In a surprising turn of events, it looks like Sony’s PS5 Cloud Gaming is better than the xCloud, despite the latter advertising this feature better. Considering how Microsoft has made its name as a digital games service, it’s fair to say that this is a surprising turn of events if we’ve ever seen one.
Digital Foundry tested both cloud gaming services and concluded that Sony’s service is superior, truly making the games feel like they aren’t played over the net. While the xCloud isn’t a bad service, DF says that Series X owners get downgraded versions of these cloud games, since they’re streaming the Series S version.
“Between the use of PS5-grade hardware server-side, the higher bitrate and resolution, PlayStation Plus presents its catalogue at a quality level that’s much closer to justifying that Premium label – even if it’s behind Xbox in terms of latency,” Digital Foundry said.
Many had assumed that Microsoft’s xCloud would be better than PS5 Cloud Gaming since Xbox tends to focus on digital when compared to PlayStation. Game Pass is a great digital games service that towers over PlayStation Plus Premium, given the amount of games you get to stream and download. However, it seems that Sony was able to make streaming their games a good experience all around.
This is a bitter pill to swallow when you consider how Sony recently raised PS Plus prices for no particular reason. Increasing the price of this service was seen as a bad move by many, with PS Plus lacking a lot of major Sony exclusives like Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. However, even with all of that, Sony is still leading the console market, so those PS Plus numbers won’t be going down.
Read More: What resolution is Xbox Cloud Gaming?
Players can access Sony’s PS5 Cloud Gaming if they’re a member of the PlayStation Plus Premium Plan. Meanwhile, xCloud is available if you’re a member of the Game Pass Ultimate subscription service.