With Stadia launching next week, on Tuesday 19 November, Xbox has aimed a directed shot across the bows of the good ship Google.

During its Inside Xbox presentation at XO19 in London, the games giants announced that Project xCloud's available games list has been majorly expanded. There are now more than 50 new games to play on the cloud gaming platform.

In comparison, Stadia is launching with access to just 12 games initially, with a further 14 to come before the end of the year.

What's more, the Project xCloud Preview period is free for all invited players, while Stadia charges for games individually. And, if you want access to 4K HDR visuals and surround sound, you need to pay monthly for Stadia Pro membership on top.

Among the new games added by Xbox are Madden NFL 20, Soulcaliber IV, Devil May Cry 5, Hitman, Sniper Elite 4, Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition, WWE 2K20, Forza Horizon 4, and the superb Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice.

The existing line-up - Gears 5, Halo 5: Guardians, Killer Instinct and Sea of Thieves - will continue to be available.

The Preview will be extended to other regions in the new year. It is currently available in the UK, US and Korea only, but will roll out to Canada, India, Japan and Western Europe from the beginning of 2020.

If you still haven't signed up for an invite you can do so here.

While free at present, the xCloud Preview does require specific hardware to work. You will need a phone or tablet running Android 6.0 or greater and with Bluetooth 4.0 at least, a Microsoft account and a Bluetooth-enabled Xbox One Wireless Controller. Xbox also recommends you acquire a phone mount for the controller, unless you are playing using a tablet.

Xbox has also revealed that, from 2020, xCloud gamers will be able to freely stream any Xbox games they already own or subsequently purchase, and it will include Xbox Game Pass games. Plus, Windows 10 PCs will be able to access xCloud from next year too.

One last surprise is that Xbox plans to add support for other controllers, including the PlayStation 4 DualShock 4 and gamepads from Razer.