After years of waiting, Xbox Cloud Gaming's "Stream Your Own Game" feature is going live today. Here's the list of 50 games available to buy and stream in the initial first wave.

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Xbox Cloud Gaming victory: Finally, after years of waiting, you can now play (some of) your Xbox games on Xbox Cloud Gaming.

Xbox cloud gaming show on a variety of devices
Everything is an Xbox now! Kind of. (Image credit: Microsoft | Windows Central)

What you need to know

  • Xbox Cloud Gaming finally gets buy-to-own games.
  • A few years ago, Microsoft announced its intent to add games to Xbox Cloud Gaming that you would be able to purchase and play at any time.
  • The feature took a long, long time to materialize, but we're finally here.
  • Xbox Cloud Gaming "Bring Your Own Game" feature goes live today on Xbox.com/play and the TV web app, with Xbox app for PC and Xbox consoles coming early next year.
  • The initial selection adds 50 games to purchase for cloud, including titles like Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters, Balatro, Space Marine 2, Baldur's Gate 3, and Cyberpunk 2077.

Xbox Cloud Gaming finally gets its most highly anticipated feature.

They say late is better than never, and nothing exemplifies that in the Xbox universe than Microsoft's long-promised "bring your own games" feature for Xbox Cloud Gaming. All the way back in 2012, we reported that Microsoft had shown off an internal demo showcasing the future of Xbox gaming, which was Halo 5 running on a Windows Phone. Sadly, Windows Phone is no longer with us (RIP), but Xbox Cloud Gaming sure is.

Xbox Cloud Gaming is Microsoft's answer to NVIDIA GeForce Now, giving users access to a few hundred games via Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription on Xbox.com/play. A ton of games in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate are available with Xbox Cloud Gaming, giving you access to play dozens of titles on any device with a web browser, including Apple's iPad, phones, Amazon Fire Stick, and even some Samsung TVs. A few dozen games even have touch controls, meaning you don't need an Xbox controller or one of the various Xbox Cloud Gaming mobile controllers to play.

Previously, you were limited to games that were part of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate to play on Xbox Cloud Gaming, but that ends today. In a post on Xbox Wire, Microsoft revealed that from this week, they're adding 50 games from the company's back catalog as playable via the cloud.

The full list of buy-to-own Xbox Cloud Games (so far) is as follows:

  1. Animal Well
  2. Assassin's Creed Mirage
  3. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
  4. Balatro
  5. Baldur's Gate 3
  6. Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden
  7. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
  8. The Casting of Frank Stone
  9. Cyberpunk 2077
  10. Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake
  11. DREDGE
  12. Dying Light 2 Stay Human
  13. Farming Simulator 25
  14. Fear the Spotlight
  15. FINAL FANTASY XIV Online
  16. FINAL FANTASY
  17. FINAL FANTASY II
  18. FINAL FANTASY III
  19. FINAL FANTASY IV
  20. FINAL FANTASY V
  21. FINAL FANTASY VI
  22. Hades
  23. Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions
  24. High On Life
  25. HITMAN World of Assassination
  26. Hogwarts Legacy
  27. House Flipper 2
  28. Kena: Bridge of Spirits
  29. Lego(R) Harry Potter (TM) Collection
  30. Life is Strange: Double Exposure
  31. Metro Exodus
  32. Mortal Kombat 1
  33. NBA 2K25
  34. PGA TOUR 2K23
  35. Phasmaphobia
  36. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
  37. Rust Console Edition
  38. 7 Days to Die
  39. Star Wars Outlaws (tm)
  40. Stray
  41. The Crew (tm) Motorfest
  42. The Outlast Trials
  43. The Plucky Squire
  44. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
  45. Tom Clancy's The Division 2
  46. TopSpin 2K25
  47. UNDERTALE
  48. Visions of Mana
  49. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2
  50. WWE 2K24

The initial wave of games will be available on Xbox.com/play and the web-apps on a Meta Quest VR headset, Amazon Fire Stick, and Samsung TVs to begin with. Buy-to-own cloud gaming features for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and the Xbox app for PC will come a bit later in early 2025.

Microsoft has also previously announced that it will no longer update the Xbox Cloud Gaming apps on Android since allowing users to buy their own content violates Google's gatekeeping store rules. Google is currently undergoing an anti-trust investigation in the United States, which could end with it having to open up its Android platform to third-party stores. But for now, Microsoft's only option is to offer the app via the web at Xbox.com/play, which you can then pin as a web app using various browsers.

