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Battlefield V joins Xbox Game Pass cloud gaming lineup

By Otto Kratky July 20, 2021

The Xbox Game Pass library is growing once again, with a treasure trove of games being added to the service in just seven days. While 10 games altogether are coming next week, the clear heavy hitter is Microsoft Flight Simulator. Until it’s available, players can look forward to two new games being added to the service immediately: Battlefield V on cloud and Cris Tales on cloud, console, and PC.

A picture is worth a thousand words (and several upcoming games) https://t.co/JknPMLe9Cq pic.twitter.com/D16z80BrrF

— Xbox Game Pass (@XboxGamePass) July 20, 2021

Other titles are being added to the subscription service’s library in the coming days. Atomicrops (cloud, console, PC), Raji: An Ancient Epic (cloud, console, PC), and Last Stop (cloud, console, PC) are all coming to Xbox Game Pass on July 22.

On July 26, players can jump into Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge (cloud, console), and an original Xbox classic, Blinx: The Time Sweeper (cloud, console).

The real meat of this month’s Xbox Game Pass offerings comes later on in the month. On July 27, subscribers playing on their Xbox Series X or S can chart a flight across the world in Microsoft Flight Simulator. Just a few days later, on July 29, players get access to Omno (cloud, console, PC), Project Wingman (PC), The Ascent (PC), and the dodgeball fighting game Lethal League Blaze (cloud, console, PC).

Of course, with so many titles being added to the Xbox Game Pass library, some will have to go. Leaving the service on July 31 are It Lurks Below, The Touryst, and UnderMine. If you’re not ready to lose any of these games just yet, they can be purchased for up to 20% off if you’re a Game Pass subscriber.

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Otto Kratky is a freelance writer with many homes. You can find his work at Digital Trends, GameSpot, and Gamepur. If he's…

Gaming

I ditched my consoles and went to cloud gaming for a week – here’s how it went

A table holding a DualSense controller, a DualSense Backbone, a regular Backbone, and an Xbox Series X controller.

Game streaming has felt like the "next big thing" in gaming for the past decade. I recall trying out services like OnLive back in my college dorm room, playing the same 30-minute trials over and over again. Half the time the service never booted, and the half that it did was a lag-filled mess. Fast forward a couple of years and Sony acquires Gaikai to integrate into PlayStation Now (RIP), but left it largely ignored until Xbox began its push into streaming with its Xcloud initiative. With major tech giants like Google and Amazon failing to crack the game streaming code, Sony and Microsoft appear to be the only two capable of supporting this console-less method of play.

For all the fancy talk about new servers and top-of-the-line streaming technology, I've never been convinced that game streaming would be able to replace the tried and true local experience. After all, even under perfect internet conditions, the speed of light is only so fast. And assuming even most people will have perfect internet conditions itself is laughable. However, I wanted to put my money where my mouth was. How could I judge game streaming if I didn't actually give it a shot?

Gaming

Why cloud gaming is the linchpin in Microsoft’s troubled Activision Blizzard acqusition

Key art showing multiple devices playing games via the cloud.

The United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) delivered a shocker this week when it blocked Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard on Wednesday. While a lot of focus on Microsoft’s fight was centered around whether or not the acquisition would give Xbox consoles an unfair advantage over PlayStation consoles, what ultimately decided it was a much smaller market: cloud gaming.
The idea of being able to stream the game you’re playing from the cloud has existed for well over a decade. Cloud gaming’s relevance to the video game industry has only grown over the past several years thanks to both failed and successful efforts from big tech companies like Google, Amazon, and, most importantly, Microsoft. Still, cloud gaming is considered relatively niche, with Activision Blizzard Bobby Kotick calling it "inconsequential" in an interview with Bloomberg and UCL Associate Profession Joost Rietveld saying it’s not a distinct market in a submission to the CMA.
Despite those pleas, the CMA claims that cloud gaming is a “nascent market” and that “already strong incumbent in this market even stronger” in its 418-page report on the matter. Following the CMA’s decision on Wednesday, I spoke to several different analysts to find more clarity about how big Microsoft is in the cloud gaming space and why the CMA should feel compelled to intervene. While experts mostly side with Microsoft over the CMA on this decision, one greater truth emerged from these discussions. Whether one thinks cloud gaming is relevant to this acquisition or not, this emergent style of gaming has reached a point of no return where it'll be instrumental to the video game industry going forward.
Microsoft, king of cloud gaming
Cloud gaming may sound like a niche within the industry, but that's not entirely accurate. BrandFinance Managing Director Laurence Newell tells Digital Trends that “cloud-based services account for over 70% of Microsoft’s brand value, amounting to a staggering $137.5 billion.” That’s quite an eye-catching number that understandably would raise a regulator's alarm bells. However, Newell admits that gaming only makes up 8.5% of Microsoft’s revenue, and cloud gaming is an even smaller amount of that slice.
Despite its relatively small impact on the wider company, most of the experts I spoke to agreed that Microsoft has emerged as a cloud gaming leader thanks to its compatibility with a large segment of the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate library. Conversely, Activision Blizzard has had almost no cloud gaming presence outside of one Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice port on Google Stadia before that service’s shutdown. If it were to be acquired, it is inevitable that more Activision Blizzard games would likely come to cloud-based gaming services.

