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Bandwidth: Xbox cloud gamers love touchscreen controls, GeForce Now 3080 tier expands to Europe

Cloud gaming is useful for its ability to bring high-end console/PC games to any device, but as it turns out, mobile gameplay may be the biggest use case. This week, Microsoft released that 20% of users on Xbox cloud gaming are exclusively using the touchscreen controls.

Bandwidth is 9to5Google’s weekly look at the cloud gaming market beyond Google’s own Stadia platform. Every Friday, we take a look at the biggest news regarding services such as Nvidia GeForce Now, Amazon Luna, PlayStation Now, and Xbox Game Pass, among others. Come back weekly and don’t forget to check out Stadia Changelog, our weekly roundup of everything new on Stadia.

Xbox cloud gamers love touchscreen controls, apparently

Xbox Game Pass makes it easy for players to enjoy a game from their console, phone, or browser, but it seems that cloud gaming on Xbox is especially useful for players who want to play on their phone without a controller. Microsoft explained to The Verge this week that a whopping 20% of players using Xbox’s cloud gaming are playing exclusively using a touchscreen with the over 100 titles that support touchscreen controls. As one example, over 30% of players are using touchscreen controls exclusively to play Hades.

[Twenty] percent of our Xbox Cloud Gaming users use touch as their exclusive method of playing games. As such, it’s important to us that the touch-enabled games we launch are relevant and, most importantly, play well with touch controls. We’ve seen, on average, a 2x increase in usage for titles available via Xbox Cloud Gaming, across genres, that implement touch controls.

Further, Microsoft announced new games coming to Game Pass, including Stardew Valley’s official cloud-gaming debut. The following games are all now available with cloud play on Xbox Game Pass, unless otherwise noted.

  • Archvale
  • Lawn Mowing Simulator
  • Rubber Bandits
  • Stardew Valley
  • Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector
  • Before We Leave
  • Generation Zero
  • Mind Scanners
  • Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator – Dec 7
  • Halo Infinite – Dec 8
  • One Piece Pirate Warriors 4 – Dec 9
  • Aliens: Fireteam Elite – Dec 14

GeForce Now expands 3080 tier to Europe

After launching its new high-end tier in the US last month, Nvidia is bringing its 3080 tier to Europe. The rollout starts this week for the same cost.

Starting today, gamers in Europe who preordered a six-month GeForce NOW RTX 3080 membership will have their accounts enabled with the new tier of service. Rollouts for accounts will continue until all requests have been fulfilled.

Nvidia also detailed nine games coming to GeForce Now this week including today’s release of Chorus, as well as 11 more titles coming this month, including Untitled Goose Game.

Available as of this week…

And coming later this month…

Amazon Luna’s December additions

Announced last week, Amazon Luna is adding a few new games to Luna+ in December, as well as one new title for the Family Channel. The new additions include:

  • Katana Zero
  • Disc Room
  • Dreamworks Spirit: Lucky’s Big Adventure (Family Channel)

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