I tested Xbox Play Anywhere under the most Canadian conditions: inside an ice fishing hut

This week, Toronto got hit with a major snowstorm. With snowbanks up to my waist and temperatures falling to -25 or below, it felt like a good time for an escape. Which is exactly what I did when Xbox Canada invited MobileSyrup to test out its Xbox Play Anywhere platform in an ice fishing hut on Cook Bay in Keswick, Ontario. That said, my escape from the cold led me on a much colder adventure.

Promising an afternoon of remote gaming within the ice hut and a chance to go ice fishing for my first time, I bundled myself up in my thermals, gloves, and boots. Once I arrived, I jumped into a covered ATV trailer with a few colleagues within the industry and hit the ice towards my destination. 

My goal was simple: after spending months using the ROG Xbox Ally X in the comfort of my condo, it was time to compare the experience when battling the cold. If I could catch a fish in the process, that’d just be a cherry on top.

My first ice fishing experience…

I’ve never been ice fishing before, let alone gone to an ice hut to play video games. Upon my arrival, the Xbox Canada team had a series of small fishing lines all set up and a ROG Xbox Ally X handheld. Now, I’m very familiar with Asus and Xbox’s partnered handheld. I’ve been using mine pretty consistently since it launched back in October of last year. What I wasn’t too familiar with was the process of ice fishing.

Getting myself comfortable, the Xbox team wonderfully laid out portraits of Xbox mascots and game art around the ice hut. The hot chocolate was flowing, and I got myself set up with my fishing line. Dropping my little minnow through the opening in the ice, I began my conquest to catch a fish. This would be a battle of attrition, and as the photo of Master Chief looked down at me from the corner, I knew I couldn’t disappoint.

Undeniably, this activation from Xbox was very Canadian. Nothing screams ‘The Great White North’ more than a small group huddled in a wooden ice hut, sipping Tim Horton’s and ice fishing. However, much of the activation wasn’t conducive to catching fish.

The ATV doing rounds to and from the hut, plus the foot traffic and conversation, likely drove off any curious fish. A generator plus Bluetti Power Station were also helping to power the Xbox-inspired green rope lights, Wi-Fi, and kettle. 

So, all of this is to say that I came out empty-handed. Sorry, Chief.

…but not my first with Xbox Play Anywhere

The real reason I was attending was to test out Xbox Play Anywhere. Microsoft has steadily been expanding on the notion that the Xbox ecosystem doesn’t solely exist on its Xbox Series X/S console. No, the ongoing ‘This is an Xbox’ ad campaign is shifting the perception of players, opening them up to the idea that everything from a laptop to a smartphone and even the ROG Xbox Ally X is “an Xbox.” To power this vision, Microsoft has been supporting the Xbox Play Anywhere platform.

With this, an expanding library of games can be purchased once and then accessed across these aforementioned devices for no additional cost. You can pick up your progress right where you left off with accessible saves and continue popping Achievements just as you would on an Xbox console. I’ve taken advantage of Xbox Play Anywhere quite often. In fact, last year, I bounced between playing The Outer Worlds 2 on my Xbox console as well as on the ROG Xbox Ally X around my condo.

Throughout the afternoon, I test Xbox Play Anywhere in conjunction with Xbox Cloud Gaming. With a game like Halo Infinite, which wasn’t natively installed on the ROG Xbox Ally X, I opted to test it via the cloud. Much to my surprise, the wi-fi access we had out in Cook’s Bay was more than enough to get me into the action. I was in the throes of hunting down the Covenant and grappling my way across the Halo ring without any dramatic dips in frames or resolution.

I was also able to jump right into Hollow Knight: Silksong. A game I absolutely adored playing through last year, I was reminded by how quaint the first 30 minutes or so are when compared to the much more difficult later stages. It felt like a walk in the park battling the Moss Mother, the game’s first boss. It reminded me of the white-knuckled experiences I had during Act 2 in the game.

The last game I was able to test was Resident Evil Village via the cloud. Getting myself into the Resident Evil spirit before Requiem, I loaded into Ethan Winters’ journey and searched the outskirts of Castle Dimitrescu in search of his daughter, Rose. The snowy hellscape littered with lycans was far from the more tranquil (though equally cold) setting I found myself in.

This shovel is an Xbox

A wintery afternoon wouldn’t be complete without a bit of manual labour: shovelling the snow. Xbox Canada humorously retrofitted an ROG Xbox Ally X handheld onto a shovel. Not turning down the opportunity to try it myself, I loaded up Descenders and began shovelling outside the ice hut.

The idea of an ROG Xbox Ally X and shovel hybrid is purely a novelty. In no way, shape or form is this helping anyone shovel their driveway. But the Canadian DNA in me had an absolute hoot with this. While running Descenders and snowboarding, I put my back into it an shovelled around the ice hut. Once my fingers began getting numb, I returned quickly to the heat in the hut.

Putting the anywhere in Xbox Play Anywhere

It was an interesting activation to say the least. While I didn’t catch any fish, I grew a better appreciation of Xbox Play Anywhere. The radical shift from a dedicated first-party umbrella and console manufacturer to a third-party publisher has required a lot of adjustments within the industry. However, it’s hard to deny that support for Xbox Play Anywhere, and the idea that I only have to purchase a game once to play across a suite of devices, is compelling as a player.

In fact, as my toes were still thawing that evening, I booted up my ROG Xbox Ally X and ran a couple of raids in Arc Raiders to wind down for the day.