If you’ve ever fancied accessing your Xbox Game Pass library on your iPhone, you’ll already know that the Xbox Cloud Gaming experience can be less than desirable. However, a new announcement from Apple could mean that a dedicated Xbox Game Pass app on iOS could be on the horizon.
In a new statement, Apple says that it is “introducing new options for how apps globally can deliver in-app experiences to users, including streaming games and mini-programs.” This means that natively playing the best Xbox Game Pass games on your iOS device could soon be possible, rather than using browsers such as Google Chrome or Safari to utilize Xbox Cloud Gaming. Furthermore, Apple details that studios can now “submit a single app with the capability to stream all of the games offered in their catalog.”
The addition of a dedicated Xbox Game Pass app would be monumental for Microsoft, especially since competitors such as Sony or Nintendo aren’t operating in this space. PlayStation players can only access all the free PS Plus games or the best PS5 games by booting up their console or using remote play on the PS Portal. As PS Cloud Streaming isn’t currently available for the PS Portal, this renders any Game Pass-style handheld fun out of the equation.
Apple has attempted to navigate this area of gaming before, but its initial approach wasn’t exactly beneficial to players. This is because Apple’s regulatory measures meant that individual games had to be submitted for approval.
Speaking to Business Insider in 2020, Apple expressed its goal to maintain a “safe and trusted” experience while using the App Store. Additionally, a statement notes that “all apps are reviewed against the same set of guidelines that are intended to protect customers and provide a fair and level playing field to developers.” As Xbox Game Pass contains a plethora of new Xbox games to try out, this ruled a dedicated application out of the equation.
Now that the goalposts are shifting, we can hopefully look forward to playing Xbox exclusives such as Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on iPhone or iPad. The upcoming Indy adventure might not be as straightforward as you think it is, and we reckon it could be a throwback to these classic movie spinoff games.