Game Pass is looking to solidify its hold on the stream-gaming market, by allowing you to stream games you already own.
Alright, so you know how streaming services like GeForce Now allow you stream your entire Steam library from anywhere in the world? It seems like Game Pass is taking a page out of their book, because it seems you will soon be able to play every one of your owned games on Game Pass. The rumor was first picked up on Reddit, where a user noticed games like GTA 5 and Elden Ring - which are not on Game Pass - showing up in Xbox Cloud URLs:
New non-Game Pass titles are coming to the cloud!! from xcloud
Is Elden Ring Coming to Game Pass?
Naturally this would mean that Elden Ring is coming to Game Pass, along with GTA 5 and other games that have previously been unplayable on the streaming service. It seems that, as of now, every Xbox Store game has already been outfitted with a Cloud Gaming Page. When this change will become fully effective is still unclear.
This is huge for obvious reasons, but I'll take me as an example: I'm in Mexico right now without any console, so I have no means of playing Elden Ring. If Elden Ring were to become available for streaming just by purchasing it from the Xbox Store, then that'd mean that I could instantly play the game, without the need for any hardware.
Since the leak is out there now, Xbox will likely make a statement on this soon. More often than not, though, these leaks turn out to be true, so you can expect for this to be a matter of when rathern than 'if'. In truth, this move would be a very natural evolution of Game Pass anyway.