Xbox Game Pass's Quiet But Massive Change Makes It Worth Investigating For PC Players

Xbox Game Pass has just made a major change to how games can be played on PC, and it could very well make the service worth a second look to anyone who's written it off until now. Between frequent announcements about changes to the library and updates about other Xbox ventures, it's easy to miss news about changes to more fundamental Xbox Game Pass features. The service has been on a steady road toward improvement since its debut, however, and the value that it offers today is definitely higher than ever before.

One interesting facet of Xbox Game Pass is the Xbox Cloud Gaming service, which is only available to Game Pass Ultimate subscribers. Xbox Cloud Gaming makes it possible to play even demanding games on weaker hardware, streaming the gameplay to the device while Xbox's servers handle the heavy lifting. Although this can induce some latency and compression depending on the strength of the connection, it's a generally reliable way to both save storage space and make options like phones and low-end PCs viable for serious gaming.

For those looking for something new to play on Xbox Game Pass in July, another day one title has been announced, and it sounds rather delicious!

The big overhaul for Xbox Cloud Gaming on PC comes in the form of mouse and keyboard support, officially announced on the blog as part of the June update for Xbox platforms. This addition first appeared as a new Game Pass Ultimate beta feature for Xbox insiders in March, following the standard strategy of testing out major changes before rolling them out in full. A beta version of mouse and keyboard support was announced in May through , introducing the basic functionality of the official launch version without offering full support in the Xbox PC app.

Xbox Games Showcase included a lot of games that will be getting day one Xbox Game Pass releases, with something to interest every subscriber.

At the moment, 25 games have received mouse and keyboard support in the Xbox Cloud Gaming library,