Xbox caps cloud gaming at 15 hours a month for Game Pass subscribers

Xbox caps cloud gaming at 15 hours a month for Game Pass subscribers

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.

According to Xbox owner Microsoft's July financial filings, annual Xbox revenue dropped by $1. 7bn to roughly $21. 8bn (£16. 1bn) - a 7% decline from 2025.

Xbox said the limits were due to the rising cost of cloud gaming, and they would allow it to Xbox said the limits were due to the rising cost of cloud gaming, and would allow it to 'continue to invest' in the service's 'reliability and performance'. While some questioned, external whether the service was used by many to begin with, others called out, external the additional limits for subscribers.

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. Xbox claimed just 4% of the people who use Games Pass - its Netflix-style subscription plan for games - use its cloud gaming service.

A recent Wall Street Journal article, external 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. This is a pretty awful change, hopefully Xbox adds an extra zero on the end cause 15hrs is abysmal. 30 minutes a day, really?