DF Weekly: “You don’t need an Xbox to play Xbox” – we beg to differ

Another week, another episode of DF Direct and Microsoft’s latest endeavours are our lead topics of discussion. Last week, the Xbox app for the Amazon Fire Stick 4K was released, backed by aggressive marketing from Microsoft suggesting that you don’t need an Xbox to play Xbox. On a broad level, the message is accurate but based on the quality of service, things need to change significantly before we can endorse that idea, whether you’re experiencing Xbox on PC or via the cloud.

I bought an Amazon Fire Stick 4K Max to test Xbox streaming last week, but fully expected the experience to mirror the current cloud streaming offering available via an Xbox console or PC. After all, the quality of the streaming isn’t really defined by your client hardware but rather whatever data is streamed at you by Microsoft’s servers. The difference offered by the Fire Stick is, of course, accessibility. Similar to its endeavours in getting cloud streaming working on Samsung TVs, this is all about opening up Xbox to more potential users who may not be particularly interested in buying a console. The idea is sound, but I feel the execution needs work.

Even though you need one of the 4K versions of the latest Fire Stick to stream Xbox, it’s the same 1080p stream we’ve seen previously in our prior tests. Microsoft deserves some kudos for input lag response that beats its PlayStation counterpart. It’s still noticeably slower than the local experience, but you can adjust to it. Mostly, it’s fine, especially if you choose a game that runs at 60 frames per second. Microsoft also deserves kudos for an interface that works and a clear suggestion from the app to switch your TV into Game Mode (mine defaulted to ‘Film Maker’ mode on an LG CX OLED – good for media content, not good for gaming).

• 0:00:00 Introduction
• 0:00:54 News 01: Microsoft says you don’t need an Xbox to play Xbox
• 0:24:31 News 02: Game Pass prices increased
• 0:38:36 News 03: New Black Myth: Wukong PC details revealed
• 0:53:26 News 04: Original Xbox gets 1.4GHz CPU upgrade
• 1:01:34 News 05: The First Descendant frame-gen tested!
• 1:13:21 News 06: Ace Combat 7 tested on Switch
• 1:19:41 Supporter Q1: Which Windows-based PC handheld would you recommend most?
• 1:25:36 Supporter Q2: Will you be doing more three-person gameplay videos?
• 1:29:44 Supporter Q3: What old unused Nintendo IP would you like to see again?
• 1:34:45 Supporter Q4: If Microsoft got Windows working seamlessly on ARM, what would that mean for their products?
• 1:43:27 Supporter Q5: Do you think Valve will give Steam Machines another shot?
• 1:49:21 Supporter Q6: Why is Intel’s XeSS better than AMD’s FSR?
• 1:59:01 Supporter Q7: Will Unreal Engine traversal stutter be fixed for the new Witcher game?
• 2:02:08 Supporter Q8: Could the PS Portal be updated or hacked to be a substantially more useful device?
• 2:06:25 Supporter Q9: John asks: how is the recording session going?

However, the gameplay experience isn’t quite good enough. The stream itself is starved of bitrate, meaning that the quality of the image is relatively poor – especially when streamed to a large, living room display. Macroblocking is easily noticeable, even on static screens, particularly on graduated colour transitions – the Starfield menu system is a good example of this. Other content fares better (Forza Horizon 5 looked fine), but this is in no way a replacement for the local experience.

Our recent analysis of both Microsoft and Sony cloud platforms uncovered something else: although the Xbox servers are running on Series X silicon, users are receiving Series S versions of the games. Our understanding is that Microsoft is virtualising more game instances from the same hardware by using the less demanding Series S codepath for any given game. Bearing in mind that the stream itself is 1080p, the idea has merit – the exception to the rule being titles that support 60fps on Series X, but not on Series S. Doubling the frame-rate lowers latency – essential for a cloud system.

So, you don’t need an Xbox to play Xbox. It’s true. The streaming system works, but it isn’t a particularly good experience for Xbox gaming. The simple solution would be to increase the bitrate of the video and thus improve the quality. Stadia did it, PlayStation Plus cloud streaming does it, GeForce Now does it. It works and it respects the target display in a way that Microsoft’s current cloud streaming does not. As things stand though, in a world where Xbox Series S is remarkably cheap (especially so second-hand – I bought one for £65 on Facebook Marketplace and £100 is an easy target price), the fact is that spending a little more gets you a far superior gaming experience: improved input lag, crystal clear imagery, no streaming image quality issues. And you’re not just limited to Game Pass, but to standard Xbox titles too.

But you haven’t needed an Xbox to play Xbox for a while – and you don’t need to use streaming either. You can use a PC and although there are some exceptions (Halo Infinite springs to mind), the quality of the Microsoft’s PC releases is typically fine. However, as per our discussions on this week’s Direct, we have plenty of gripes about the Xbox app for PC. It’s simply not fit for purpose. While there’s nothing stopping you bypassing the Xbox app by buying games on Steam, that’s not really an option if you’re subscribed to Game Pass – and there’s the rub. For reasons that are completely unknown, there are problems with the Xbox launcher actually launching games: its primary purpose.

When Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition launched on Game Pass a few months back, I was eager to try a version of the game that was only available on consoles prior to its Game Pass launch. Even now, it’s only available on the Microsoft marketplace and yet on my main PC, it never runs. The game’s own launcher appears, but actually trying to boot the game does nothing. We’ve had similar issues with the Xbox app over the years, requiring a full Windows re-install to get any joy and yet it still hasn’t been fixed.

Is it a problem with my specific PC, perhaps? Well, the fact that Alex can’t boot Hellblade 2 on his PC via the Xbox app suggests not, while the Steam download works just fine. It’s totally baffling, as is the apparent inefficiency of the download process. Right now, Alex is downloading Forza Motorsport. It downloaded at 14MB/s via the Xbox app, which is hardly disastrous. And yet downloading via Steam delivers 112MB/s and effectively maxes out the connection. In this respect, the Xbox app is at least functional, but disadvantaged against the opposition Microsoft is trying to compete with. And a launcher that doesn’t always launch games? This is basic stuff.

I think what’s clear is that Microsoft is entering a transition period – and an uncertain one. Moves like marketing cloud gaming and giving a better value deal to PC Game Pass users compared to console Xbox users send a signal that the focus on the console offering is changing. All the signals from the platform holder suggest that Xbox as a console and Xbox on PC could well merge in the medium to long term.

Meanwhile, the multi-platform game release strategy seems to be constantly evolving – and it’s still somewhat baffling that some titles from Xbox studios are arriving on PS5 with advantages over their existing Xbox counterparts. And yet, I think the general trajectory from Microsoft is the right one. I think it is safe to say that the traditional console model isn’t working for them and needs to change. By acquiring so many studios, including heavyweights like Bethesda, Minecraft and Activision, a multi-platform approach to Xbox just makes sense.

However, I can’t help but feel that this transitionary period could be handled better and returning to cloud streaming and PC, it just makes sense that if you’re going to introduce new ways for people to play, those alternatives need to work and need to deliver the best realistic quality – and with the Fire Stick experience and with the Xbox PC app in particular, there’s no doubt that Microsoft could do better.