xbox_one_streaming

How to Stream Xbox One Games to Your Windows 10 PC. Windows 10 includes the ability to stream your Xbox One games to the Xbox app on your PC. It’s a pretty cool feature that we’ll talk more about today. If you own an Xbox One, you may not realize that you can stream your games to your Windows 10 PC without any additional software or hardware. All you need is your gaming console and your desktop or laptop. The Xbox app should already be installed, so streaming should take just a few short minutes to get it up and running. Along the left-hand edge, near the bottom, there’s a “Connect” button. If you click that, you’ll be able to connect to your Xbox One. In this case, we can turn it on. Have an Xbox One? Click on the “Connect” button to connect to it. However, though we’re connected, we’ll still need to sign in on the console before we can actually use it on our PC. If your account has security implemented into it, you will need to sign in before you can use it remotely. Once connected, you can access a variety of options. Take a minute to peruse them at your leisure. We’re most concerned, however, with the streaming options you see at the top. If you’ve connected your TV to your Xbox One, you can use your PC as a remote control. There is also an option through which you can use an on-screen controller. Obviously this won’t be of much use for games, but you can at least navigate menus with it. Finally, under the “More” menu, you’ll find options to disconnect, turn the console off, as well as forget it. We recommend you test streaming first. The system will determine the optimal qualities for your system and network. It is best if you connect both you PC and Xbox One to your router via an Ethernet cable. In any event, once you connect via the Xbox app using the streaming feature, you’ll be able to see everything on your PC as if you were sitting in front of your Xbox One. This means that others around the house connected to your network can drop in and watch your gameplay without being in the same room. Once you’re streaming, you can play games and use your Xbox One on your computer, even in windowed mode. In a streaming window, there are some controls you should take a look at. You can return to the home screen at any time by clicking the Xbox symbol at the far left. If you want to mute/unmute chat, click the microphone icon. Note, the quality button at the far right. This will determine how good your Xbox streaming looks on your Windows 10 PC. In this example, the quality has defaulted to medium, but it can be set higher, though, as we mentioned previously, you’re guaranteed better results if you plug both your Xbox One and PC into your router with an Ethernet cable. One other item of interest is the bandwidth meter, which can be accessed by clicking the lined icon next to the “stop streaming” button. This meter will let you know what your total bandwidth consumption is, which is useful for determining where there might be a problem on your network and if you have enough bandwidth available to stream from you Xbox One to you PC. Microsoft has made it surprisingly easy to stream games and other content from its flagship gaming console to any Windows 10 PC with the Xbox app installed. As long as the console is on the same network, it’s literally as easy as clicking the “Connect” button and then “Stream”. So, the next time you’re playing a game, and you want to move into your bedroom, all you need to do is plug your controller into your computer and stream to it. If you have anything you would like contribute to this article, such as a comment or question, please leave your feedback in our discussion forum. Matt Klein is an aspiring Florida beach bum, displaced honorary Texan, and dyed-in-wool Ohio State Buckeye, who fancies himself a nerd-of-all-trades. His favorite topics might include operating systems, BBQ, roller skating, and trying to figure out how to explain quantum computers. Did You Know. Don’t be deceived by all the colors in a bowl of Fruit Loops cereal; despite the differing colors, every piece has identical flavoring. Best of How-To Geek. Get the HTG Newsletter. Join 100,000 other subscribers. Follow How-To Geek. More Articles You Might Like. Enter your email address to get our daily newsletter. Join the How-To Geek Club! (It's Free) ✕ Get exclusive articles before everybody else. Get downloadable ebooks for free! Get geeky trivia, fun facts, and much more. How to Stream Video to Xbox One. This page details how to stream video from a PC to an Xbox One. Xbox One is capable of receiving and displaying video streams from Windows Media Center 7 and Windows 8.1 PCs. So long as the PC and Xbox One reside on the same network, the streaming process is fairly simple. 1. Make sure you have the video application open on your Xbox One. 2. Check your PC network settings and ensure that the Xbox One is visible on the network. If it is not, make sure both devices are properly connected and configured to see one another. 3. Check your Xbox One Preferences under Settings and make sure “Play To” support is enabled. 