Updated Aug. 10 at 4:40 p.m. ET: A Microsoft spokesperson told Windows Central that the Game Pass icons were due to a bug. Original story is below.
What you need to know
- A new Elden Ring listing on the Xbox website features a (non-functional) Xbox Cloud Gaming play button, suggesting that it, as well as other non-Game Pass titles, will be available to play with Xbox Cloud Gaming soon.
- We originally revealed Microsoft's plans to expand the Xbox Cloud Gaming library to include non-Game Pass titles permanently purchased by players, with Microsoft confirming these plans in June 2022.
- Microsoft originally announced that the expansion would come later this year, with this listing indicating that it might arrive very soon.
Xbox Cloud Gaming is an awesome platform that allows Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers to play tons of incredible games on mobile devices, Windows PCs, and Mac computers using Microsoft's cloud streaming services. However, one of its current downsides is that you can only play games that are available on the Xbox Game Pass library. This means that players aren't able to enjoy non-Game Pass games they've purchased permanently while using the cloud. However, that may be changing soon.
Recently, Xbox content creator @Klobrille noticed an Elden Ring listing on Microsoft's Xbox website that features an Xbox Cloud Gaming play button, presumably allowing fans to play the game using the service. The button doesn't actually launch the game — it simply times out over and over again — but the fact that this page exists suggests that Microsoft may finally be preparing to officially bring Elden Ring and other non-Xbox Game Pass games to Cloud Gaming soon. Some users have also reported receiving advertisements for Elden Ring on Cloud Gaming while visiting the Microsoft Store, giving further credence to this theory.
We originally revealed Microsoft's plans to expand Xbox Cloud Gaming's library to include permanently purchased games not available on Game Pass at the end of 2021, with the company officially confirming these plans in June 2022. At the time, Microsoft announced that this expansion would come later this year. Based on the discovery of this Elden Ring webpage, there's a good chance that it may only be weeks (or less!) away.
Elden Ring landing on Xbox Cloud Gaming would be particularly exciting for many Xbox gamers, as the open world action RPG has proven to be one of the biggest games of 2022 (it's also arguably one of the best games of all time). Since over 13.4 million copies of the game have been sold, we're willing to bet that there are plenty of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers that own the game and would love to explore the Lands Between using the cloud.
Update
A Microsoft spokesperson told Windows Central that the Game Pass Ultimate icons were popping up on some titles on the Xbox Store due to a bug.
“We’re aware of a bug that incorrectly displayed some titles as available with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. We rolled out a fix and this is now updated," they said.
