Amazon’s Alexa Xbox skill now lets you download Xbox Game Pass games

Arif Bacchus

Xbox Game Pass logo

Amazon’s Alexa Xbox skill just got a bit smarter. As reported by The Verge, it is now possible to ask and use the virtual assistant to download Xbox Game Pass games to a home Xbox console.

As you’d expect, this requires an active Xbox Game Pass subscription to work, for you to connect the Xbox skill to Alexa, and for you to enable virtual assistants on your Xbox console. You also need to live in the United States, as it is the only country where this is supported. More markets are planned for the future, though.

Anyway, if you’re already set up with Alexa on Xbox, though, no additional setup is needed. You can simply summon Alexa on any device, and say “Hey Alexa download [name of the game] on Xbox Game Pass” to get started.

The assistant will then read the terms and conditions of the game, and ask you if you want to download it. You should then see the game download on your console right away once you say “Yes.” Other than this, you also can use Alexa to ask about what’s popular on Xbox Game Pass, or what’s leaving the Xbox Game Pass service.

We tried out the skill using Alexa on our iPhone to install Forza Horizon 4 on our home Xbox. It is pretty seamless and quick, even more so than using the dedicated Xbox Game Pass app due to voice support.

It is great to see this feature come to Xbox consoles, especially after Amazon debuted a dedicated Alexa app on Xbox One. That app brings the top Alexa features to TVs to play music, view smart home cameras, manage shopping lists, and a lot more.