4. Select a locally-stored video file on your PC. Most popular video file formats should work. 5. Right click the file or files you wish to play. 6. Select the “Play To” option. 7. A drop down menu should appear listing all compatible decides detected on your home network. You should see your Xbox One listed among them. 8. Select your Xbox One. The stream will load and then begin playing. The Xbox One’s video controls will then take over, allowing you to pause and play the stream without touching your PC again. How to Update Your Xbox One Controller Previous. Xbox One RGB Limited (TV) Vs. RGB Full (PC) © 1996-2018 Ziff Davis, LLC. We have updated our PRIVACY POLICY and encourage you to read it by clicking here. IGN uses cookies and other tracking technologies to customize online advertisements, and for other purposes. IGN supports the Digital Advertising Alliance principles. Learn More. The next generation of live game streaming. Welcome to Mixer. Mixer is the only next gen streaming service that offers viewers real-time influence and participation in live game streams. Streamers and viewers can connect like never before, engaging together to create a whole new streaming experience. Let viewers rock your Minecraft world. Now viewers can fully participate in your Minecraft stream. Summon zombies, gift weapons, place objects, and make night fall. For every Minecraft command, you can create an interactive button and let your viewers loose to help, hinder, or just mess with you. FTL (Faster Than Light) Technology. While other platforms leave you waiting 10-20 seconds, our streaming protocol delivers content with less than one second of latency. It makes game streams so fast, clear and easy that streamers and viewers are practically in the same room together. Be part of the game. Interactivity is the cornerstone of everything we offer. From selecting built-in soundboards and visual elements to 4-player co-streams, viewers can interact with their favorite streamers in ways that are deeper, more personal and (most importantly) more fun. Effortless streaming – anytime, anywhere. Mixer makes it easy to start streaming your gameplay. In just a couple of clicks, you can start broadcasting on Windows 10 or Xbox One—no extra software required. And coming soon, the Mixer Create app on iOS and Android will let you easily broadcast your gameplay on the go. In it together. A diverse community of unique individuals engaging together to create new possibilities—that’s what makes Mixer such a blast! How to Stream Xbox One Games to a Windows 10 PC. There are a few reasons why you might want to stream a game from your Xbox One to your Windows 10 PC: someone's already hogging the TV, you don't feel like putting down your laptop and getting out of bed, or you really want to be able to play Xbox One games with a 360 controller. Whether you're eager to get started or you're curious to see if it works as advertised, this feature is easy to setup—we've outlined the steps you need to take below. This should work regardless if you're on a desktop, laptop, or tablet PC; so long as you're running Windows 10 (and not Windows 10 Mobile), you're good to go. Obviously, if you haven't yet signed into your account, you'll need to do so now. You'll also need to be logged into your account on your console. Step 2: Click on the "Connect" Tab. From the options along the left-hand navigation bar in the Xbox app, choose "Connect." If you're on the same router, you should see your Xbox One automatically appear among the devices you can connect to. If you're not, or for some reason don't see your console on the list, go over to your console and obtain its IP address. (You can find it by going to Settings -> Network -> Advanced Settings, and then looking at the right side of the screen.) Enter the IP address in the field at the bottom of the "Add a Device" window, then hit connect. Your console should appear in the list. To connect to your Xbox One, simply click on its name. Once the Xbox app is connected to your Xbox One, you can begin streaming right away—just click on the "Stream" option in the upper right hand corner of the box. The default video encoding level is Medium; this should work pretty smoothly for setups that have both the PC and console on wired connections. Don't forget to plug a controller into your PC (be it a wired Xbox One, wired Xbox 360, or a wireless 360 one). If you want to change the video encoding level before you get started, or discover that you're getting lag and/or stuttering on Medium, head to Settings in the Xbox app and then Game Streaming to change between High, Medium, and Low. Now that you've got streaming going, you can control your Xbox One via your PC's Xbox controller just the same as you would if you were in range of it with an Xbox One controller. So to play a game, select it from your pins, the Dashboard, or My Games and Apps and you're ready to go. You can actually stream more than just games from your Xbox One—as you've likely already noticed, this