Microsoft’s been teasing an expansion of Xbox beyond just a console for years now. Even more recently, after efforts like Xbox’s Play Anywhere Initiative and Project xCloud expanding the ways to play Xbox games, now Microsoft seems to be inferring a jump to game streaming on TVs. Ironically enough, where the focus on the Xbox One initially was to become a multimedia machine, Xbox in 2020 has become the complete inverse of 2013 Xbox. However, if Microsoft does intend to bring an Xbox streaming TV app to Smart TVs and/or streaming hardware, there’s another big streaming contender that may suffer as a result: Google.
For as large and successful as Google has become, the company has had a penchant in the past for cancelling hardware and software projects that haven’t panned out as successfully as expected. However, one multimedia arm of the company remains steadfast in its market, Google Stadia. Regardless of whether the gaming platform really does have over 400 games in development for the service, Stadia reached one million users in April of this user after launching in November of 2019. Stadia hasn’t exactly been a resounding success, but Xbox further expanding its game streaming capabilities into Google Stadia’s market share could be a very bad sign for the service.
One of the biggest selling points of Google Stadia’s streaming capability is the compatibility it offers. Any desktop Chrome browser can stream Stadia games, Stadia can be streamed to televisions via Google’s Chromecast hardware, as well as a variety of compatible Android devices. At the moment, Xbox’s Cloud gaming is available solely on Android devices, and can stream games from players’ console or directly from Microsoft’s servers over Wi-Fi/cellular data. At the moment, the two competing streaming services don’t necessarily clash with each other. Stadia’s availability trumps Xbox’s, while the Xbox Game Pass library is a much better value in comparison to Stadia.
However, should a Xbox Cloud gaming app be developed for Smart TVs or streaming hardware (like a Chromecast Ultra), Microsoft will then be cutting into Stadia’s edge in compatible devices. Not only that, but since Microsoft/Xbox are independent from streaming hardware and don’t have their own proprietary streaming “stick,” they could theoretically expand even further. Roku TVs, Samsung Smart TVs, potentially Fire TV sticks (assuming Amazon plays ball), as well as Chromecast hardware, Xbox’s TV app could expand a lot further than Stadia’s service currently does.
Stadia has kept things in-house with Android and proprietary devices, but an Xbox TV streaming app could seriously undermine the service. Assuming an Xbox streaming app did become widely available, Xbox covers two very important consumer bases: existing customers (the types of gaming enthusiasts who already own an Xbox and a Game Pass Ultimate subscription), as well as new customers that both Stadia and Xbox are looking for. Game streaming has come a long way from its humble beginnings, but it’s still a tough ask for new customers to spend $60 on one game on Stadia to use on one game streaming service. Xbox Game Pass doesn’t really have that problem.
For one thing, Xbox Game Pass is a subscription to all the games available on the service, unlike Stadia Pro which provides a selection of games similar to Xbox’s Games with Gold program. Even if Game Pass may seem arguably limited compared to the full-price options on Stadia, Game Pass Ultimate is still a much lower-risk introduction to game streaming compared to Stadia. Players can jump in for $15/month (or even cheaper at $1 for an introductory price), test the service to see if they enjoy it, and continue/cancel from there. Stadia Base is free, but that also means paying full price (or slightly cheaper retail price via Stadia store sales) for games at the get go. Not to mention that means the game is solely available for streaming, whereas Xbox Game Pass Ultimate supports both streaming and local installation on compatible devices.
At the moment, Google has shown no apprehensiveness to allowing Xbox Cloud gaming on the Google Play Store recently, at least compared to Apple/iOS devices. Assuming a Xbox Game Pass app becomes available for Chromecast (or even other Smart TV services like Roku, Samsung, etc.), Stadia’s sole compatibility advantage is lost to Xbox. That wouldn’t be great for the service that has notoriously been underwhelming in terms of fan and media reception. Stadia still holds a lot of promise, even if promised features were initially delayed. However, Xbox cutting into Stadia’s compatibility would not bode well for the future of Google’s game streaming service.
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