Microsoft today announced an official launch date for the local beta 'preview' of its Project xCloud game streaming platform in Australia, as well as revealing the final list of games that will be available during the service’s public testing.
Project xCloud’s Preview Program will be available in Australia (as well as Brazil, Japan, and Mexico) starting next Wednesday, November 18, the tech giant announced in a blog post. It will only be available on Android devices at this stage.
If you're keen on trying the service out, you’ll need to register your interest in order to receive an invite from Microsoft to join its program, with the invites being sent out from Wednesday.
For those concerned about the program’s capacity, Microsoft has said that it wants “as many of you to get to play as possible” and that it will “continue to send out invites over the coming days and weeks”.
For those wanting a quick recap of what xCloud is, the service aims to give mobile and tablet users access to full console titles on their devices by streaming them in real-time from the cloud – or specifically, an array of powerful Microsoft servers.
For this kind of game streaming to work, you’ll need a fast internet connection to your Android device to ensure smooth video and avoid input latency from your controls.
The list of titles available to those that enter the Preview Program has also been announced by Microsoft, and is as follows:
- ARK: Survival Evolved
- Batman: Arkham Knight
- Black Desert
- Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon
- CODE VEIN
- Cricket 19
- DayZ
- Dead by Daylight: Special Edition
- Destiny 2
- Devil May Cry 5
- eFootball PES 2020
- F1 2019
- Forza Horizon 4
- Gears 5
- Halo Wars 2: Standard Edition
- Halo: The Master Chief Collection
- Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
- HITMAN
- Just Cause 4
- Minecraft Dungeons – Windows 10
- Ori and the Will of the Wisps
- PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS
- RESIDENT EVIL 7 biohazard
- Sea of Thieves
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider
- Sid Meier’s Civilization VI
- Skyforge
- Smite
- Stellaris: Console Edition
- Tekken 7
- WWE 2K20
- Yakuza 0
While Microsoft hasn’t revealed a specific date, its full public release of Project xCloud is expected to arrive "in early 2021" and will incur a monthly subscription cost when it does land, although pricing is yet to be determined.
