Xbox App

Windows 11 includes an Xbox app that works like a software version of an Xbox videogame console. It lets you install and play PC games you’ve purchased from Xbox, install and play PC games from a paid PC Game Pass or Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription, and stream Xbox console games from the Xbox Cloud Gaming service (which requires a paid Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription).

Put another way, the Xbox app is a front-end to Microsoft’s PC-based Xbox products and services and isn’t a more general front-end to PC gaming. If you acquire PC games from elsewhere, or subscribe to other videogame services, those titles will not appear in the Xbox app. Interestingly, this includes most of the games you acquire from the Microsoft Store: aside from the subset of titles that are part of the Xbox ecosystem, most of those titles will not appear in the Xbox app either.

So what does it mean to be part of the Xbox ecosystem? Among other things, Xbox-compatible PC games offers in-game achievements, the ability to find and play with your friends who are also on Xbox, multiplayer capabilities, a way to share in-game screenshots and video clips with others, and in some cases, cross-play functionality so that you can play in games with others who use Xbox consoles.

Get to know the Xbox app

The Xbox app is straightforward and easily understood. It’s a modern Windows 11-style app with a non-collapsible navigation bar on the left and a larger content area on the right.

The following interfaces are available:

Xbox profile and settings. The top entry in the navigation bar represents your Xbox profile, and it displays a short menu when selected with options related to that profile, the app settings interface, and more. You can display and customize your Xbox profile by selecting “View profile” from the menu.

Notifications. You can toggle the Notifications icon (which looks like a bell) next to the Xbox profiles entry in the navigation bar to display a Notifications pane that displays recent Xbox notifications in reverse chronological order.

Game Pass. Here, PC Game Pass and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers can find games associated with their membership and download them to their PCs.

We discuss this functionality later in the chapter, in PC Game Pass and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

My Library. Here, you can find links to the Xbox-compatible games you’ve marked to play later, the Xbox-compatible games that are installed on your PC, and the games that you’ve purchased in the past from Xbox.

You can learn more about your Xbox library in the section Manage your library of Xbox games for PC below.

Cloud Gaming. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers can stream a selection of Xbox console games to their PCs using a service called Xbox Cloud Gaming. If you are such a member, you can access this service here.

We discuss this service more in Stream games from the cloud with Xbox Cloud Gaming, below.

Community. This view displays your friends on Xbox, organized by whether they’re online, so you can message them, invite them to a party for online gameplay, and view social media posts from the makers of the games you play.

Store. Here, you can find Xbox-compatible PC games to purchase and download.

We take a look at the Xbox Store in the next section.

Installed. Games that are installed on your PC will appear in an Installed section in the navigation bar for quick access.

Queue. This entry displays the Manage installs screen, which lets you manage your installed games and follow the progress of any games that are downloading now to your PC.

Find Xbox-compatible games for your PC

As you probably know, you can use the Microsoft Store app in Windows 11 to find, download, and purchase games, and some of those games are Xbox-compatible. Unfortunately, there is no Store view that will only show you Xbox-compatible games. Instead, you can use the Store view in the Xbox app to do so.

This is straightforward: simply browse the Store area in the Xbox app and find a game you wish to download or buy.

Then, select the appropriate “Get” (for free games), “Install” (for games available via a Game Pass subscription), or “Buy” button. When you do so, the title is added to the library associated with your Xbox account (which is your Microsoft account) and you are prompted to download the game.

You can view this game, and the other titles in your library by navigating to My Library, which is discussed in the next section.

Manage your library of Xbox games for PC

The My Library view in the Xbox app displays all of the Xbox-compatible PC games that you have added to your library, by purchasing paid titles, downloading free titles, or via an Xbox Game Pass subscription (which is described later in the chapter).

There are three main sections here.

Play later. When viewing a game in your library, you can select the “Add to Play later” button to play a shortcut to that title to a Play later playlist. These shortcuts appear at the top of My Library.

My PC games. If you have purchased or downloaded Xbox PC games in the past, they will appear in this section so that you can install them on this PC. From here, you can select any game in your library, install it or add it to Play later.

You can also click the “Manage Installs” button to manage games that are already installed on your PC. For example, you can use that interface to uninstall a game.

PC Game Pass and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate

Microsoft offers three Xbox Game Pass services that you can subscribe to in order to access their respective libraries of game titles across Xbox consoles, PCs, and other devices. They are:

Xbox Game Pass. For $9.99 per month in the U.S., Xbox Game Pass lets subscribers download and play a selection of hundreds of games on their Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, or Xbox One videogame console.

