France, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Italy and Spain are on the list.

Android users in 11 additional European countries can sign up to trial Project xCloud through xbox.com/projectxcloud, as Xbox increases its presence in a segment already accommodating Nvidia's GeForce Now, Google's Stadia and PlayStation Now.

Project xCloud already supports over 50 titles from Xbox and its partners.

Those include Gears 5, Forza Horizon 4, Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Sea Of Thieves as well as Hello Neighbor, Tracks - The Train Set Game, Civilization VI and Yoku's Island Express.

Hopeful players need a compatible mobile device running Android 6.0 with Bluetooth 4.0 (or better), a compatible Xbox Wireless Controller with Bluetooth (Xbox One S and X, Elite Series 2 or Design Lab models, but not the original XBO or Xbox Elite controllers), and access to 5GHz WiFi or a mobile data connection capable of supporting transfer speeds of 10Mbps.

Microsoft's team "will begin rolling out the Project xCloud preview across 11 Western European countries when we are confident it is sensible to do so," wrote Project xCloud GM & Head of Product Catherine Gluckstein.

Regarding current demands on Internet bandwidth as Covid-19 measures put an additional strain on local and regional networks, Gluckstein emphasised that Xbox "will take a measured approach to help conserve Internet access, beginning the preview in each market with a limited number of people and adding more participants over time”.

The 11 new countries are Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and Sweden.

Individuals chosen to take part in the invite-only scheme will be sent an acceptance email, which can take a few months to arrive, given the test's gradual expansion.

The Project xCloud preview program began in October 2019 in the United States, Britain and South Korea, where a limited iOS test program for Halo: The Master Chief Collection began in February.

In November, the countries of Canada, India, and Japan were identified along with Western Europe as additional markets for testing in 2020.

The service is expected to overlap heavily with Xbox's new games console, the Xbox Series X.

Like the PlayStation 5, the Xbox Series X is to launch towards the end of 2020.

 - AFP Relaxnews