feature essentially lets you remotely log in to your console. That means you can also watch content like Netflix videos or over-the-air TV (if you have the TV tuner accessory) if you want, too. OTA TV streaming is particularly nice if you want to be in a part of your house that doesn't typically get good reception or doesn't have a TV. Note, though, that the Xbox app actually offers a much direct path to that same content, as does being on a PC. For OTA TV streaming, you can initiate that through the OneGuide section of the Xbox app; this reduces the steps you'd need to take if you went about streaming a TV show the same way as game streaming. As for video or music streaming services, it makes more sense to directly access those through a browser. You can also combine game streaming with Windows 10's Game DVR feature to take longer recordings of your gameplay. (Up to two hours at a stretch.) If you've been feeling limited by Xbox One's 5-minute limit for Game DVR clips, this is a workaround that doesn't involve buying a dedicated capture device. Happily, this works for OTA TV as well—so while it's not a substitute for a proper Xbox One DVR function, you can at least record a TV show if you don't mind setting up the capture in real time. Just make sure you have enough hard drive space to accommodate; for reference, a sample 3:28 minute recording was 203.8MB. That's roughly 7GB for a full two-hour clip, with the potential of it being larger if a lot is happening during a particular episode. Alaina Yee is IGN's tech editor and resident cardboard fort maker. When she's not thinking of workarounds for missing features in her gadgets, she's usually on Twitter. © 1996-2018 Ziff Davis, LLC. We have updated our PRIVACY POLICY and encourage you to read it by clicking here. IGN uses cookies and other tracking technologies to customize online advertisements, and for other purposes. IGN supports the Digital Advertising Alliance principles. Learn More. How to use game streaming in the Xbox app on Windows 10. On this page. Game streaming is the ability to play Xbox One games remotely from your Xbox One console on any Windows 10 PC on your home network. This feature allows you to leave your living room and play your favorite Xbox One games anywhere with access to your home network. Game streaming uses the power of the Xbox One console to manage the game. Your Windows 10 PC becomes a remote second screen so you can roam freely around your home while continuing to enjoy your Xbox One console and games. To take advantage of game streaming, you need: Xbox One console: Game streaming must be enabled in Settings . Windows 10 PC: You must be signed in to the Xbox app with the same gamertag as on the Xbox One console. Network connectivity: The Windows 10 PC and the Xbox One console must be on the same home network. Options: Wired - Ethernet connection (recommended for both PC and Xbox One console) Wireless - 802.11 N/AC wireless connection. For best performance, we recommend that your Windows 10 PC have: At least 2 gigabytes of RAM 1.5 GHz CPU or faster Network connection to your home network: Best performance: Wired Ethernet connection Good performance: Wireless – 5 GHz 802.11 N or 802.11 AC wireless access point Limited performance: Wireless – 2.4 GHz 802.11 N or 802.11 AC wireless access point. Note If a wired connection is not practical in your home due to the distance between your console and your home networking device, you can invest in either of two additional options that take advantage of the existing wiring in your home: Powerline network adapters – These adapters allow you to use the existing electrical wiring of your home as a high-speed wired network. MoCA (Multimedia over Coax) – These adapters allow you to use the existing coaxial cable wiring of your home as a high-speed wired network. Enable settings on your Xbox One. To use Xbox game streaming, you must first enable game streaming from your Xbox One. To do this, press the Xbox button to open the guide, select Settings > Preferences > Xbox app connections . Do these two things: Under This Xbox, enable Allow game streaming to other devices . Under Other devices , enable Allow connections from any device or Only from profiles signed in on this Xbox . Connect your Windows 10 PC to your Xbox One. After ensuring that your console settings are correct, you need to establish a connection from your Windows 10 PC to your Xbox One console from within the Xbox app on your PC: On your PC, launch the Xbox app. Select Connect from the panel on the left side. The Xbox app will scan your home network for available Xbox One consoles. Select the name of the console you want to connect to. Note All Xbox One consoles are pre-named "MyXboxOne." If you have multiple consoles, you should rename each one so that you can correctly identify the console you're trying to connect to. You can rename your console by pressing the Xbox button to open the guide, selecting System > All settings > Console info , and then selecting the name of your console in the Name box. Once