I’ve owned the Xbox Series S, which I affectionately call the Baby Xbox, since launch day. And yet I almost never play any games on it, compared to my other devices. Why? Because until recently, I didn’t have the ability to stream Xbox games to my Steam Deck. Now, thanks to a little app called XBPlay, which costs $7 but is worth every penny, I’m finally going to be booting up my Xbox just as often as my PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
Allow me to explain: I simply love to play video games in handheld mode. Sure, I have dual computer monitors and a very impressive television, but handheld gaming has huge benefits — namely, for playing games while also watching TV in the background. (Like a less unhinged version of the three-TV lifestyle.) Especially when it’s a massive RPG with lots of little side quests, like, say Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth for the PlayStation 5, I have a much easier time completing and enjoying the experience when I can get through some of it on Steam Deck.
It was a huge pain in the butt to get PS5 Remote Play to work properly on the Deck; it requires using a tool called Chiaki, which I only understood how to get up and running after reading multiple Reddit threads and watching multiple how-to YouTube videos. The end result? Still worth it. I use PS5 Remote Play on my Steam Deck all the time — again, especially for big RPGs.
I recently got Metaphor: ReFantazio for the Xbox, which started off fine with me playing it on a big screen. Soon, however, I realized that this massive (but delightful) RPG would be so much better if I could also get in some play sessions in handheld mode. I remembered how annoying it was to get PS5 Remote Play to work on my Steam Deck, and I figured I’d have to go through a similar hassle this time around.
Nope. Not even close! There’s a $7 app on the Steam store right now called XBPlay, and people, it just works. I can’t believe how well it works, as well as how amazing Metaphor: ReFantazio looks on my Steam Deck. Setting up XBPlay took maybe five minutes, tops. The hardest part was that Steam didn’t list XBPlay in my games library, so after purchasing it, I had to search for it manually on my Steam Deck and create a shortcut for it so I could easily find it in the future.
Ever since installing XBPlay, I’ve been proselytizing about it to everyone I know who owns an Xbox. At this point, I’ve been using it so much that I need to shout it from the rooftops (meaning, post about it on Polygon dot com). If you have an Xbox and a Steam Deck, this app is a must-buy. Do not delay.
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