Stream your Xbox One games to Windows 10 devices later in 2015

By Adam Rosenberg Published January 21, 2015

windows 10 xbox app gaming and streaming forza horizon 2 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Xbox is coming to Windows 10 in a fairly major way. The first details come from Microsoft’s Xbox boss, Phil Spencer, in an on-stage appearance at the Windows 10 reveal event.

There are lots of pieces to this news, but the marquee item for many gamers is the in-home Xbox One game streaming on devices powered by Windows 10. Spencer showed a brief demo of 2014’s Forza Horizon 2 running on a Microsoft Surface tablet during the presentation.

Related: Forza Horizon 2 review

Recommended Videos

Once a console and a Windows 10 device are paired together, streaming a game is as simple as clicking (or tapping) on its title in the new Xbox app. The feature works with all Windows 10 PCs and tablets, according to Spencer.

Plenty of questions remain. Xbox One game streaming presumably also requires the Xbox One to run in Instant On mode rather than Power Save. There’s also the question of how much of a user’s library is accessible; it’s possible to purchase and download items from the Xbox Games Store and store them on the hard drive, but what about disc-based games?

Expect answers to these questions and others when Microsoft reveals more details at the annual Game Developer’s Conference in March 2015.

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Previously, Adam worked in the games press as a freelance writer and critic for a range of outlets, including Digital Trends…

Gaming

Surfaced patent shows what an Xbox streaming console would’ve looked like

An Xbox Series X sits next to both Series S models.

There have been a few Xbox devices that have never come to fruition, one of which was Keystone, a prototype for an affordable game streaming device you could hook up to your TV or monitor. Thanks to a surfaced patent, we've gotten an even closer look at what it would've potentially looked like.

The patent, first spotted by Windows Central, gives us a more complete view of the device. We've previously seen the Keystone in the flesh. Microsoft Gaming head Phil Spencer is known for hiding teases and interesting collectibles on the shelf in his office. In a 2022 X (formerly Twitter) post congratulating Bethesda on Fallout's 25th anniversary, you can see a small white device on the top shelf that's actually a Keystone prototype. Xbox told Digital Trends that it was a version of the device made before it decided to "refocus our efforts on a new approach.”

Audio / Video

Game Pass is coming to your Amazon Fire TV, even if you don’t own an Xbox

A woman holding a remote while looking at an Amazon Fire TV with the Xbox app on it. It's on the Cloud Gaming menu with Fallout 76, Senua's Saga Hellblade 2 and more on it.

You'll soon no longer need an Xbox console if you have an Amazon Fire TV. Microsoft and Amazon announced Thursday that the Xbox app is coming to Fire TV devices in July.

The Xbox app works with Cloud Gaming, which means with an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription, you can stream a huge catalog of games from the Xbox library, including many first- and third-party titles that come to the service on launch day. Huge games like Starfield, Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2, and the Fallout series are just some examples, and the available games are always changing.

Gaming

An Xbox PC Game Pass exclusive just got a release date and no one noticed

Nefertiti in Egypt menu in Ara: History Untold. An upgrade on screen is called Rays of the Aten: Farms and their Upgrades provide an additional +1 food per turn

Xbox is going all in on strategy games. On Wednesday, it announced that Ara: History Untold is coming to PC on September 24 and will be available on day one with PC Game Pass.

Weirdly enough, though, the news coverage has been slim, despite Xbox releasing a whole podcast about it and the soon-to-release Age of Mythology: Retold from the Age of Empires team. It's also strange that the news didn't pop up in this summer's Xbox Game Showcase, which took place days ago. The podcast and blog is all there is to show how Xbox is committed to real-time strategy.