Buying Games Through The Xbox App Is Finally Coming

Summary: Buying games in the Xbox app has been a long-requested feature by users, and Microsoft is finally starting to roll it out. Alongside this new feature, users will also be able to buy add-on content, join Game Pass, and redeem perks.

The Xbox app is FINALLY going to support buying games within it, after the app has been available without this feature for several years. Now, there are likely very reasonable explanations as to why this hasn’t been supported until now. However, what’s most important is that the capability to buy games through the app is going to be available after all this time.

When you think about comparisons, such as with the PlayStation app, you can buy games through it for use on your PS5. Although it is worth noting that the app simply opens the PlayStation Store web portal inside the app. So it might work a little differently than buying straight from the app.

All that aside, this feature has been a long time coming. It’s also not a complete surprise that it’s almost here. Microsoft confirmed this would be coming to the app all the way back in October of last year. At the time, however, it was supposed to be made available in November, yet it never launched.

Buying games in the Xbox is one of a few new features

Buying games won’t be the only new feature of the Xbox app. Microsoft confirms that soon, users will also be able to buy add-on content, redeem perks, and join Game Pass from the app as well. So, essentially, anything you could spend money on via your Xbox console should be doable via the app once this officially goes live.

That being said, not everyone will be able to use this right away. According to Microsoft’s official Xbox Wire blog post, it’ll start to roll out first to beta users on iOS and Android. Everyone else, i.e., those who aren’t using the beta version of the app, will get it “soon” the company says.

You can also now stream your own games on Xbox consoles

In addition to the mobile app updates, it’s also now possible to stream your own games on your Xbox consoles. This supports the Xbox Series X and the Xbox Series S, as well as the Xbox One. This feature isn’t entirely new, as it was already available for select TVs from Samsung and others. Now, however, you can stream games you’ve purchased directly on your Xbox.

You might wonder why you’d want this capability. After all, if you’ve bought the game, why not just install it? The answer is simple. Time and hard drive space. Maybe your Xbox is already full of games, and you don’t have enough storage left to install that new game you just bought. You also don’t want to uninstall anything. So, now you won’t have to. You can simply stream the game to the console.

This also saves you time, since you won’t need to wait for the download and the installation. A process that can take quite a while if your internet isn’t exactly the fastest. The Xbox April update adds a few more things for Xbox owners, too, like more device support for Xbox Remote Play.