Microsoft has officially launched the Xbox Cloud Gaming Cloud Gaming service for consoles

The Xbox Cloud Gaming Cloud Gaming service has become officially available on consoles. Xbox users will now be able to play games from the Game Pass library without installing them on their hard drive. Russia, however, is not yet on the list of supported countries.Microsoft announced the launch of Cloud Gaming on the official Xbox blog.

The service will be available on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S consoles with a Game Pass Ultimate subscription.

Residents of 25 regions will be able to play in the cloud, including the USA, Australia, Canada, the UK and all major EU countries. Soon Xbox Cloud Gaming will be available in Brazil. But Microsoft has not yet announced plans to launch the service in Russia.

According to the company, with Xbox Cloud Gaming, it wants to give users a quick and easy-to-use way to try out new games without having to install them on the console’s hard drive.

This service should be especially useful for Xbox One owners. Now they will be able to play all the next-gen titles from the Game Pass library. Among them are The Medium, The Riftbreaker and a number of other games that are not available on the old console.

Xbox Cloud Gaming has been running on PC and mobile platforms since June, when the open beta test started. At the same time, on iOS, the service is available only as a browser application. This is due to Apple’s restrictions on the release of such products in the App Store, since the company allegedly cannot moderate each individual game in the library.

The company also plans to launch its cloud gaming service on Smart TV — in this case, users will only need a controller and Internet access.