you have connected, you'll see the icons change to indicate you are connected, and you'll see new options for streaming, power, and media remotes. You'll also now have control of the console remotely. To begin streaming, click Stream once the console is connected. Connect your console to your PC, as described previously. After you click on any Xbox One game in the Xbox app, you can initiate streaming from within that game hub. Just click Play from console in the upper-right corner of the screen. The game will be immediately launched on the Xbox One console, and streaming will start. After your PC is connected to your Xbox One console, you can select a quality level for the video. You can change the quality of your stream before you start streaming or while you are streaming. You should set the quality to the highest level that still gives you a good gameplay experience. In the Xbox app, click Settings , and then select Game streaming. Under Video encoding level , select a streaming quality. We recommend: High – If both your Xbox One and your Windows 10 PC are connected with a wired Ethernet connection, or if your console and the PC are in the same room as the wireless router with minimal wireless interference. Medium – For 5 GHz wireless networked PCs and consoles that are in different rooms within your home. Low – For low-end PCs and tablets, as well as 2.4 GHz wireless networks. Note You can always start with a higher setting and reduce your quality level until you reach the best performance your home network will support based on your current configuration. To try to improve your game streaming experience, see Improve Xbox app for Windows 10 game streaming performance. Note As mentioned in System requirements, your Xbox and PC need to be on the same wireless network. Note This video is available in English only. Make sure your Xbox One is on and you’re signed in. On your PC, sign in to the Xbox app with the same profile you’re using on Xbox One. Open the Oculus app and sign in with your Oculus account. Search for “Xbox” and install Xbox One Streaming . Open Xbox One Streaming and, if necessary, choose your Xbox. If there’s only one Xbox on your network and it’s turned on, the app will choose it automatically. If the app doesn’t see an Xbox, make sure your Xbox is on and you’re signed in. If you need to connect to your Xbox using its IP address, you’ll find the IP address in Settings > Network > Network settings > Advanced . Put on your Rift headset and start using your Xbox. While streaming to Oculus, the Xbox button on your controller opens the Oculus universal menu instead of taking you to Xbox Home. To use the functionality of the Xbox button , move your head to aim the cursor at the virtual Xbox button and either press the A button on your controller or long-press A to act on notifications or open the power menu. To adjust streaming quality—for instance, if you’re adjusting for a slow network—move your head to aim the cursor at the Network icon below the screen and select a lower quality level (the default level is Very High). Protected video and HDCP-protected content can't be streamed with game streaming. This includes protected HDMI television content as well as the content from many media applications. Plug your USB headset (or microphone) into your Windows 10 PC or your chat headset into your controller before beginning game streaming. Your headset must be selected as the default playback and recording device on your PC. To access this setting, open Control Panel , select Hardware and Sound , and then select Manage Audio Devices . Streaming Xbox One games to a Windows 10 PC is awesome. Ever since Microsoft announced its plans to bring Xbox One game streaming to Windows 10 back in January, I've been dying to try it. While the Xbox One dashboard has been updated to support the new feature, the Xbox one app for Windows 10 isn't quite ready yet. At its Build developers conference in San Francisco this week, Microsoft is demonstrating Xbox One game streaming to Windows 10 PCs to the public for the first time. I got a chance to try it, and it's as awesome as I had hoped. Just plug an Xbox One controller into a Windows 10 PC and you're ready to go. It all starts with an Xbox One controller and the Xbox app for Windows 10. You can plug Xbox One controllers into Windows 10 PCs, and the Xbox app will automatically install the drivers and then you're ready to stream games. Titles will stream locally over a network, but you won't be able to go on vacation and access your game collection from a hotel. There are ways around that by setting up VPN connections at home, but for now it's designed to work over the local network, and the streaming is optimized for that experience. Launching games is simple from the Xbox app for Windows 10, you just select the title you want to play and there's a new streaming option at the top. This isn't just streaming, though. You can even access the entire Xbox One dashboard, and launch apps like party, friends, achievements, and more. It all seemed to work