The Xbox Cloud Gaming "buy to own" games feature will be available in every country where the service is currently live, including: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

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More Xbox "buy to own" cloud games will come later

Devices like the Logitech G Cloud may get more popular following this update, although many games are missing, such as Microsoft's own "Diablo 4." (Image credit: Jennifer Young - Windows Central)
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There are some really great games included in the first wave, even recent ones. It's impressive to see some of the best Xbox games ever hit the list, including The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077. It's also great to see more recent entries like Space Marine 2 and Visions of Mana. Turn-based games like Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters will be great for cloud conditions too, where the best speeds aren't always available.

The elephant in the room with all this is that Xbox Cloud Gaming is still not quite on par with NVIDIA GeForce Now, at least when it comes to bitrate. That crown firmly goes to NVIDIA, owing to their purpose-built servers designed specifically for video encoding. Microsoft's Xbox Cloud Gaming delivery is based on AMD chips designed for Xbox Series X|S consoles, which was never built with video encoding in mind. Given that fact, it's incredibly impressive that they've been able to pull off what they have, and Xbox, of course, has the home-field advantage of thousands of games potentially ready-baked for the service. NVIDIA relies on connecting to other services like Steam and PC Game Pass for its library, which can feel a bit clunky in some situations.

RELATED: Xbox has some impressive momentum going into 2025

In any case, we should begin seeing near-monthly drops of new buy-to-own cloud games as Microsoft scales up its service. It could induce a flood of new users, potentially triggering queues. NVIDIA itself recently instituted a 100-hour per-month time limit on its GeForce Now service, owing to scalability issues. With companies like Apple and Google gatekeeping discoverability, it could be a long time before cloud gaming becomes truly profitable at scale. However, like Netflix, they won't be able to stifle its growth forever, especially since Google itself exited the market with its failed Stadia service.

Either way, this exciting development is a huge milestone for Microsoft's "Everything is now an Xbox" strategy. It'll be interesting to watch it grow.

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Jez Corden
Jez Corden
Executive Editor

Jez Corden is the Executive Editor at Windows Central, focusing primarily on all things Xbox and gaming. Jez is known for breaking exclusive news and analysis as relates to the Microsoft ecosystem while being powered by tea. Follow on Twitter (X) and Threads, and listen to his XB2 Podcast, all about, you guessed it, Xbox!

5 Comments Comment from the forums
  • fatpunkslim
    This is huge ! Now what we're waiting for is the end of the beta phase of xCloud with a real leap in terms of quality.

    So in a 'play anywhere' logic, we have the choice to play it in the cloud on these different devices : Xbox console, PC, TV, etc., but also to be able to install it on a console or PC for practical reasons or because there is no internet in some areas or the connection is poor. It's reall a game changer ! A significant added value to the Xbox ecosystem !
    Reply
  • fjtorres5591
    Baby steps.
    It only covers 4 of my purchased games.

    It still requires GP Ultimate, though.
    A cloud-only tier is still missing. Or adding cloud to Standard.

    Also, aiming for higher res and bit rates isn't really needed to address the market for cloud. The whole point is to extend the low end of gaming downwards to address people who can't/won't buy a Series S. That requires reaching out to folks with limited bandwidth over the folks with 100Mbps+ broadband. Making the service functional to more people is more important than pleasing the high end. If you can afford NVIDIA go for it.

    Cloud gaming isn't meant to be a replacement for a console but a gateway to non-mobile gaming. Make it too much like standalone hardware and they might stay on it. The goal is to be attractive enough without killing the appeal for the SS.

    Remember, the preferred outcome is to get them hooked on cloud and then transition them to local gaming hardware, console or PC. Which is why PLAYS ANYWHERE matters.
    Reply
  • praz01
    I thought the new laws prevent the term buy-to-own being used, unless you make it clear that you don't "own" the game.
    Reply
  • fjtorres5591
    praz01 said:
    I thought the new laws prevent the term buy-to-own being used, unless you make it clear that you don't "own" the game.
    To own something you must have the right to sell it and even in Europe it is well established that you can't resell digital content. The matter was settled in US courts back in the '80's--software is only licensed and with few exceptions, non-transferable--so the California law proclaiming it was unnecessary pandering.

    Digital natives have always understood what they were paying for: a license to access and use the software and that buying a license gave them no ownership of the licensed software itself.
    And, more importantly, buying the right to play a game is the only thing you *can* buy in cloud gaming. What else can you do? You don't even get to download it.

    Anything else is just IdiotPoliticians pretending gamers are like them, idiots.
    Reply
  • GTech
    In the very first sentence in the article they forgot the word better.
    Reply