

Gamezone

Gold Member
When you say quality? What do you mean? Resolution or bitrate? Resolution is now 1080p

Latency is alot harder and an ever moving goal technically. As long as the general consumers are fine with it, that's what matters to them.
GeForce Now and Stadia are excellent on my Internet. xCloud however suffers from poor image quality and higher latency. I read a lot of xCloud user experiences on Reddit, and it looks like most people are having issue with it compared to other services, especially on iOS.
 
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Bojanglez

The Amiga Brotherhood
No you need to download a specific TV app from the store. Just like with Apple TV.
Well not strictly true. On Android TV you can side load normal Android apps and they often will work.

I've had the original Xbox Game Streaming App on my Nvidia Shield since the beta phone app launched, it was possible to stream games in 720p. I think the only compromise was that the UI wasn't optimised for TV screens, but it did work.
 

THEAP99

Banned
i have utilized xcloud. while it's not perfect, it's a good option to have and some games like gears tactics it is perfect for. i hope they bring xcloud over to the series x though. and i've also tested stadia, which overall is smoother than xcloud.
 
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