without much lag in Microsoft's demo, but we'll have to take a look at it more closely in home environments to really judge it fully. You won't be able to use your Xbox One while you stream games. One of the disappointing aspects to this game streaming is that it's a little limited. I had hoped Microsoft would allow the Xbox One to continue outputting TV, or run apps like Netflix, all while someone remotely plays an Xbox One game. That's not the case, and it's literally just mirroring the whole experience as a video stream to a Windows 10 PC. That means if you're living the dream of Xbox One as an entertainment and games console in the living room, then streaming games will take over that experience. Microsoft says it's investigating having TV work while you stream a game remotely, but the initial release won't support that. Microsoft is planning to enable game streaming for Windows 10 testers very soon, so expect to see this arrive in the coming weeks as part of the company's regular Windows 10 updates. Next Up In Gaming. Now Trending. Command Line. Command Line delivers daily updates from the near-future. Engadget. Fujifilm brings faster autofocus to its selfie-friendly X-A5. Google's $249 AI-powered Clips camera is finally on sale. Google trained its AI camera with help from pro photographers. Latest in Gaming. The Morning After: Super Moon Xtreme Championship Edition. 'Overwatch' update downgrades Mercy, adds 4K on Xbox One X. Nintendo Switch sales have surpassed the Wii U. Humble is selling Rockstar Games on the cheap to save the rainforest. Xbox One gets third-party camera support for game streaming. If you're serious about video game streaming, you most likely have a PC with a decent capture card, microphone, camera and software like XSplit or OBS. It can be expensive and a little convoluted, which is why Sony and Microsoft are making their respective consoles better all-in-one streamers. On the Xbox side, Microsoft has added third-party USB camera support for "Insiders," or beta testers, on its "Preview Alpha Ring." It only works with Mixer, the company's Twitch rival, and strictly for broadcasting video — so you'll still need a headset or microphone to handle your vocal chords. Mixer, formerly known as Beam, lags far behind Twitch in popularity. For most streamers, then, this new feature will be fairly insignificant. Still, it's a welcome addition, and one that could persuade a few extra players to try Microsoft's streaming platform. Should that happen, it could also persuade Twitch, YouTube, Facebook and others to patch in similar support. That would help Microsoft and — were the same features to be replicated on the PlayStation 4 — Sony to close the gap between console streaming and console-streaming through-a-PC setups. Professional webcams, after all, will always best Microsoft's Kinect and Sony's PlayStation Camera. Starting today for Alpha Insiders: 3rd party USB camera support for @WatchMixer streaming on Xbox One. For more: https://t.co/EMZ5VFHYIC. If you're part of the Mixer community, hold tight. USB webcam support is rolling out now to Insiders, and should be completed "in the coming weeks." In a blog post, the team said it would need feedback from Xbox One owners before it's comfortable offering the feature to everyone. "We won't release this feature broadly until we're confident in the experience, so the more webcams we can get testing on, the better," Microsoft's Josh Stein said. If you're not an Insider already, you can always join by downloading the appropriate app from the Store on your Xbox One. Spotify is testing a Pandora-esque standalone Android app. More listening, less searching for what to play. The Morning After: Super Moon Xtreme Championship Edition. Look up (if you're on the West Coast). Google is using AI to predict flight delays. You can also find out what you'll miss with 'basic' fares. 'Overwatch' update downgrades Mercy, adds 4K on Xbox One X. Overwatch League players are looking forward to the change. Windows 10 can turn any computer into an Xbox, and it's incredible. Windows 10 running on a Surface Pro 3. Business Insider. Unlike Apple, Microsoft's not known for making easy-to-use products. Years ago, this was not the case - Windows 95 revolutionized home computing with a user-friendly design. And who could forget Microsoft Bob? (Okay, you probably don't remember Microsoft Bob. Nor should you.) With Windows 10, Microsoft could be making a return to form. I've only been using it for a few days, but I've been enjoying its simplicity. Most importantly for me, I've been enjoying how easy it is to stream Xbox One games to my computer using the new Xbox app built into Windows 10. Here's a look at the app with my colleague Steve Kovach's account, which shows much of your Xbox Live information, some activity, and some other stuff: What's exciting isn't the easy access to Xbox Live account information (though that's nice), or even the ability to communicate with friends across Windows 10 laptops/tablets/desktop PCs and the Xbox One game console (also