In June, Tom’s Guide tested Xbox Game Pass on a Samsung smart TV and called the experience “near flawless”. Over the course of half an hour, I streamed half a dozen different games and found the experience almost indistinguishable from gaming on a console. However, I also realized that I was testing the product under ideal conditions:
“It is worth pointing out that I only streamed a few minutes of each game,” I wrote. “The real test will be to see how the matches hold up over long play sessions. It will also be instructive to see if wireless connections produce similar results, since not all entertainment centers are within reach of a router ”.
A few weeks ago, Tom’s Guide received the Samsung Odyssey Ark, a gaming TV / monitor hybrid, shipped to our office. This meant I could finally test the Xbox Game Pass app under more realistic circumstances. As I hoped, streaming games directly to a smart TV is an acceptable replacement for an Xbox Series X / S, and as I feared, it still doesn’t quite measure up to a dedicated console.
What is right for Xbox Cloud Gaming
(Image credit: Ubisoft)
To stay on tiptoe with a console experience, Xbox Cloud Gaming should first nail the basics. That meant it had to offer games I really wanted to play, make them easy to play, and play them with an absolute minimum of friction. Cloud gaming enthusiasts will be delighted to hear that the Xbox Game Pass app on Samsung smart TVs is successful in all three cases.
To stream Xbox games to a Samsung smart TV, you need two things besides the TV itself: an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription ($ 15 per month) and a Bluetooth controller (an official Xbox controller costs $ 60). From there, you simply download the Xbox Game Pass app on your TV, log into your Microsoft account, and log into your game. We tested on a Wi-Fi connection with 136 Mbps down and 228 Mbps up, which far exceeds Microsoft’s recommended bandwidth of 10 Mbps.
Currently, Xbox Game Pass offers more than 350 streaming games, from brand new hits like Return to Monkey Island and Persona 5 Royal, to classics like Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Dragon Age: Origins. As such, Xbox Cloud Gaming passed the first test – I could easily find something I wanted to play. I opted for Immortals: Fenyx Rising, an open world action / adventure game from Ubisoft.
Next, I really had to get the game up and running, which turned out to be as easy as on a console. I downloaded the Xbox Game Pass app on Samsung Odyssey Ark; I have logged into my account; I went through the Xbox Game Pass library until I got to Immortals; I clicked on the game and waited for it to load. The whole process could not have taken more than two minutes.
Lastly, and most importantly, Immortals had to play smoothly, with no input lag, lag, or significant graphics issues. I played for about three hours, to replicate what a long session at home could be like. During that time, I was able to jump, climb and slide into the colorful world of Greek myth, battling enemies and solving puzzles as I went. While the experience wasn’t absolutely perfect, I would have been perfectly happy with the experience, particularly if I didn’t have an Xbox Series X as a point of comparison.
However, I had an Xbox Series X on hand. And when I switched to the dedicated console, I started seeing cracks in Xbox Cloud Gaming.
What Xbox Cloud Gaming is wrong
(Image credit: Miguel Lagoa / Shutterstock)
First, a game on Xbox Cloud Gaming doesn’t look like an Xbox Series X / S. Currently, games on Xbox Game Pass peak at 1080p and 60 frames per second. Games on the Xbox Series X can reach 4K / 120fps, while the Series S supports 1440p / 120fps. Immortals on Xbox Series X looked sharper, more detailed, and smoother. But the most obvious difference between the two versions of the game was the color palette. Xbox consoles support HDR, which is a big deal for a game like Immortals, which has cartoonish character design and a plethora of vibrant blues, pinks, and greens.
Plus, while Immortals played smoothly via Xbox Cloud Gaming, that performance came at a cost. The game suffered from constant artifacts, particularly in the background textures. Moving the camera usually results in a few squares in the background failing to reach the rest of the screen. The foreground was mostly in focus, so the artifact didn’t spoil any major platforming or combat challenges. But it was incredibly distracting and killed any sense of immersion the Immortals had accumulated.
Another problem that emerged is that smart TVs, even extremely fancy ones like the Odyssey Ark, aren’t primarily gaming systems. The game is a secondary application and will sometimes fail. The second time I launched the Xbox Game Pass app, it refused to load and no amount of turning the TV on and off would fix the problem. Eventually, I had to clear the TV’s cache (which is surprisingly difficult; it’s buried to a depth of about six menus) and log back in from scratch. If an Xbox boots up and simply refuses to play, something should be seriously wrong with the system.
Finally, I didn’t realize how much softer Xbox Cloud Gaming audio would be. Something about the streaming service’s audio compression made Immortals’ dialogue, sound effects, and music much more indistinct and metallic than I expected. As soon as I switched to Xbox Series X with its 3D audio capabilities, the game’s voice work seemed clearer and the music felt more realistic.
To the credit of Xbox Cloud Gaming, I didn’t encounter any major issues while trying to play a high-budget, next-gen game. But I ran into a lot of smaller ones and didn’t realize how annoying those issues were until I went back to a normal console.
Xbox Cloud Gaming Perspectives
(Image credit: Microsoft)
I don’t want to sell Xbox Cloud Gaming short or complain too much. It’s not entirely fair to compare a beta streaming service to a two-year-old console and a 21-year-old console family. Furthermore, Microsoft has never promised perfect parity between Xbox Cloud Gaming and a full console experience. If you already have an Xbox console or a powerful gaming PC, there’s no compelling reason to move to cloud gaming.
Still, part of the beauty of Xbox Game Pass is that you don’t have to choose one or the other. By switching back and forth between the Xbox app and the Xbox console, my save files synced quickly and automatically. I could foresee an Xbox Game Pass smart TV app being a boon for gamers on the go, who wouldn’t want to pack an entire Xbox console in their luggage, but wouldn’t mind bringing a controller to a hotel or a relative’s home.
While I can’t recommend the Xbox Game Pass Smart TV app as a full console replacement yet, it’s already in a promising spot, just a few months after launch. Dedicated gamers will want to hang on to their Xboxes for now, but the day when more casual gamers decide to give up consoles altogether may not be far off.
