You’ll need Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, though
If you’re one of the lucky sods who managed to cram through a Steam Deck pre-order early doors and now have one of the beasty machines sitting on your desk, you’ll be happy to know that your gaming opportunities are expanding as of today.
Microsoft has worked with Valve to bring Xbox Cloud Gaming to the Steam Deck via Microsoft Edge Beta. It’s not the most straightforward of setups, admittedly, but with a few minutes and a bit of tinkering, you could be playing Xbox Series X games on your Steam Deck via the power of the cloud.
However, to use Xbox Cloud Gaming, you will need an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription, which is a good deal anyway, and it’ll save you a ton of space on your Steam Deck as you won’t need to download any games or updates. Just turn on, select the game you want to play, and enjoy.
The method of getting Xbox Cloud Gaming on Steam Deck isn’t overly complicated and if you’re a Steam Deck owner, the chances are that you’re probably familiar with tinkering around to get things working. Microsoft has put out a very handy guide, complete with screenshots, to help you get Xbox Cloud Gaming on Steam Deck.
It’s worth noting that the Microsoft Edge browser for Steam Deck is a Beta version, so it may not be 100% smooth sailing. Still, worth a go, right?
Now, if only I could actually get my hands on one of the bloody things…