Play Xbox One and PS4 Games on PC
CONSOLE You need the muscle of a current-gen box running the
absolute latest firmware.
WINDOWS 10 Xbox One requires Win 10, but Win 8.1 will do the trick for PS4.
WHY, DEAR READER, should you be chained to your TV when you want to play a console game? And—sacrilegiously—why should you feel tied to the (awesome) cycle of constant upgrades your PC requires to keep up with the latest gaming standards? Maybe you’ve got a laptop, a supremely portable but doggedly non-upgradeable machine. What then?
Well, fear not. If you’re happy with the quality of console gaming, and you’ve already kitted out your lounge with a modern console, you can stream your gaming to your PC, and play anywhere in the house (or, in the case of the PS4, anywhere with a fast enough Internet connection). There are even added benefits beyond the ability to game on the throne. Those expensive 360 controllers your Xbox One doesn’t support? Plug them in to your PC while streaming, and they’ll work just fine. That old monitor with no HDMI input? Hey, use VGA!
1 HOOK IT UP We’ll concentrate on streaming the Xbox One in this main part of the tutorial—look to the right if you’re streaming your PS4. But the primary step counts for both: Connect them to the finest network you can get your hands on. A wireless network barely cuts it—there’s a lot of data to stream fast, particularly if you don’t want your games to look like a 1999 RealPlayer video hidden behind a layer of petroleum jelly. This counts for both ends, so grab those Ethernet cables if possible, and pick up some high-end powerline networking kit if applicable. 2 XBOX ON Switch on your console—hooked up to your TV for now—and make sure it’s completely up to date with the latest firmware. This usually means a massive download from Microsoft’s oh-so-sluggish servers, but when it’s done, you’ll be ready to take the necessary steps to allow streaming. In the Xbox One’s left-hand vertical menu, hit the cog icon, select “All settings,” and head down to “Preferences.” You’ll find all the options you need in the “Game DVR & streaming” menu. It’s quite possible your Xbox is already configured to share itself, the promiscuous thing, but if it isn’t, just tick “Allow game streaming to other devices” [ Image A]. 3 SORT SECURITY Here’s a slightly annoying thing: If you want this to work reliably without having to commandeer the TV each time you want to get started, you’ll need to set your Xbox to automatically sign in to your Xbox Live account without requiring a passkey. Feel free to skip this step if you have family members who get a bit trigger-happy with your credit card, but you’ll need to sign in manually each time you want to stream if you do. Go to the “Account” menu, open up the sign-in options, select “Instant sign-in,” then “Use instant sign-in” [ Image B]. Once you’ve done this, you’ll need to switch your Xbox on to get streaming—you can do this with your wireless controller. If you really need a way to switch on your Xbox remotely, try the Python script at https://github.com/Schamper/xboxremote-power— it’s a bit beyond the scope of this tutorial. 4 APP INSTALL Windows 10’s Xbox app is—apart from being a good way to manage your Xbox Live account—the component that does the streaming on the PC end. First up, make sure it’s installed by going to the Windows Store, and searching for “Xbox,” as we’ve spotted a few earlyupgrade installs of Windows 10 that don’t have it on board.
Next, make sure it’s fully updated, as streaming is glitchy if you don’t have the latest software on either end. Finally, you’ll need to launch the app and sign in to it with your Xbox Live credentials—the same credentials signed into your Xbox One. One more roadblock: If your Windows user account doesn’t match these details, you may encounter problems here. If you’re stuck, create a new user account using your Xbox Live login, and run the Xbox app from there. 5 CONNECT The Xbox app looks a lot like the Xbox One dashboard— confusingly so at times. Look on the left for a menu marked “Connect,” and find your Xbox One in the list that appears. This synchronizes the two, giving you the option in the main menu of the Xbox app to either stream directly—which will put you in control of the Xbox One dash [ Image C]— or just to select an installed game and stream that. Plug in an Xbox controller (or use your wireless controller, if you’re close enough to your console), and you’re away. 6 TROUBLESHOOTING Here’s where you’re going to have to face facts about your network. If it’s not up to scratch, you may see graphical glitches [ Image D], hear audio squelches, or face the indignity of desynchronized gameplay, speeding up and slowing down as your PC struggles to catch up. If this happens to you, move your mouse to the top-right icon, and tweak the quality of streaming. You may find the lower levels acceptable, particularly given your new levels of streaming convenience. 7 TAKE IT FURTHER Note that you don’t have to stream within your house if you want to share your gameplay with the world—Twitch streaming is built into the Xbox One, and its options can be found in the “Preferences” section. Don’t expect to use both streaming options at once, though, unless you’re rocking some sort of extreme übernetwork. And if this has whetted your whistle, look into Steam’s Remote Play features, and take advantage of that gaming rig now you know that your network can handle it.