Windows 10 Game Streaming To Xbox One Being Worked On By Microsoft


The Windows 10 launch today brings the ability to stream Xbox One games to the PC, but what about the reverse? After making noises about the possibility over the past year, Microsoft made it official that streaming PC games to the Xbox One is being worked on for a future release.

Xbox Head Phil Spencer made the confirmation in an interview with The Verge. While Microsoft has constantly said it’s something they’ve been looking into, it is also clear that recent announcements have been building up to PC to Xbox One streaming.

“We understand if you’re going to go PC to Xbox, we need to get keyboard and mouse working completely so you could play those games,” Spencer said, referencing the recent Twitter exchanges with fans about the console receiving mouse and keyboard support in a future update. A release window has not been announced.

Gigantic, Xbox One, PC

Spencer admits that making games stream from a Windows 10 PC to the Xbox One is more of a chore than the Xbox One to a Windows 10 device. The console’s locked in hardware makes things more predictable when it comes to encoding and streaming the game.

“It’s actually a little more challenging doing the encoding on the PC side to the Xbox, but challenge is good,” Spencer said.

The current PC requirements for streaming from the Xbox One to a PC include a multi-core processor running at least at 1.5 GHz and 4 GB of RAM. A wired Ethernet connection works best, but a wireless connection is usable too. Microsoft suggests a Wireless N router, however, and you’ll still likely get a degraded picture. How much depends on the quality of the wireless network.

The Windows 10 Xbox App currently lists all of the recent games played on the PC or device it is installed on. The list includes both Xbox One and PC games, plus they can be launched from the Xbox app.

Xbox App

This all leads to Microsoft making gaming a more ubiquitous experience regardless of the device they are playing on.

“[Gamers] want to play games on the device that they want to play on. They want to play with their friends and they progress whenever they sit down,” explains Spencer. “Because of that, the roadmap and our focus on what’s going on, Windows is incredibly strong.”

It’s worth mentioning that the ability to stream games is not unique to Xbox. The PlayStation 4 can stream games to the PS Vita or PlayStation TV while Valve offers Steam In-Home Streaming between a host PC and another device, PC or the Steam Link device coming this November.

[Images via Xbox]

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