All you need to play Xbox games is a smart TV and gamepad. Microsoft spoke about the near future of the gaming direction

Ahead of the first Xbox and Bethesda Showcase, which Microsoft claims will feature its best and largest lineup of games, the company released a press release revealing plans for the Xbox in general and Game Pass in particular.

First of all, it is worth noting that the company has confirmed its intention to bring the Xbox platform directly to smart TVs. We are talking about the cloud service xCloud, for which no console is required – a modern TV and a gamepad will be enough. There were such rumors before, and now they have been announced directly.

Microsoft also confirmed that it is working on a cloud console. This information first appeared over a year ago. It is also suitable for owners of old TVs and will make access to the xCloud service more accessible than buying full-fledged Xbox consoles. More specifically, Microsoft is talking about creating devices, not a single device, but here it is still unclear what the point is.

It also said that in the coming weeks, access to cloud gaming in the browser will be open to all members of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Chrome, Safari and Edge will be supported. Probably other browsers based on Chromium as well. Later this year, cloud gaming will be available in the Xbox PC app, and will also be integrated into consoles as part of the demo mode for games to let players know if they want to buy a particular game or not.

Also, Microsoft is already completing the update of its data centers, which are responsible for cloud gaming. In this case, we are talking about replacing old consoles with Xbox Series X, which will speed up downloads and increase performance.