PC Game Pass. For $9.99 per month in the U.S., PC Game Pass lets subscribers download and play a selection of over 100 hundred games on their PCs.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. For $14.99 per month in the U.S., Xbox Game Pass Ultimate lets subscribers download and play hundreds of games on their Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, or Xbox One videogame console, a selection of hundreds of games on their PCs, and access the Xbox Cloud Gaming service, which lets them stream a selection of hundreds of Xbox console games to their PCs, consoles, mobile devices, select smart TVs, and the web.

From the perspective of a Windows 11 user, PC Game Pass and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate offer the same collection of PC games, and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate adds the console game streaming capability. Xbox Game Pass, by comparison, is for Xbox console owners only, and it doesn’t factor into this discussion.

You can learn more about the Xbox Game Pass subscriptions on the Xbox website.

Subscribe to PC Game Pass or Xbox Game Pass Ultimate

If you are not yet a member, you can subscribe to either service in the Xbox app by navigating to Game Pass, reviewing the available choices, and selecting the appropriate “Join for $1.00” button. (New subscriptions cost $1.00 for the first month only, and then $9.99 or $14.99 in subsequent months.)

As with the Microsoft Store, this purchase requires you to associate a payment method with your Microsoft account.

You can also join either service via the Xbox website. But if you know that you will want to use one of these services over several months or more, you can also purchase three-month PC Game Pass and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership codes from retailers like Amazon.com These codes are often discounted so that you pay less per month.

Find and play games from PC Game Pass or Xbox Game Pass Ultimate

If you are a PC Game Pass or Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscriber, the Game Pass view in the Xbox app will provide an app store-like experience for browsing the game titles that are available to you.

This view includes promoted game titles, game picks for you, and recently added sections, plus previews of games coming soon to the service, games related to titles you’ve played in the past, popular games, EA Play games, and more.

The section “Leaving soon” may be of particular interest because game titles rotate out of Game Pass from time to time too. If you are playing a game via your subscription and it’s going to leave the service, Microsoft will offer you 20 percent off if you wish to buy it and keep playing.

To view a game, just select it in any of the views within Game Pass.

Here, you see the same basic options as in the Store view, but with an “Install” button instead of a “Buy” button. This landing page also notes whether the game will play well on your PC, given its hardware requirements.

To install the game, click “Install.”

After reviewing the download size and other options, including the drive to which you will install the game, click “Install” again. You can view the download progress in the Install queue in the Manage installs view by clicking the Queue item at the bottom of the Xbox app’s navigation pane.

Once the game downloads and installs, it will be available under “Recently installed” in the Manage installs view. And, more importantly, under “My PC games” in the My Library view. It will also appear in the Start menu so that you can launch and play it without first opening the Xbox app.

Downloaded Game Pass titles work just like any other downloaded games, and all Xbox games support the Xbox Wireless Controller if you prefer to play that way. These games are also compatible with the Xbox Game Bar, of course.

Stream games from the cloud with Xbox Cloud Gaming

Most videogames are still played on devices like smartphones, PCs, and videogame consoles using a traditional model in which you acquire and download them from an online store or website, install them on the device, and then play them directly from that device. But Microsoft is at the vanguard of a new movement to stream games from the cloud–Internet datacenters–to devices of any kind. These games are not installed locally on your devices, but rather rely on a constant Internet connection, as when you stream movies from services like Netflix or music from services like Spotify.

Microsoft’s game streaming service is called Xbox Cloud Gaming and it’s available as part of the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription. Xbox Cloud Gaming streams Xbox console games to devices of all kinds, including Windows PCs, Macs, iPads, iPhones, Android smartphones and tablets, select smart TVs, and any device with a modern web browser.

Xbox Cloud Gaming is particularly interesting for PC users because allows you to play more advanced game titles than might normally be possible. So instead of spending a lot of money on a gaming-class PC, you can use any Windows 11-compatible PC to stream these more advanced titles from Microsoft’s datacenters.

With Windows 11, you access this service by opening the Xbox app and navigating to the Cloud Gaming view.

This works much like the My Library view, but it also provides an interface at the top to make sure you meet the service’s requirements, which include an Xbox Wireless Controller and Internet connectivity. There’s also a “Settings” (gear) button to configure a handful of Xbox Cloud Gaming options.

From here, you can browse through the catalog of hundreds of game titles that Microsoft and its partners make available to subscribers. When you find one you wish to play, select it and click Play.

Now, Microsoft will initiate the stream.

After a short wait, the game will begin normally and you can play it with your Xbox Wireless Controller as if it were a locally installed game title. Assuming, of course, your connectivity is good enough.

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And, yes, Xbox Cloud Gaming titles are compatible with the Xbox Game Bar too.