Despite the shutdown of Google Stadia and the relatively small brand value received from cloud gaming compared to the rest of the company, the CMA still points out in the press release about its decision that “monthly active users in the U.K. more than tripled from the start of 2021 to the end of 2022. It is forecast to be worth up to 11 billion British pounds globally and 1 billion pounds in the U.K. by 2026.” Associate Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the UCL School of Management Joost Rietveld, who has also been a consultant for Microsoft during its acquisition process, challenges the notion that cloud gaming as a whole is a single market.
Instead, Rietveld splits it into four categories, placing Xbox Game Pass into a category called “cloud gaming as a feature,” which is when it’s “offered as part of a consumer-facing distribution platform” or “included within a bigger bundle of services provided by the platformer.” Under Rietveld’s view, services like Nvidia GeForce Now, Ubitius, and EE -- all of whom Microsoft has made individual deals to bring Activision Blizzard and Xbox Game Studios titles to -- fall into different categories and thus shouldn’t be considered or directly compared to Xbox Game Pass. No matter how they’re categorized now, the real question mark looming over the technology is its future growth, according to Omdia Senior Principal Games Analyst Steve Bailey.
“Will it remain a niche additional service or become the gaming platform of the future?” Bailey asks in his statement to Digital Trends. “Our projection is that cloud gaming is growing rapidly (revenue should more than double by 2026), but it’s still a long way from taking over the games market, so it remains arguable either way.”
“Arguable” stands out as the keyword to me here. Like any emergent technology, we’re heavily debating the positives and negatives of cloud gaming, specifically through the lens of this acquisition. But what exactly is it that the CMA sees in Microsoft that worries them?
The CMA’s problem with Microsoft
“The CMA’s argument is not that acquiring Activision Blizzard would allow Microsoft to dominate the console market as a whole, where Sony and Nintendo have strong positions relative to Xbox, but only that it would help it to achieve a dominant position in cloud gaming specifically,” Bailey tells Digital Trends. “Microsoft and Activision Blizzard will likely argue that this is disproportionate, given the relatively small scale of the cloud gaming market.”

Gaming

PS Plus’ library is looking more like Game Pass’ in May lineup

Two cars race side-by-side in Grid Legends.

Sony revealed the next batch of three games that will be available throughout May 2023 as part of PlayStation Plus Essential. The lineup includes Grid Legends, Chivalry 2, and Descenders. All are very solid games in their respective genres, but interestingly, they are all also games that Xbox Game Pass subscribers will already have access to.
Grid Legends is the headlining game for this month, and it's a racing game from Codemasters where the standout feature is a story mode framed like a racing documentary with live-action interviews. While I had mixed feelings about the game and the mode when reviewing it last year, those looking for a basic but enjoyable racing game to tide them over until the next Forza Motorsport, Test Drive Unlimited, or The Crew can have some fun with it. If you're subscribed to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, you're also able to play this game on that platform thanks to EA Play.

For those that are still in a sporty mood, Descenders is an enjoyable downhill biking game that'll scratch the same gaming itch as series like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater or Lonely Mountains: Downhill. Then, there's Chivalry 2, a very intense multiplayer game set in medieval times, which gives it a very welcome change in setting compared to many of its multiplayer peers. Both games are currently playable if you have an Xbox Game Pass subscriber, but will likely leave the service at a later date.
If you are subscribed to both PS Plus and Xbox Game Pass, you will be fine skipping out on May's PS Plus Essential titles. If you only own a PlayStation console, though, or want to guarantee that you'll still have these games after they leave Xbox Game Pass, then definitely consider downloading them. These games will all be available with PS Plus from May 1 until June 6. Make sure you pick up April's PS Plus Essential games before May 1 as well.