Xbox is introducing strict monthly time limits for Game Pass subscribers who stream games online through its cloud gaming service.<\/p>\n
The changes, which come into effect in November, will see a subscriber to the \u00a316.99 Ultimate monthly plan able to stream games for up to 15 hours a month – before having to purchase additional cloud play time.<\/p>\n
Xbox said the limits were due to the rising cost of cloud gaming, and they would allow the firm to “continue to invest” in the service’s “reliability and performance”. <\/p>\n
While some questioned, external<\/a> whether the service was used by many to begin with, others called out, external<\/a> the additional limits for subscribers.<\/p>\n Cloud gaming allows players to stream and play games online from a remote server using a phone, tablet or controller, rather than downloading and running it on a PC or console at home.<\/p>\n Different tiers of subscription to Game Pass will have different limits.<\/p>\n Premium users will get 10 hours, while those on the basic Essential tier will get five hours a month before they have to pay for extra time.<\/p>\n Xbox claimed just 4% of the people who use Games Pass – its Netflix-style subscription plan for games – use its cloud gaming service.<\/p>\n A recent Wall Street Journal article, external<\/a> reported Game Pass has 30 million subscribers, which would leave the number of people affected by the cloud gaming changes at roughly 1.2 million.<\/p>\n “This is a pretty awful change, hopefully Xbox adds an extra zero on the end cause 15hrs is abysmal. 30 minutes a day, really?” posted one commenter on X, external<\/a>.<\/p>\n Jez Corden of Windows Central told the BBC the announcement showed that “absolutely nothing is safe from the AI-driven component crisis,” but he added it also highlighted “where Microsoft’s priorities are”.<\/p>\n Both cloud gaming and AI use the same infrastructure – data centres – to process information.<\/p>\n “For them to continue to offer unlimited access to Microsoft Copilot [AI] for free but restrict paid cloud gaming in this way shows some contradiction,” he added.<\/p>\n