Microsoft’s upcoming Project xCloud service is available in a preview period for free, but until now was limited to the United States, United Kingdom, and South Korea. That will change later this month when the service expands to Canada.
Releasing in preview in the Great White North on January 29, Project xCloud in Canada will be invitation-only, and those looking to participate can register on the official website. As with the other regions, the service requires an Android phone or tablet and will be playable in both English and French in Canada.
While more region expansions are expected in 2020 during the preview stage, Microsoft hasn’t yet made the final release date public. Xbox Insiders members can also take advantage of Xbox One console streaming, allowing them to play games on a mobile device and use their console as the server.
The Project xCloud preview continues adding new games including Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Gears 5. Devil May Cry 5 is also available and acts as a great test of its capabilities. If your streaming service can run that kind of fast and framerate-crucial game, it should be able to run anything.
In addition to the dedicated mobile application, players need either 5GHz Wi-Fi or a cellular plan with 10Mbps download speeds and a Bluetooth-enabled Xbox One controller. You can purchase a controller clip separately to attach your phone, which helps prevent eye strain or dizziness during faster or more chaotic games.
This is optional, however, so those with access to a stand or a place to rest their phone will still be able to use xCloud, but it makes the service much more viable for commuters or those without a desk.
Project xCloud’s primary competition is still Google Stadia, but Stadia had a rough launch since it released in late 2019. Google is looking to change its fortunes in 2020 with 10 timed exclusives in the first half of the year, but Microsoft will likely still be in a very good position when xCloud does officially launch. The field will expand with Electronic Art’s Project Atlas, a possible game-streaming service from Amazon, and even Bethesda’s Orion service.
The Call of Duty franchise has held a special place in my heart ever since I played my first Black Ops game back in 2010. That game's campaign was something else, with twists and turns that culminated in a mind-blowing finale. We can all admit that compared to those older campaigns, the recent CODs have been lackluster at best, and a complete and utter disappointment at worst. The reboot of Modern Warfare did give me some hope, as the first two installments were actually quite good, but the third game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn’t exactly expecting much from Modern Warfare 4.
After recently finishing the campaign, I can say that this installment is nothing like the recent releases and instead feels closer to the franchise’s roots. For the first time in a long while, the campaign comes across as well-crafted rather than rushed to hit a release date. It arrives three years after MW3, and you can see exactly where all that time went. It seems the studio finally made listening to player feedback a priority.
Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.
Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”
It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.
Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.