Microsoft And LG Want To Ride Shotgun For In-Car Xbox Cloud Gaming

Microsoft’s Xbox gaming division launched its “This is an Xbox” campaign late last year, in an effort to reinforce the notion that all its games are playable on a variety of devices, thanks to the cloud. In its latest move, the company wants to cater to gamers wherever they happen to be, by offering cloud gaming services in a select set of vehicles.

Microsoft is partnering with Korean firm LG Electronics to deliver the Xbox Cloud Gaming experience to cars that are powered by the webOS Automotive Content Platform (ACP). For now, that means this new way to play Xbox games on the go is limited to the Kia EV3. Although, the car maker plans to bring webOS ACP to other cars as well, including the EV4, EV5 and the Sportage.


Road warriors will need to have an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription, which currently costs $19.99 a month, a compatible Bluetooth controller, and an automotive data plan to be able to enjoy this new gaming option. Membership unlocks access to a deep catalog of hundreds of games, including the recently released Gears or War: Reloaded, Forza Horizon 5, and the upcoming Outer Worlds 2.

The most obvious use case for this in-car gaming experience, is back seat gaming. While this may be a convenient way to game on displays built into the seats, it's probably not going to win over many gamers -- most people can bring along a tablet or phone on a road trip and have a similar experience.

Kia EV3 owners can expect access to the gaming service through the Xbox app sometime “soon.” Unfortunately, there’s no timeline as to when this new feature will roll out to more vehicles.