Microsoft will let players stream console games on phones from September for free if they have Game Pass Ultimate

'Project xCloud' has been in testing across the world for months

Sarah Bond, Head of Xbox Partnerships, speaks during the Xbox E3 2019 Briefing at The Microsoft Theater (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

Microsoft will bundle together its Game Pass Ultimate service with its streaming platform, allowing people to play console games on their phone for no extra cost.

The company has been testing "Project xCloud", a system for allowing people to play console games over the internet on portable devices, for months. Now it has said that it will be a part of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, letting players play any titles included with that service on their phone or tablet.

Xbox Games Pass Ultimate currently brings together Xbox Live and Xbox Games Pass into one subscription. Players will receive the addition of game streaming for no extra cost.

It will mean that players can launch one of the Game Pass titles on their Xbox, before then leaving the house with their phone and picking up where they left off, Xbox boss Phil Spencer said in a blog post.

The announcement came as part of a long article explaining how what Microsoft customers "can expect from the future of Xbox".

In addition to the changes to xCloud and Game Pass, Mr Spencer committed that Microsoft would ensure the Xbox community was welcoming to all players, that Xbox Series X would make games "look and play best", that new titles made as part of Xbox Games Studio would come to Game Pass on their first day, and that backwards compatibility would allow accessories and titles to come to the new platform, without buying them twice.

Mr Spencer was clear that he believed that the Xbox was the "only next-generation console" with all of those commitments, in a clear shot at the PlayStation 5, though he did not name the new console or Sony.

He also made reference to Xbox All Access, the subscription service that allows players to pay a monthly fee for their online subscriptions as well as a console. Mr Spencer said "you can jump into the next generation for one low monthly payment and no up-front costs", with that service, indicating that it will be available for the new generation as well as the current one.

Rumours have suggested that Microsoft is readying another, cheaper console than the Xbox Series X – perhaps known as the Xbox Series S – which could be released as part of Xbox All Access.

Microsoft has been revealing a host of information about the next generation console, ahead of its release in the "holiday" season at the end of this year. Most recently, it claimed its "velocity architecture" would allow for performance above and beyond that expected from the individual components found in the console.