{"id":564532,"date":"2026-07-23T16:54:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T16:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/564532\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T16:54:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T16:54:08","slug":"microsoft-is-testing-free-ad-supported-cloud-gaming-for-xbox-insiders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/564532\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft is testing free, ad-supported cloud gaming for Xbox Insiders"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">Xbox Insiders can stream games from their libraries for free in <a href=\"https:\/\/news.xbox.com\/en-us\/2026\/07\/23\/game-streaming-ad-supported-xboxinsiders\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ad-supported streaming sessions<\/a> starting today. The free streaming sessions are limited to games you already own, and sessions are capped at one hour. However, ads will only play \u201cbefore sessions begin.\u201d It\u2019s also optional \u2014 you won\u2019t need to watch ads if you have a paid cloud gaming subscription.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">Microsoft says the ad-supported streaming option will only be available for a limited time during a \u201ctest period.\u201d It previously began internally testing an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/report\/791213\/xbox-cloud-gaming-free-ad-supported-version\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ad-supported version of Xbox Cloud Gaming<\/a> late last year, with sources telling The Verge at the time that the test included about two minutes of preroll ads before streaming sessions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">Around the same time, Microsoft also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/news\/789424\/xbox-game-pass-premium-essentials-ultimate-price-increase-changes\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">increased Game Pass prices<\/a>, but added unlimited cloud gaming to its lowest-priced Game Pass Essential subscription, which costs $9.99 per month. Previously, you needed a Game Pass Ultimate subscription for Xbox Cloud Gaming. Microsoft says the goal of its current test for ad-supported streaming is to further expand affordable ways to play Xbox games. Ad tiers have become <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/column\/958379\/streaming-industry-ads\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">increasingly common<\/a> on video streaming platforms over recent years \u2014 the addition of ads on Xbox\u2019s streaming service could signal a similar shift coming to gaming subscriptions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">Additionally, Microsoft notes that cloud gaming could \u201chelp Xbox One owners play newer games built for Xbox Series X\/S\u201d without needing to buy a new console. The news comes as Xbox is in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/games\/959900\/xbox-reset-layoffs-studio-closures\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">state of upheaval<\/a>, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/games\/962223\/doom-id-software-xbox-layoffs\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">mass layoffs<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/games\/950204\/xbox-ninja-theory-shutdown-hellblade-senua\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">studio closures<\/a>, and a pivot back toward the fan-favorite <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/games\/963024\/microsoft-xbox-reset-obsidian-fallout-layoffs\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fallout<\/a> franchise. On top of that, Xbox console prices are set to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/games\/957042\/xbox-price-increase-memory-shortage\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">increase by upwards of $100<\/a> starting on August 1st.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Xbox Insiders can stream games from their libraries for free in ad-supported streaming sessions starting today. The free&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564533,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[213,61,60,1071,43,216,80,23130],"class_list":["post-564532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-gaming","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-microsoft","tag-news","tag-tech","tag-technology","tag-xbox"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}