Gaming can be a mess of hardware and software, but for those of us who don’t need (or want) an extra console in our lives, Xbox Cloud Gaming seemed like a bit of a godsend: you didn’t need the console, and could use the power of the cloud to game where ever.
And for the past few years, that has largely been the case. A Samsung TV with a controller could play games from an Xbox in the cloud, with Hisense TV access on the way, as well as phones and laptops and so on and so on all running on an Xbox stored in the cloud.
Xbox Cloud Gaming had expanded to quite a bunch of devices over the past few years. Microsoft had basically said you can play an Xbox anywhere without needing an Xbox console in your life.
We all have so many different devices in our lives, we all have internet connections everywhere we go. It just made sense.
But all of that is about to change.
Several years on from the introduction of Microsoft’s Xbox consoles in the cloud being available to you simply whenever, Microsoft is cutting back on your hours and making that cloud console more like a hotel with limited vacancies.
It’s such a back step.
A handful of hours unless you pay more
In what is likely a direct response from server resources actually costing real dollars and cents, Microsoft is cutting back on how much time you’ll have to use its virtual consoles.
For example, if you previous had a Game Pass Ultimate subscription and could play all the virtualised Xbox your little heart wanted over a month, now you’ll be limited to checks notes 15 hours per month.
Yes, even if a game goes for a good 50 hours and could conceivably be finished in the space of a month of good, solid playing, you will still only be able to play for 15 hours per month on Xbox’s priciest Game Pass Ultimate plan.
On other plans, those hours drop even more.
If you subscribe to a Game Pass Premium plan, you only get 10 hours per month, while subscribers to a Game Pass Essential plan get five hours. That is it.
It’s a change Microsoft expects to impact just four percent of Game Pass subscribers, a number that possibly reflects how many Game Pass subscribers have an Xbox. But given Microsoft has been talking up the platform and releasing it for use on TV brands, the number could be much higher.
Part of the problem is that servers cost something, a problem Microsoft would have known about when it launched Cloud Gaming over five years ago, but would have been less of an issue before the age of AI. Now that data centre and server costs have changed, the costs of running virtual Xbox consoles in the cloud has changed with it, and the unlimited hours have to be capped.
One positive change
There is one positive change: you won’t actually need to have a Game Pass subscription to partake in virtual Xbox gaming.
However, it’s a change that comes with a mighty big caveat, and one that adheres to Game Pass subscribers, as well: while you don’t need a subscription, if you want to play without one, or even beyond the monthly Game Pass hours, you’ll need to start paying separately for them.
On the one hand that probably makes sense — nothing in life is free — yet on the other, it does seem a little bit cheeky, especially given the minimal amount of time the Game Pass subscriptions will be offering. It’s basically a push back to buying a console, when this whole time Microsoft has suggested you didn’t need one in the first place and could use the power of the cloud.
Unsurprisingly, Microsoft has already made those changes to its Game Pass subscriptions, though it mightn’t take effect on plans until their next renewal date. That’s one positive, albeit a small one, because subscription renewals do tend to come around pretty quickly.
For some gamers, it could be a push to the direction away from the Xbox, and more to the world of PC gaming, where thanks to portables like the Steam Deck and others like it, gaming is made a little easier. Now that Microsoft is changing the rules for what constitutes an Xbox Cloud Gaming allowance, considering something else might just make more sense.
