Xbox Game Pass Ultimate upgrades to Series X quality gaming — how it works

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate
(Image credit: Micosoft)

Today via Xbox Wire, Vice President & Head of Product for Xbox Cloud Gaming, Catherine Gluckstein, released a statement that brings along exciting news for Game Pass Ultimate users.  Gluckstein wrote in bold letters,"  Starting today, Xbox Cloud Gaming is available to all Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members with Windows 10 PCs and Apple phones and tablets, via browser, across 22 countries."

Which was just the start of good news as Gluckstein went on to share that "Xbox Cloud Gaming will now be powered by custom Xbox Series X hardware."  Gluckstein mentions "creating a future" where the company brings high fidelity, immersive games to the three billion players around the world. When you consider all the active devices worldwide that will now have access to the Xbox Series X gaming experience, it truly is mind-blowing. 

Gluckstein added, " If you’re a member or want to become a member, simply go to xbox.com/play on Microsoft Edge, Chrome, or Safari on your PC or mobile device to start playing hundreds of games from the Xbox Game Pass library." I went to the link to see how quickly this could all be set up, and it literally took me less than three minutes before I was ready to start gaming. The longer conversation was with my missus, which took 25 minutes to explain this only for research purposes. 

Gluckstein shares how Microsoft data centers globally have been upgraded with the most powerful Xbox hardware to grant users faster load times and improve frame rates. She also stated, " To ensure the lowest latency, highest quality experience across the broadest set of devices, we will be streaming at 1080p and up to 60fps." Is 4K online gaming far behind? It's a valid question. 

Online gaming is rapidly evolving, and cross-platform play is becoming the norm, allowing billions of devices access instantly to games. With the added speed of growing 5G networks, in time, gaming could overtake television as the world's preferred form of entertainment. 

Gluckstein closed out her statement with this " Today marks a key milestone in our journey to bring the Xbox experience to all gamers, and we can’t wait for you to begin playing. I remember about three years ago, the first time I picked up a phone and played a cloud game, using nothing but touch controls. It’s a moment I’ll never forget, where the beauty of the graphics mixed with the creativity of technology to create something truly magical." 

Yup, online gaming will soon become the world's number one form of entertainment, surpassing both music and television.  

Mark Anthony Ramirez

Mark has spent 20 years headlining comedy shows around the country and made appearances on ABC, MTV, Comedy Central, Howard Stern, Food Network, and Sirius XM Radio. He has written about every topic imaginable, from dating, family, politics, social issues, and tech. He wrote his first tech articles for the now-defunct Dads On Tech 10 years ago, and his passion for combining humor and tech has grown under the tutelage of the Laptop Mag team. His penchant for tearing things down and rebuilding them did not make Mark popular at home, however, when he got his hands on the legendary Commodore 64, his passion for all things tech deepened. These days, when he is not filming, editing footage, tinkering with cameras and laptops, or on stage, he can be found at his desk snacking, writing about everything tech, new jokes, or scripts he dreams of filming.