Microsoft has announced a partnership with LG to bring Xbox games to LG Smart TVs later in 2025. Gamers have been using Xbox Cloud Gaming to play Game Pass games on different devices, but now the Xbox app will be native to TVs.
Only in November, Microsoft announced that gamers are now able to stream games they own outside of the Xbox Game Pass catalog. If you subscribe to Game Pass Ultimate, you can stream games through TVs and browsers on phones, PCs, and tablets.
What games are on Xbox Game Pass?
Some of the biggest games out there are available on Game Pass. Assassin’s Creed Origins, Cities: Skylines, Diablo 4, Fallout: New Vegas, Forza Horizon 5, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, and Yakuza: Like a Dragon (the prequel to the new Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth) are all “free” to play (with a subscription).
The Game Pass collection includes MMOs, racing games, and turn-based-strategy games – also known as TBS games – like Civilization VI for example. Other popular TBS games include Crusader Kings 3 and Total War: Shogun 2.
So is Game Pass Ultimate worth it?
That partly comes down to how many games you like to play. If you’re the sort of gamer who sinks their teeth into a new game every month, playing hours every week, then Game Pass may be worth it, as you can download a game each time the previous one feels worn out. Microsoft faced some criticism when they increased the price last fall, but many players value the collection of hundreds of games for Xbox and PC.
The Ultimate, PC, and Console subscriptions are slightly different. The main difference is that the Ultimate subscription allows cloud gaming.
If you’re happy with a new game every six months or so, it might be best to buy the title to keep, rather than continually paying a monthly fee if you’re not going to make much use out of the array of games included.
Another consideration is that games are added and then sometimes taken off Game Pass, so if a game is included, there’s no guarantee you’ll have access to it forever. That said, it can work out as a good value way to play a lot of highly enjoyable games.
Will Xbox’s partnership have a major impact?
The partnership is significant because it means Game Pass Ultimate subscribers can stream games on their smart TVs without needing an Xbox.
As long as they own the game and the LG TV, they can play the game.
When is this going to be possible?
Microsoft and LG haven’t specified a release date yet, and we don’t know exactly which LG TV models will support the feature.
The announcement was only made in January, so details are pretty scant yet. LG says the Cloud Gaming will be available on its “latest Smart TVs”, but we don’t know exactly which ones they’re including.
Are there other gaming TVs worth considering?
While they don’t have the same partnership, there are other highly rated gaming TVs.
The best gaming TVs have low input lag (delay between you pressing a button and action on the screen), support for multiple HDMI ports, and often quality built-in sound (though many gamers choose to link external speakers).
Tech Radar has rated the LG C4 as “the best gaming TV for most people”. As there isn’t much information on the new Cloud gaming feature yet, we don’t know if the C4 is one of the models supported.
They rated the Sony Bravia 8 as the best for PS5 gamers, and the Hisense U7N as “the best budget gaming TV”.
