By Fletcher Wilkinson 
Xbox has announced a new partnership with TCL that will bring the Xbox app to select TCL Smart TVs in the coming months and it gives owners another way to play through Xbox Cloud Gaming without needing a console.
According to Xbox Wire, the rollout will cover more than 25 countries. However the announcement doesn’t confirm which TCL models will be supported along with no confirmation of the full list of countries or an exact launch date. Yeah its pretty light on the details.
Obviously this comes at a time where Xbox have just reduced the amount of hours you get for your Xbox Game Pass Subscription Tier, so it seems very peculiar to drop this news after a pretty sizable bombshell.
To get started you will need a compatible TCL Smart TV with the Xbox app installed and a supported controller alongside a decent internet connection for streaming. You’ll also need cloud playtime, which Xbox says will be included with Game Pass or available to purchase separately.
Eligible Game Pass subscribers will be able to stream a library of supported games directly through the app. That means you won’t need to connect an Xbox console to the television, although this is cloud streaming rather than games running locally on the TV itself.
Xbox also says your friends, achievements and saves will remain connected across its ecosystem allowing you to continue playing supported games across different devices.
For anyone with a compatible TCL television, this could be a convenient way to try Xbox games or play on another screen around the house without buying additional console hardware.
The big questions now are which TVs will make the cut and when the app will arrive. For the moment Xbox is only committing to a rollout in the coming months, so we’ll have to wait for the finer details.
I will update you as soon as the details drop but let me know your thoughts in the comments below!