Just a couple weeks back, an Xbox Cloud Gaming app officially arrived on the Amazon Fire TV. Since then, we’ve been putting the new app through its paces.
With the apps release, owners of Amazon Fire TV 4K and Fire TV Max 4K sticks can stream over 400 Xbox titles to their device and connected TV without the need for an actual Xbox. This is all a perk of an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription.
In the video below, we give you a hands on demonstration of Xbox Cloud Gaming on a Fire TV 4K Max stick and gives our impressions of the experience.
Video
Conclusions
The Xbox Cloud Gaming experience on Fire TV is really quite good!
In terms of the overall User Experience (UX) it is second only to what Google Stadia had on Chromecast devices before the service’s demise. The Xbox “guide” (the side menu) mirrors most of the functionality you’d see on an actual Xbox console. You can explore game achievements, invite friends to multiplayer sessions and chat with those friends all from the Xbox guide menu while you game.
In terms of stream fidelity, Xbox Cloud Gaming on Fire TV is well above the bar for an acceptable experience. But, GeForce NOW and few other cloud gaming services still provide significantly and noticeably higher quality game streams. This is both because Xcloud is using the equivalent of Series S hardware on the server side and aggressively limiting stream bitrates.
Note however that my demo video was captured in a challenging WiFi location in my house. The fidelity is still pretty darn good. But, when using the Fire Stick day to day in the living room (much closer to the router) the performance is even better.
