Xbox Cloud Gaming Comes to Quest, But You’ll Need Your Own Gamepad

Meta and Microsoft today made good on their word to bring Xbox Cloud Gaming and the Game Pass library to Quest. With a subscription to Game Pass Ultimate and a supported gamepad, Quest can now be used to play a wide range of flatscreen games on a giant virtual screen.

The Xbox Cloud Gaming app is now available for Quest 2, Quest 3, and Quest Pro. Now those with a Game Pass Ultimate subscription can log in through their Quest to play the majority of the Game Pass library instantly with no installs required and on a giant virtual screen.

The one caveat is that you can’t use Quest’s own motion controllers, because unfortunately they lack some buttons necessary for Xbox games. You’ll need a supported gamepad, which means one that has enough buttons and a way to connect to your Quest.

Luckily some of the most popular gamepads out there are supported, including all Xbox One S and Xbox One X controllers, PS4 and PS5 controllers, and some later-generation Xbox One controllers. You can find a mostly complete list of additional supported controllers here. Microsoft also recommends an internet connection of at least 20Mbps.

While its neat to have a large virtual canvas on which to play Xbox games thanks to Quest, we wonder whether it will really be worth it compared to alternatives.

Xbox Cloud Gaming can already be played on many other devices including computers, smart TVs, and smartphones. Considering the lower resolution that you’d get on Quest compared to most modern TVs, the need to wear something on your head, and the 2–3 hour battery life, it might be more of a novel use-case than it would seem at first glance.

Still, it’s great to have access to a huge new library of games through the headset, even if you might need to buy a separate gamepad.

For now Microsoft and Meta are calling the Xbox Cloud Gaming app on Quest a ‘beta’ release, though it isn’t entirely clear what changes would be expected to change once the beta moniker is removed.