Xbox Cloud Gaming Changes Coming in November, Monthly Hour Limits and Ability to Pay Per Hour - News
by William D'Angelo , posted 1 day ago / 1,869 Views
Xbox announced starting in November there will be major changes coming to Xbox Cloud Gaming including a limited number of hours per tier of Xbox Game Pass and the ability to pay per hour of use.
Here is the max number of hours included in each tier of Game Pass:
- Game Pass Ultimate: 15 hours
- Game Pass Premium: 10 hours
- Game Pass Essential: 5 hours
These limited are expected to impact around four percent of Game Pass subscribers. Once subscribers use their included hours they will be able to purchase additional playtime via the Xbox Store.
Players who are not Game Pass subscribers starting in November will also be able to purchase Xbox Cloud Gaming hours without the need to subscribe to Game Pass. Details on pricing will be shared before the changes take effect.
Xbox says these changes are being made because "the cost of providing cloud gaming grows as more people use it and play for longer. Moving to monthly limits allows us to keep offering the service while continuing to invest in its reliability and performance. We understand that for some players the practical result is a higher cost.
"In November, we’ll provide more information about pricing, purchasing additional hours, eligible games, market availability, and how players can check their remaining time.
"We’ll listen closely to player feedback before and after the change takes effect and share any adjustments we make."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
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lmao
Let the enshittification continue, even for products that are already shit.
Pay per hour gaming.
You pay a bit for each extra hour, it's in fact a microtransaction tactic.
You pay in, surely only ever increasingly, small amounts to have access to games you'll never own.
You also won't own the new hardwares either as its too pricey to consumers.
Input lag is ingrained in the system as nothing is local.
Rejoice in the glory of cloud gaming.
But let's not stop at that.
Tech that once massively helped performance, now during the biggest price crisis ever for gaming hardware actually heavily tank performance to make games look like AI filters just got released by the most valuable company on earth. So no way to own local hardware without being rich.
Physical media being killed.
AI already writting and creating "art" for some games.
Big suits making millions on bonus paychecks while studios get shut down and talent is driven away from the industry
Ads starting to be involved with gaming already.
Glorious digital, full pro corp, future.
Gaming is 100% cooked.
But people are still happy.
Ubisoft told you that you should be so, but you didn't believe it.
I've never been happier to have a massive Retro-Game collection!
I rarely say this about games, but what a joke. I thought streaming was supposed to be the endgame of this whole endeavor. Who the hell is gonna pay those rates for it?
They were hoping the answer would be “lots of idiots.”
We hear you Asha, now what was that about affordability you will shilling about to BBC last week?
Sign me up for zero hours.
Wait, is that also a paid option? Never mind.
Nice to see the arcades making their long overdue comeback!
15 hours spread over a month, lol.
"Xbox says these changes are being made because 'the cost of providing cloud gaming grows as more people use it and play for longer.'"
BS. The real reason is that, as it turns out, the cloud is just someone else's PC, and it needs RAM as much as any other PC, specially for gaming purposes. I predicted this would happen months ago, if their plan was to push people towards cloud, they need a better plan.
It seems like their plan, and the plans of Sony and to a lesser degree, Nintendo, are to shrink the industry down and then re-coup via subscriptions and digital nonsense. I think they believe that they can make more money selling 25 million consoles plus subs/digital/streaming than selling 150 million units and software that you own.
B.C. Gamepass isn't actually profitable and never has been.
This essentially multiplies the cost of the service, seeing as how you currently get 24 hours. Just in time for GTA6, too, what are the odds.
This was always Microsoft's plan and it will eventually be Sony's plan too. They don't want you owning games or hardware. They want you renting by the hour. They want you to pay $9.99 for a fucking hat that takes an overworked intern 5 minutes to make. They don't want you finding a cool cosmetic item in a chest, after exploring a vast open world for hours. They want you to break out your credit card and pay real money for a digital item instead.
Unfortunately the future is going to be streaming and paying per hour
Those limits are comically low. Xbox just couldn't bask in the positive glow from the disc-to-digital announcement without announcing another crappy new development.
...I don't think this new business model is ever going to make cloud gaming big. Clearly it wasn't popular even before, if only 4% of subscribers are affected, and this will only make it worse.
Just for the record, this makes me very happy, because if it's in the cloud, you're effectively renting it, and I'm sure companies would love for that to eventually be the only option.
shit, i guess sooner or later they might figure out the right recipe
I understand limiting hours, but 15 hours for Ultimate subs is way too low. As far as I know Xbox Cloud Gaming runs on Xbox Series X consoles. Maybe they are doing this now as they will be upgrading them with Project Helix consoles once those launch in 2027/2028.
Interesting to know averages of those who do use it. Let's say you own BG3 and are doing a new play, can't be arsed to install it so streaming it is, 15 hours barely gets you to end of Act 1. Yet how many people are using it that much?
The fact there are limits listed makes me think there are some using it way way more but most don't even use it.
I can survive on 15 hours... At most I ever use is a couple here and there for games I want to test drive before committing to fully installing.
For now, until it's the only option in the future to play games.