convenient). What's exciting is this little icon on the left here: That icon is represents an Xbox One. And that's how you remotely connect to your Xbox One, very easily. Allow me to explain. My PC is connected to my home network. My Xbox One is connected to my home network. Setup complete! No, seriously - that's it. After clicking the icon, the Xbox app automatically scans whatever network it's connected to for any Xbox One consoles. It looks like this: If your Xbox One isn't on when you go looking for it, the app will ask for your Xbox One's IP address. And who wants to go find an IP address? Certainly not me. Thankfully, there's an easy solution: go turn on your Xbox One. Seriously, that's it. Click the Xbox One icon once more and it should immediately find your Xbox One. Click "Connect" and you're in. After connecting, you get full access to everything on your Xbox One. You'll need to hook up a gamepad of some form - I used an Xbox 360 wired gamepad, but you could also use an Xbox One controller - but you're otherwise good to go. Beware: If you've got a lot of wireless traffic in your area (read: you live in a city), connecting your Xbox One remotely to your PC might not be as smooth as it is for me. I use this Asus dual band router, and using a dual band router means a greater potential for smooth streaming (fewer people using dual band routers means more room for you). Boring router stuff aside, my experience streaming Xbox One games to my PC - through one wall, across two medium-sized rooms - was close to flawless. It still felt like streaming. There is discernible lag, though not enough to affect using the Xbox One or playing games. To test just how much lag there was, I went with a highly scientific method: play "Geometry Wars 3" for a few hours. If you're not familiar, "Geometry Wars 3" is a fast-paced, twitch reaction kind of game. It's the kind of game that would be dramatically affected by significant lag. Thankfully, Windows 10 streaming of Xbox One games passed the "Geometry Wars 3" test with flying colors (somewhat literally given how colorful the game is). I'll need much more time with the Xbox app on Windows 10 to tell you definitively if it's perfect, but so far I've had a great experience using it. It's unlikely I'll be streaming Xbox One games to my PC all the time, but it's a nice feature that I'm glad works as seamlessly and flawlessly as it does. Microsoft has a secret weapon for breathing life back into the Xbox One. You can play "Halo" on your PC thanks to Windows 10. YouTube/Xbox. Microsoft's secret weapon for making its Xbox One compete with Sony's wildly popular PlayStation 4 is coming from a surprising place: Windows. With the release of the Windows 10 operating system on Wednesday, Microsoft is laying the groundwork for the future of the Xbox One game console. First and foremost: yes, Windows 10 is coming to the Xbox One, though it's not clear exactly when that will be. And though that's nice, it's not what we're talking about here. The future of the Xbox One bridges the gap between your living room and your office, bringing your favorite PC games to Microsoft's games console. The first clue to that future is in the Windows 10 Xbox app, and one particular function of that app: streaming Xbox One games to your home computer. Perhaps you're lounging in your sun room, listening to Tina Turner's seminal "Private Dancer" album and feeling an urge to play Xbox One exclusive "Rise of the Tomb Raider" (the unreleased next chapter in the "Tomb Raider" franchise). You pick up your Windows 10-powered Surface Pro tablet, open the Xbox app, and - BOOM - you're in. The Xbox One icon in the Windows 10 Xbox app, enabling streaming from Xbox One to PC. Tech Insider. Simply select your Xbox One and boot the game. You've got instant access to every game on your Xbox One, making Xbox One games instantly playable on your Surface Pro tablet. It's pretty magical. But what if you could do the opposite? What if you could boot up your Xbox One and suddenly have access to everything on your home PC, from games to film to. well, anything? Very appealing! This functionality is certainly possible, as demonstrated by the shockingly easy, intuitive, seamless streaming from the Xbox One to PC. And Xbox boss Phil Spencer has offered plenty of clues for how it might work. The Xbox One doesn't have a mouse and keyboard. The first issue with using a game console like the Xbox One to operate a full-on computer is not having a mouse/keyboard setup. The Xbox One doesn't actually support mice as it is (it does support keyboards via USB). Not yet anyway - here's Spencer on Twitter on July 21 talking about that support coming "soon": Keyboard and mouse support for Xbox [One] would need to be there for this to work, those aren't far away. Even more telling of Microsoft's ambition is Spencer's answer when asked directly about the ability to operate a Windows 10 computer through an Xbox One: Still finishing Xbox to Win10 streaming right now. I like the idea of Win10->Xbox One streaming but don't have a