A few months ago, we read between the lines and reported correctly pointed out that in an official statement, Microsoft listed TV along other hardware platforms. We even quoted “your TV, PC and mobile devices,” in our headline.

It is true that the next-generation super consoles are a big deal in terms of technological achievements and enable game developers to imagine new and less hardware restricted worlds, but in the future of gaming you don’t necessarily need to own one of the next-gen super-consoles to enjoy gaming on them.

The “Netflix of Gaming” era is upon us, we can now choose from vast libraries of games and play them on a larger number of devices than ever before. While Sony only enables PlayStation game streaming on PS4 and PC, Microsoft lowers the barriers to its vast Xbox and PC game library by enabling the games to be played across Xbox, PC, Mobile and soon on TV’s via a stick or app.

A few months ago, Microsoft listed TV as a platform in this statement “When you add it all up, Xbox Series X is the only next generation console that lets you play new blockbuster games at the highest console fidelity, enjoy the latest blockbuster games the day they launch for one monthly price, play four generations of your games at higher fidelity than ever before, and play with friends wherever you want across your TV, PC, and mobile device.”

“I think you’re going to see lower-priced hardware as part of our ecosystem when you think about streaming sticks and other things that somebody might want to just go plug into their TV and go play via xCloud. (…) You could imagine us even having something that we just included in the Game Pass subscription that gave you an ability to stream xCloud games to your television and buying the controller.”

Phil Spencer via Stratechery

In an interview recently with Stratechery, Phil Spencer said “I think you’re going to see lower-priced hardware as part of our ecosystem when you think about streaming sticks and other things that somebody might want to just go plug into their TV and go play via xCloud. (…) You could imagine us even having something that we just included in the Game Pass subscription that gave you an ability to stream xCloud games to your television and buying the controller.”

Brad Sams of Thurrot.com recently tweeted that Microsoft is experimenting with a streaming stick, code-named Project Hobart.

Microsoft is removing nearly all existing barriers to playing console level games. Don’t have an Xbox, play on your PC, don’t have a PC, play on your Tablet, don’t have a tablet, play on your phone and maybe soon you will be able to play on your TV via a Streaming Stick or App.

xCloud

Microsoft could win the console wars by playing the larger platform game with Xbox Game Pass and deliver the best gaming experience to everywhere instead of just to a console.