Xbox To Add Requested New Feature, Of Course There's a Catch

Cloud gaming is a wonderful thing, provided you have a solid internet connection. I write bitterly, as I'm having to hotspot off my phone thanks to super-fast internet being installed near me. Hooray for fast cloud gaming, eventually. ]By all accounts, it now looks as if Xbox Cloud Gaming is set to be made available for free for everyone to enjoy, although there is a catch. It’ll be supported by ads.

It can be incredibly tedious waiting for a game to download, especially if it’s something you’re dying to dive into.

With cloud gaming, that problem is eradicated. If you’re unaware, cloud gaming allows you to play compatible titles instantly via a streamed high-quality connection.

Xbox has been a leading force in rolling out cloud gaming, with the idea first arriving as xCloud in 2019.

It was originally a perk of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate only. Last year, however, it was rolled out to all tiers - with the exception of PC - during the service’s major overhaul.

The Claim Comes From a Reliable Insider

It’s The Verge’s Tom Warren who made the claim, taking to BlueSky to write, “Looks like ad-supported Xbox Cloud Gaming is coming soon”.

Attached was an Xbox graphic which featured the following small print: “1 hour of ad-supported playtime per session”.

Warren hasn’t stated where the graphic came from. I do have to urge you to take any unconfirmed claims with a pinch of salt, but I’m inclined to believe that Warren’s will prove accurate.

It’s great to see Xbox Cloud Gaming made more readily available as so many of gaming’s best features are locked behind a paywall these days.

It’s ridiculous, really, that we need subscriptions to enjoy multiplayer games, for example, but that’ll never change.

If cloud gaming is only rolled out on a free basis in one-hour chunks, that does seem a tad stringent.

Xbox, Credit / Microsoft

The addition of ads already clearly separates it from the version you can get as a paying Game Pass subscriber.

Adding a time limit as well is harsh, but we don’t know the full extent of how the service will work.

Perhaps this just means that new ads will roll every hour, unlocking another hour of play.

Warren previously reported that he’d spoken to testers who claimed they’d had to watch around two-minutes of adverts.

I’m not entirely surprised to see Xbox Cloud Gaming rolled out as just last week, Xbox added a ton more games to its Stream Your Own Game line-up, 48 to be exact.

It’s definitely an area of development the company is keenly focused on.

With a Developer Direct set for this week, perhaps that’s when Microsoft might unveil this announcement, alongside updates on confirmed titles such as Fable, Forza Horizon 6, and Beast of Reincarnation.