plan yet. And that comment on Twitter is far from the first time that the head of Xbox has spoken about bringing PC functionality to the Xbox One through streaming. He told me in January (at my previous employer, Engadget) during the big debut of Windows 10 that, " It's something that we're really looking at. This announcement was what we had, but if you think about that vision - my games are my games, wherever I am-- we want to be able to land solutions that are as native as the one we showed there." You might be able to ditch your Xbox controller soon. AP. Let's be clear: The PlayStation 4 is dramatically ahead of the Xbox One, both in terms of sales and critical reception. But Microsoft's regaining mind share every day - if not market share - and it's doing that with measures of goodwill. The first step was the company's unveiling of backwards compatibility: your old Xbox 360 games will soon work on your Xbox One. It can't be overstated how important this is. The Xbox 360 was one of the most popular game consoles ever made and had a rabid following. More importantly: Sony's PlayStation 4 has no parallel. Even if it offered the same functionality, the PlayStation 3 was nowhere near as popular as the Xbox 360 (in terms of sales and critical reception). If Microsoft were to bring your existing PC game library to the Xbox One, that would be another major coup in the battle for hearts and minds of consumers. In the eyes of many longtime game players, PC gaming is the holy grail of platforms. It's where games look prettiest, are most versatile, and can be truly unique. It's where oddities like "Goat Simulator" get their first chance at life, and where blockbusters like "Minecraft" are born. To bridge the gap from PC to Xbox One would be huge, and it looks like that's the next step for Microsoft's Xbox division. Microsoft wants to stream PC games to your Xbox One. The software giant is devising a way for Xbox One users to play PC games, though it's a challenge, says Microsoft's Xbox head Phil Spencer. The Windows 10 Xbox app lets you play Xbox One games on your Windows 10 PC or tablet. Now Microsoft is trying to cook up a recipe to do the reverse. Microsoft's head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, said that the company is working on a way to stream PC games to Xbox One consoles. Speaking with The Verge, Spencer didn't reveal any specific details or timeframe for when this innovation might occur but revealed that "in terms of where we want to go with our platform, those are absolutely in scope of things that we want to do." Microsoft has been keen on forging a connection between Windows 10 and the Xbox One. Debuting on Wednesday as a free upgrade to Windows 7 and 8.1 users, Windows 10 includes an Xbox app that taps into your Xbox One by offering a host of features. You can stream your Xbox One games to your Windows 10 PC or tablet. You can capture, view and share your recorded game clips. You can join an Xbox One party or chat. And you can customize different aspects of your account. Bringing Windows 10 and the Xbox together is a clear way to generate demand for both. Microsoft wants to get Windows 10 into as many hands as possible, and offering this connection could convince Xbox One owners to upgrade to the new operating system software. On the flip side, Microsoft wants to create greater demand for the Xbox One, which has seen its sales trounced by Sony's PlayStation 4 for much of the past year. Providing a bridge to the Xbox One through the new operating system could prompt Windows 10 users to give the console a shot. Gamers also want to be able to play their favorite titles from a variety of devices -- game consoles, PCs and mobile devices, and this bridge between the Xbox One and Windows 10 would fulfill that need. The Xbox One is also part of Microsoft's "universal apps" strategy, under which developers can more easily create games and other apps for one platform and then tweak them to run on another platform. For example, a developer could create a game once using a core programming code and then easily modify it to run on a Windows 10 PC, a Windows 10 mobile device and on the Xbox One. Playing Xbox One games on your Windows 10 PC requires just a controller. But playing PC games on your Xbox One would be more of a challenge. First, the Xbox One needs to support a keyboard and mouse. "We understand if you're going to go PC to Xbox, we need to get keyboard and mouse working completely so you could play those games," Spencer told The Verge. Second, Microsoft needs to encode PC games so they'll work on the Xbox One and ensure that there's enough bandwidth to stream a large game from your Windows 10 PC to the game console. Streaming from Xbox One to Windows 10 computers is a lot more predictable "because we know exactly what you have," Spencer said. "It's actually a little more challenging doing the encoding on the PC side to the Xbox, but challenge is good." Share your voice. Be respectful, keep it clean and stay on topic. We'll remove comments that violate our policy.